Honda Confirms The New Prelude Will Come To The USA, But It's Not All Good News

After much speculation, it's been confirmed that the 2026 Honda Prelude will be coming to the United States. Previous spy photos taken of the camouflaged Prelude on public roads in Germany showed off its stylish, sporty new look that was similar to a hybrid concept announced in 2023, but not much else could be verified. Now, Honda has confirmed that the sixth-generation Prelude will be arriving to the U.S. with a two-motor hybrid powertrain as Honda celebrates 25 years of hybrid vehicles — "electrification" — in the U.S. And it's all looking good except, for one concerning detail. 

Honda announced today that the hybrid electric Prelude will enter the U.S. late next year. In a press release, Honda assistant vice president of sales, Jessika Laudermilk, stated: "The return of the Honda Prelude as a hybrid-electric sports model demonstrates our continued commitment to offer a variety of exhilarating products ... 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's release of the 2026 Prelude is part of the car brand's goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, which includes making battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles its total sales by 2040. The hybrid Honda Prelude is a step in this direction — along with the next-generation technologies in its Honda 0 Series, which is planned to be revealed at CES 2025 in January.

The 2026 Honda Prelude announcement came with some key details about the car's new features, one of which may disappoint fans of this model. According to Honda, the electrified Honda Prelude will come with the debut of Honda's "S+ Shift" drive mode. This feature will be a further advancement of the Linear Shift Control, which mimics the "rev feel" that's associated with shifting gears in a manual car in an attempt to increase driver engagement. 

Honda

While Honda described this change as "keeping with the heritage of the Prelude line," it pointed at the very likely possibility that a manual transmission will not be an option in the newest Prelude model. This was already predicted based on the fact that the Prelude is a hybrid, but now it's probably confirmed. This is a bummer for fans of manual driving, since Preludes from years past had that option. That said, the two-motor hybrid drive train does promise to engender the "joy of driving" in motion, so it remains to be seen if this will be a deal-breaker for the new Prelude.