08 Tl Heated Leather Seats Sunroof Alloy Wheels on 2040-cars

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Acura will sell its EVs exclusively online starting in 2024

Honda has big plans for the new year and electrification will play a huge part of that, the company's recently-promoted SVP of Sales, Mamadou Diallo, told reporters on Tuesday. Expect to see a lot more Honda and Acura hybrids on the road this year, ahead of a major EV push come 2024. Overall, Honda is officially aiming to move 1.2 million units in 2023, with Acura shooting for 160,000 units, a 20-25% increase over what they sold in 2022. And although the company managed to maintain a single-digit days' supply of vehicles throughout last year, it enters 2023 with a glut of cars and trucks and a 17-day supply. As such, dealers are going to be looking to move a lot of that inventory before this year's models start arriving so fingers crossed, we could potentially see some Tesla-level price cuts in the near future. "In 2023, we will see the strategies we've been talking about, including growing sales of light truck models, increasing volume of hybrid-electric models and the start of digital sales at Acura," Diallo said in a Wednesday press release. "All this leads toward our vision of 100-percent electrified sales by 2040 to fulfill our ultimately goal of zero emissions by 2050."  The ZDX and ZDX Type S will be Acura's first full-EV offerings and serve as the harbingers of the company's new, exclusively online EV sales strategy. Diallo didn't have much additional information regarding how the system would work — such as whether haggling was allowed or how individual vehicle prices would be set — but assured the assembled journalists, "as we get closer to [the ZDX debut], we certainly will be discussing this a little bit more with our dealer body and the press in general. For right now we're still finalizing all those details." Acura joins Ford, Volvo, GM and VW in shifting its electrified vehicle sales to the digital marketplace.  For its part, Honda is planning a significant increase in its hybrid vehicle production in 2023, starting with the newly-redesigned Accord and Accord Hybrid (they'll also be Honda's first with Google Built-In). The company "will continue to increase hybrid sales through core models as an important step in bridging customers to full electrified vehicles while reducing GHG emissions," the Wednesday release reads. Honda anticipates a solid half of this year's CR-V and Accord sales to be of the hybrid variety and its efforts bolstered in 2024 with the introduction of a new Civic hybrid.

BMW reclaims US luxury sales crown from Mercedes

The numbers, they are in: BMW has reclaimed the luxury-sales crown from Mercedes by a margin of 9,347 cars. Mercedes donned the king's headgear in 2013 after a strong final quarter of 2013 when the new CLA and S-Class poured out of dealerships. This year, led by the 3 Series/4 Series and X5, BMW sold 339,738 units – a 9.8-percent increase year-on-year. Mercedes, led by the C-Class and M-Class, saw its sales go up by 5.7 percent to 330,391 units. We'll have to wait a bit to see if there's another registrations-vs-sales challenge as in 2012, when BMW was anointed US luxury ruler. Behind them, a dark horse named Lexus nudged closer to the leading Teutons, selling 311,389 cars. The Japanese luxury automaker also had the biggest gain among the top three, its sales rising by 13.7 percent compared to 2013. Audi had the biggest sales of anyone among the top five, though, with a 15.2-percent gain to 182,011, which moved it a spot ahead of Cadillac; the Wreath-and-Crest brand dropped 6.5 percent to 170,750. Acura (167,843), Infiniti (117,300), and Lincoln (94,474) took the final positions. Speaking of Lincoln, sales at the once-mighty luxury marque stand as the mightiest jump of any on this list, up 15.6 percent. That's the power of Matthew McConaughey... and better cars and a new crossover, sure. So now that we're back to Round One of 2015, in case no one else has said it yet: "Ok, fight!"

2022 Acura MDX spy photos show more athletic, TLX-inspired body

Acura's first in-house crossover/SUV is finally ready for another full redesign, and these latest spy photos give us our best look yet. This 2022 Acura MDX was caught by one of our spy photographers with bare minimum vinyl wrap camouflage. As such, we can tell that the new model will be quite a bit more athletic and share many styling cues with the recently revealed TLX sedan. Starting from the front, the MDX features the pentagonal grille from the TLX. While the outgoing version has a similar grille, this one is wider and flatter. It also has headlights that fit with the grille better, adopting a more angular, slimmer shape compared to the old MDX. The grille and headlights sit higher in the front fascia, too. Combined with what looks like a longer nose, the new MDX has a more proud, upright look versus the slumped, slightly minivan-esque design of the current model. Moving around the MDX, we can make out beefier fenders that give the new crossover a wide, sporty stance. The roofline looks a bit lower than the current MDX, furthering the sportier appearance. The rear quarter window also sweeps upward now. This echoes the window line of the TLX. The rear of the MDX is the least interesting, but it still borrows from the TLX. The taillights and the squared-off exhaust tips look just like those of the sedan. Otherwise, the MDX has a fairly generic hatch. Considering how close to production this prototype is, and a leaked Acura product road map, we're expecting the MDX to be fully revealed during this year's auto show season (whatever that may be), so sometime in the fall or winter. We suspect its powertrain lineup will mirror that of the TLX with a 272-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder as the base engine, and a Type S version (confirmed by the aforementioned road map) will get a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 making 355 horsepower. A hybrid model will probably be available eventually, too, but possibly not at launch. Versions powering the front or all four wheels will certainly be available, with the latter using the SH-AWD system Acura has become known for. Related Video: