The Honda Prelude Hybrid Is Officially Coming to America

• The Prelude is coming to America.
• We know it will be a sleek hybrid sport coupe, but not much else.
• Expect it to come at the end of 2025.

Honda fans rejoice: The Honda Prelude concept we saw late last year is going to be sold in the U.S. The Prelude nameplate is integral to the Honda brand. First debuting in 1978 and spanning five generations, the Prelude has been a prime example of what the very best fun, affordable front-wheel-drive coupes can be.

The only other thing we know about the new Prelude is that it is most definitely coming as a hybrid. Perhaps that means we're going to get a Prelude with the exact same powertrain as what's in the current Civic Hybrid — a 2.0-liter four-cylinder paired with two electric motors with a total output of 200 hp and 232 lb-ft of torque. 

However, because Honda's announcement is so vague, there is plenty of room for the brand to cook something else up entirely. Perhaps the Civic's 1.5-liter turbo will get the hybrid treatment as well and power will get boosted beyond 200 hp. In the modern era, power is easy to come by, and when the Prelude's most obvious rivals (the Hyundai Elantra N, VW Golf GTI, and even the base Ford Mustang EcoBoost) all make over 240 horsepower, that figure is going to have to change for the Prelude to compete. 

The hybrid powertrain means that, disappointingly, the Prelude will come with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). These are frequently disappointing and slow to shift — in addition to making power delivery feel far from linear — which makes them difficult to justify in sports cars. Honda thinks it has a fix, however. The Prelude will also debut Honda S+ Shift, which it says "further advances Linear Shift Control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement." We're not exactly holding our breath here, but we'll know more about that when we get behind the wheel in 2025.