The fact that Honda was working on a new Prelude coupe was not entirely secret—not after the automaker unveiled a show car at this year’s Long Beach Grand Prix. This morning, the Japanese automaker confirmed that the new Prelude will go on sale here in the US late in 2025.
“The return of the Honda Prelude as a hybrid-electric sports model demonstrates our continued commitment to offer a variety of exhilarating products to meet the needs of our customers,” said Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales. “The first three products in the Honda lineup in the 1970s were Civic, Accord, and Prelude, and soon all three will be back together again in our passenger car lineup as hybrids.”
Honda has often used the two-door Prelude coupe as a testbed for new technologies, including torque vectoring and four-wheel steering, and was praised by the late automotive writer LJK Setright, who owned several Preludes across the years.
An innovation in the next Prelude will be a new drive mode, called Honda S+ Shift, which it says “advances linear shift control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement.” But as the Prelude will use a hybrid powertrain, there won’t be an option for a manual transmission in this generation.
Beyond that, Honda is keeping quiet on Prelude details until closer to the car’s arrival on sale next year.