Honda may have taken its sweet time introducing an EV to North America, but its decision to partner with GM to deliver the Prologue SUV has proven wise. The automaker shifted more than 30,000 examples of the Prologue between its debut last March and the end of 2024, making it one of the hottest-selling non-Tesla EVs out there. You might expect Honda to play it safe with the follow-up, but the 0 Series SUV and Saloon prototypes it brought to CES this year and expects to sell in 2026 look unlike anything you’ll find in any showroom.
The 0 Series duo is the future of Honda EVs, built on a platform that is truly, finally the company’s own. While the latest 0 Saloon is supposedly a “near production” evolution of a vehicle that first debuted at CES 2024, the 0 SUV is truly fresh, and carves a vastly different (and arguably more marketable) silhouette than the Space-Hub van that preceded it. Honda says it will be the first 0 Series model on the market, arriving in the first half of 2026; the Saloon is expected to follow at the end of that year. Both will be built at Honda’s new EV hub in Ohio, and sales of both will follow in other markets. Unlike the Prologue or the little Honda e hatch we never saw stateside, these are truly global products.
I had the opportunity to see both prototypes up close ahead of Honda’s CES press conference. Even though Honda says these designs are near final, they still strike as show cars; it’s difficult to envision the Saloon’s LED-strewn lower bumper, intricate wheels, or infinity-mirror opaque rear glass making production. But other aspects, like the steering yoke and its stalks, instrument cluster and infotainment displays, and interior plastics seem reasonable. It will be interesting to see how closely the on-sale versions map onto Honda’s vision here. The Saloon in particular gathered a lot of attention on stage, and its success could very well depend on it reaching showrooms with minimal exterior tweaks.
I also hope that the 0 Series SUV’s innovative liftgate makes it to launch. The gate actually extends to the back of the roof, making it more like the trunk lid in a conventional sedan. Couple that with the very low trunk floor, and the 0 SUV seems well-suited for loading in taller objects. If you look closely, you’ll also see what appears to be closable storage cubbies along the walls of the cargo space, behind the taillights.
Both vehicles incorporate yokes rather than wheels for steering, but the 0 Saloon’s rotates upside down when its doors are opened. This temporarily frees up room for the driver’s legs, making ingress and egress slightly easier. That’s helpful, considering the wedge is barely shorter than a Civic, at 55 inches tall.
The software shown inside the prototypes’ cabins is important to note because it’s our first preview of what Honda’s dubbed its Asimo OS. Yes, the company’s software platform for its next-gen EVs pulls its name from its humanoid robots of the past, but Honda is keen to point out that there’s a philosophical basis for this, too. Jay Joseph, American Honda’s Vice President of Sustainability and Business Development, said that Asimo taught Honda how to build software with “some level of independence,” and Asimo OS aims to be not only predictive, but personal. If you prefer staying as close to the main thoroughfare as possible when you have to pull off to recharge, Asimo OS will tend to recommend those stations over others. Joseph gave another example, that customers who often travel with pets could have parks or care facilities prioritized in their routing.
Level 3 conditional hands-free driving will also be a part of the 0 Series package—or, at least, it’s planned to be. Joseph noted the patchwork nature of legislation around autonomous driving in every state. While Honda successfully launched a Level 3 system in its Legend sedan in Japan back in 2021, the American regulatory environment is so different that it really can’t be compared. Other automakers have been more aggressive in projecting when they’ll be able to deliver such technology to the public, but Honda has a more realistic view, admitting that the feature may have to launch after the vehicle does. Mercedes, for example, began previewing its Level 3 DrivePilot system way back in 2022, got it approved for use in California and Nevada, and planned to put it in owners’ hands last year, but that still hasn’t happened.
So yes—while Honda’s 0 Series EVs are slowly taking shape before our eyes and inching toward production, many question marks remain. The automaker has still shared nothing on the specs or pricing fronts about these vehicles, though my colleague Chris Tsui drove a prototype 0 Series crossover last year, with its electric powertrain stuffed into the body of a CR-V, and he likened its performance to that of a dual-motor Hyundai Ioniq 5. We don’t even definitively know their final names, though I’d be shocked if the “0 Series Saloon” didn’t see a change this side of the pond. Selling sedans in this country is hard enough nowadays without confusing everyone.
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