2024 Acura ZDX and ZDX Type S Are Playing it Too Safe With Styling

Photo: Acura

Acura is putting the ZDX through its paces in the U.S. as development of the brand’s first EV moves on to road tests. The 2024 Acura ZDX and ZDX Type S are now undergoing testing in real-world conditions, and Acura claims to be paying close attention to the “SUV’s dynamics,” which is a cliché or trite way of saying that Acura hopes its first EV is fun to drive — if not look at.

Acura thinks the ZDX ought to be fun even during these early stages of development, so the carmaker dressed up the ZDX test mules in Type S camouflage to show that it’s serious about performance, even in the age of EVs.

Photo: Acura

The automaker is still not sharing much as far as the specs go. We don’t know for sure what the range of the company’s first fully-electric car will be, nor what the power output of the ZDX and ZDX Type S will be when they go on sale in 2024.

All we know, for now, is that the electric SUV will be unveiled in 2023, and that it’s being c0-developed with GM; the new ZDX will be built on an EV platform that Honda and General Motors worked on together, which is powered by GM’s Ultium batteries.

The Acura ZDX and ZDX Type S are also going to be the first production models to heavily feature Acura’s updated design language; we already got a preview of this new look with the Precison EV Concept, and the ZDX, indeed, borrows much of its design from the concept. Funny enough, Acura says the Precision EV was styled after luxury Italian power boats, which blend artistry, form and function with performance.

Image: Acura

But while the ZDX looks fine, it’s no Honda Crosstour. If Acura was serious about differentiating its first EV from most of the competition, a return to the radical looks of the original Acura ZDX — based on the Honda Crosstour — may have been more fitting. The Crosstour preempted the crossover craze and was panned by critics for its unusual design. But where is your crossover god, now?

The Crosstour was ahead of its time, and maybe even ahead of our current time. The proportions of the new EV ZDX look more in line with a regular SUV, which seems so uneventful next to the sloping rear lines of the Crosstour.

An Acura ZDX Type S would’ve been much more convincing with that dramatic sloping profile, and would’ve made for a better competitor to the wacky designs that Toyota is showcasing with the new Crown. We won’t know what the Acura ZDX will look like in full for a while, but it’s just ironic that Honda and Acura have dialed down the styling while Toyota is dialing it up.

Photo: Acura

Photo: Acura