2006 Acura Rsx Type-s Coupe 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Acura may go all AWD in bid to mimic Subaru's success

Acura's struggles have been well publicized. The Honda-owned luxury brand doesn't seem sure of where it's going or what it's trying to accomplish, with its cars and marketing lacking a coherent theme. Now, a new report from Automotive News claims that the brand could follow the success of Subaru and (to a lesser extent) Audi, and adopt all-wheel-drive as standard across its model range.
"I think that's the way we should go," Acura boss Koichi Fukuo told Automotive News.
Acura already offers some form of all-wheel drive on every vehicle in its line aside from the lamentable ILX sedan. That could change as Acura begins rolling out next-generation versions of its still relatively new stable of sedans and crossovers.

Honda, Acura EVs will adopt Tesla's NACS charging port

CARMEL, Calif. — As more and more automakers pledge to install TeslaÂ’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports on their electric vehicles, Honda says that it, too, will hop on the bandwagon. Future EVs from Honda – as well as its luxury division, Acura – will have NACS charging setups, giving these cars access to TeslaÂ’s huge network of Supercharger stations. "It is quite important," American Honda Motor Co. President and CEO Noriya Kaihara said in an interview Friday. "We also have to push NACS, as well. It is clear." As for when this will happen, Honda is currently at the mercy of General Motors. The Japanese automakerÂ’s next two EVs – the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX – use shared architecture with GM, leveraging The GeneralÂ’s excellent Ultium battery technology. The ZDX will launch first, and have the traditional CCS port that isnÂ’t compatible with TeslaÂ’s chargers, but it will switch to the NACS design in 2025 or 2026. "We clearly depend on GM," Shinji Aoyama, Executive Vice President of Honda Motor Co., said during Friday's interview. "Once they [switch to NACS], this will follow for ZDX, as well." Looking to the future, Honda is part of a joint venture with seven other global automakers that will see the installation of more than 30,000 EV fast-charging stations across the United States and Canada. The chargers are still in development, but Honda says the companies are all aligned on the core values that are needed to make this charging network successful.  "The software needs to be really reliable and really open infrastructure so it communicates with every OEM's software," Jay Joseph, American Honda's Vice President of Sustainability and Business Development, said in Friday's interview. "The hardware needs to be capable of the highest levels of charging. It needs to be secure, it needs to be reliable, it needs to be accessible." Joseph said the current public charging companies know and understand the shortcomings with their systems, and that TeslaÂ’s Superchargers set an example of how to do chargers right. "If you look at what's so great about the Tesla Supercharger network, it's the maintenance," Joseph said. "They stay on top of it, they've got someone onsite monitoring the equipment, they're monitoring it electronically and remotely, and they fix it – fast. That's probably the most important thing." All the more reason for Honda – and other automakers – to switch to the NACS charging setup as quickly as possible.

2024 Acura ZDX revealed with up to 500 horsepower

The 2024 Acura ZDX electric SUV has been revealed along with many of the basic specifications. It will be available in two basic trims, the A-Spec and the Type S, and both offer fairly impressive performance and range wrapped in a package that's very similar to the Precision EV concept. The basic shape of the ZDX is quite close to the Precision, but everything has been softened. The nose still leans forward with a solid main grille, it has a floating roof, silver lower trim and a cab-rearward shape. Concessions to practicality include the conventional door-pulls and larger lower grilles for powertrain cooling. The A-Spec and Type S look pretty similar, with the main difference being wheel size: 20 inches for the A-Spec and 22 for the Type S. The A-Spec's tires are also 265-mm wide while the Type S gets 275-mm tires. And that top-trim ZDX gets the option of the Double Apex Blue Pearl from the concept, or the Tiger Eye Pearl from other Type S models. Unlike the Precision, the ZDX actually has an interior, and it does a good job of hiding its GM roots, at least at first glance. It has a low dash with slim air vents and a pair of screens for instruments and infotainment; 11 inches and 11.5 respectively. The screens are split up, and sit low behind a wraparound cowl design. Looking closer, though, and you'll see that the steering wheel and climate controls are carryover from the related Blazer EV, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Acura has another important difference from the GM products: It will feature wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, in addition to all the Google Built-In apps. An 18-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system is standard, too. Other fancy tech includes rear emergency braking with rear cross-traffic and pedestrian detection, blind-spot monitoring with steering assist, automatic parallel parking and, thanks to being based on a GM platform, hands-free highway driving assist (Super Cruise by any other name). Digging beneath the surface, we find that the A-Spec will come standard in rear-wheel-drive form, quite the departure from a company with decades of front-drive history and experience. It gets a single rear motor making 340 horsepower. It will be available with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain that we're presuming has the same total output, seeing as Acura didn't specify a different amount. Multi-link independent suspension with fixed shocks and springs are also standard for the A-Spec.