Honda's CarPlay-Equipped EV Outsells Its Chevy Twin by 166%
The car industry A/B tested selling a car with and without CarPlay
GM dropped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from its EVs, citing privacy, but an accidental A/B test with Honda tells a different story. The Honda Prologue is essentially a rebadged Chevy Blazer EV—except it keeps phone integration. Sales data shows the Prologue outselling the Blazer by 43% in 2024, 73% in 2025, and a staggering 166% in the first half of 2026. Drivers are voting with their wallets, and the message is clear: they want CarPlay.
Drivers seem to be voting with their dollars on the question, and they're voting favorably in one direction on this issue.
- hadlock
The japanese branded car outselling the domestic branded version in 2025 shouldn't surprise any millennial. If you grew up in the 80s or 90s getting shuttled around in a GM you almost certainly remember a piece of the interior coming off in your hand, or if you're an elder millennial, writing your name with your fingernail on the UV damaged interior of a late 70s/early 80s GM car that's only 3-5 years old. It's hard to shake that kind of shoddy build quality even decades later.
Meanwhile my friends kids are turning 16 and inheriting the honda accord with 250,000 miles I remember getting shuttled to and from soccer practice when I was 12 in the 90s
- tristanj
This is an invalid comparison. There were enormous discounts on the Prologue, up to $20,000 off.
https://electrek.co/2025/09/23/honda-offering-over-20000-off...
- techgnosis
Yeah this is no good. If one says Honda and one says Chevy, then it's not apples to apples. It doesn't matter if it's the same car, the vast majority of people don't know that. Comparing sales numbers is meaningless.
- bombcar
We need a control group where the only difference is the Honda badge.
I know a number of people who’d buy a Honda without a second thought but wouldn’t be caught dead in a Chevy.
- bornfreddy
Were the two cars priced the same? Is public image of both brands the same? I'm not sure this was a good A/B test.
- captainregex
It’s a partial driver, perhaps even meaningful in some way, but this is hardly an A/B test. Suffice to say lack of CarPlay is costing them in some way but model refreshes, steep price discounts, and other economical considerations are going to win out. Sure, 79% of some sample of car buyers said they wouldn’t buy a car without carplay but putting carplay in an otherwise crappy car isn’t going to magically make people buy that instead. There’s a lot of reasons Chevy is struggling. Blowing their own foot off with this decision can’t have been good for business but it’s certainly been hilarious for the quotes their execs have had to say in public with straight faces so they don’t get whacked for not following the party line. At some point I’m sure there will be a reorg where the opposite will become true.
- eagerpace
This is garbage.
It’s literally not an A/B test. It’s a well known story that this vehicle sold wayyyy better under a Honda badge and it has nothing to do with CarPlay.
- bradfitz
I heard that the reason the major car companies started to sour on CarPlay was because Apple started to get increasingly needy with their data collection requirements (as of CarPlay Ultra) and the car companies weren't comfortable (or legally able) to give Apple that much canbus/telemetry data. And I guess Apple was pushing CarPlay Ultra as the only option without classic less-data-snoopy CarPlay?