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Honda, Acura lay out future plans: HR-V and more coming in 2022

Automakers and PR representatives are notoriously tight-lipped about upcoming vehicles. The infamous line that all of us in the car news business are familiar with is, "We cannot comment on future product." But this week, Honda opened up a little bit and laid out its big reveals for the coming year, and it's going to be a busy one. It all starts with the 2023 Honda HR-V, shown in the renderings above. The company didn't share a whole lot of details since it was focusing on the broad product plans, but it did note that it will be "unique to North America." It's not clear if it's just styling, which is abundantly obvious compared to the European HR-V and Japanese Vezel shown below, or if it will have a different platform and powertrains. We suspect the latter, since looking at the renderings, not only does it have a meaner, more aggressive look, but the glass in the greenhouse is different, as are the door handles. The HR-V is only the start of the big product rollout. More SUVs follow starting with the new CR-V, and then the new Pilot. A new Accord is coming, and of course there's the imminent Civic Type R. Acura's rollout is a bit more modest, with the big launches being the new Integra and the Type-S version of the MDX. Honda HR-V / Vezel View 11 Photos Plug-in hybrids aren't part of the plan There's one thing that Honda isn't including in its plans, and that's plug-in hybrids. When asked why, American Honda's executive Vice President of National Operations Dave Gardner noted that public and governmental feelings have moved from just reducing emissions to eliminating them entirely. As such, the time and effort to develop plug-in hybrids doesn't make sense when that could be applied to fully electric cars. Conventional, non-plug-in hybrids are still planned, and Honda is expecting ever increasing hybrid sales in the next few years. The company is expecting half of Accord sales will eventually be hybrid. As for Acura, hybrids aren't planned to be a big part of sales, with the brand jumping straight to EVs. Speaking of EVs, Honda's first North American electric car is still planned to be the Prologue. It's the electric model that's going to be based on a General Motors product. It's slated for the 2024 model year, and Honda is anticipating around 70,000 annual sales for it to start. Acura will get a counterpart to the Prologue, which may be named ADX. Related video:

New 2022 Acura MDX platform to underpin future Hondas

The 2022 Acura MDX introduces a new platform to the Acura and Honda lineup called the Global Light Truck Platform, and it's currently exclusive to the MDX. The new 2021 Acura TLX is also built on a totally new platform that isn’t shared with any other Honda or Acura. Going further back, when the redesigned 2019 RDX debuted, Acura said that model was built on “a new-from-the-ground-up, Acura-exclusive platform." ThatÂ’s three totally-new and Acura-exclusive platforms in a short time period, and it got us thinking. What is Acura up to here?  Most manufacturers these days are increasingly going in the exact opposite direction. VolkswagenÂ’s MQB architecture underpins everything from the hot hatch GTI to the gigantic Atlas. ToyotaÂ’s TNGA platform has multiple sizes/versions, but Toyota still considers them related and will tell you that TNGA is the basis of cars from the Corolla on up to the Highlander, plus the Lexus UX and ES. You can find similar stories all across the industry, in both luxury and non-luxury brands. Acura, on the other hand, appears to be taking a totally different approach. To get some clarity on strategy, we reached out to Acura. The answers are multifaceted, but Acura says it's spending money where it pays dividends for performance — but there's also more sharing between models than it might look like on the surface. “The definition of what constitutes a 'common platform' varies by automaker,” Acura exclusively told Autoblog during a wide-ranging e-mail interview involving the input of numerous engineers and product planners. “For us, the most fundamental value is to maintain the same carry points throughout production and enable us to produce different vehicles in the same manufacturing environment.” As an example, the TLX and RDX feature similar carry points in the chassis to enable their production on the same line, but thatÂ’s where the two diverge. “The TLX is different in that it has a bespoke platform that is not shared with any other Acura or Honda vehicle,” Acura says.

2021 Acura TLX A-Spec vs. Type S, Polestar 2 and Genesis G70 | Autoblog Podcast #700

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Associate Editor Byron Hurd for the 700th installment. It's a premium-focused rundown as the two start off discussing Autoblog's long-term Acura TLX A-Spec and the Type S that is currently standing in for it, followed by some impressions of the Polestar 2 (and how it feels relative to its Volvo cousins) and a look at the 2022 Genesis G70 Launch Edition. Then, in "Spend My Money," they try to address a rather broad request for a pre-owned vehicle with only a handful of requirements.   Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #700 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown What we're driving:2021 Acura TLX A-Spec/Type S 2021 Polestar 2 2022 Genesis G70 Launch Edition Spend My money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video: