Co-developed with GM, the second-weirdest modern Acura will return in 2024 as the brand's first full EV.
The wonderfully strange form-over-function crossover that was the Acura ZDX is making a return as the brand’s first all-electric model. It’s like Acura is looking at its last decade and taking a mulligan.
Where would Acura be if it came out with an all-electric stylish crossover the first time it tried out the ZDX? In 2009, we had just seen the prototype for the Tesla Model S, and the Nissan Leaf was a year away from hitting the market. Ah, what a pioneer Acura might have been!
Alas, neither Honda nor Acura had that much going on in the pure EV space at that time, having abandoned its all-electric hatchback, the EV Plus, before the turn of the century.
As it is, Acura is saying this new ZDX will be the “tip of the spear for electrification and digitalization of American Honda.”
Where is all of this sudden electrification coming from? Well, it’s not from Honda alone. This will be its first product co-developed with GM, using “the highly flexible global EV platform powered by Ultium batteries,” as Acura puts it. That is to say, this is a GM-Honda product, and not something Honda has done alone. For that, we will have to wait for 2026 for Honda’s own e:Architecture, according to Acura’s press release. This new ZDX very much is an American Honda affair.
Acura released no photos of the thing, just noting that it has been styled in the States (just like the first ZDX) and that it will have a Type S version.
Maybe it’s not fair to so much as dream of Acura taking a leadership position on luxury electric crossovers half a decade before even the Tesla Model X came out. Maybe we should just be happy that Honda is finally moving some of its EV resources to the States, and not just leaving its most interesting little cars for the rest of the world.
Keyword: The Acura ZDX Is Coming Back All-Electric