Acura Thinks Performance Will Set Its EVs Apart

There are so many new electric vehicles coming out pretty much all the time now, so it can be a bit hard to differentiate them among brands and price points. Acura, though, has a solution. According to Automotive News, the automaker wants to distinguish itself amongst its electric vehicle rivals by turning its sights to performance and driving dynamics.

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To go along with the Integra, TLX, and MDX Type S performance variants, Acrua will also apparently be adding a Type S variant to its upcoming all-electric ZDX crossover. It’s set to launch sometime next year. There’s no word on what will set the ZDX Type S apart from the normal crossover just yet, as well as who will be doing the work to make it Type S-ish. After all, the ZDX is based on GM’s Ultium EV platform, along with its sibling, the Honda Prologue.

“We still have a lot of [engineering] space when it comes to the agility and performance characteristic of Evs, so outside of streamline acceleration, dynamic performance will be another clear strength for Acura as we move in the future,” Emile Korkor, Acura National Sales assistant VP, told Automotive News.

Korkor added that a common complaint about EVs is that they all feel the same, but he believes Acuras will be different.

“The last thing you want is a numb feeling in a car,” he told the outlet. “You put the pedal to the metal and it goes great in a straight line, but what good is that in the street where you have speed limits?

The outlet reports that Honda Motor Co. plans to sell 800,000 EVs in North America by 2030 amongst its two brands. Honda is supposed to sell half a million EVs, and Acura is set to see a further 300,000. However, those are just estimates. AutoNews says that Acura’s transition to EVs will be “more aggressive” than Honda’s. It expects 60 percent of Acrua’s sales volume to come from EVs in that time frame.

“You can do all kinds of things with battery power, like how much you draw from that battery to generate performance, or how you tweak the suspension system,” Korker said. “Those will be defining characteristics so you’re not in a sea of sameness.”