Acura’s current flagship may be a hybrid supercar but the automaker is looking more toward battery-electric vehicles for its future lineup.
That’s according to Emile Korkor, assistant vice president of Acura national sales, who in an interview with Automotive News (subscription required) published on Monday said Acura, rather than parent company Honda, will spearhead the move into EVs.
“We’re going to bypass hybrids altogether,” he said. “So our shift is going very rapidly into BEV. That’s our main focus.”
The transition will start as early as the 2024 model year when Acura launches an electric crossover that will be built by General Motors on its Ultium platform found in the 2022 GMC Hummer EV and 2023 Cadillac Lyriq. Honda will launch a separate electric crossover for 2024, which will also be built by GM on the Ultium platform. Honda’s crossover has been confirmed as the Prologue and is expected to be smaller than the Acura crossover.
General Motors’ BEV3 platform and Ultium batteries
Eventually, Acura and Honda EVs will move to Honda’s own dedicated EV platform known as the e:Architecture. This platform will be used for models launching from the second half of the decade.
But while Honda will continue to launch new hybrids alongside its EVs, Acura won’t. We’ve already seen it start to phase out hybrids with the arrival of the redesigned 2022 MDX which, unlike its predecessor, doesn’t offer a hybrid option.
Acura’s NSX supercar, which is also a hybrid, bows out after the 2022 model year, and Acura boss Jon Ikeda has hinted at an electric successor.
In his interview with Automotive News, Korkor said EVs fit Acura’s current performance focus. He also said he expects EVs to represent upward of 60% of Acura’s sales by 2030, versus about 40% for Honda.