American Honda shared a enterprise outlook for 2025 throughout a latest briefing with the media. By way of electrification, the following 12 months for Honda might be a lot of the identical: facelifting tried-and-true ICE fashions just like the CR-V and Passport. Nonetheless, there was one thrilling piece of reports from Honda on the BEV entrance—the automaker has confirmed it is going to start US manufacturing of an Acura RSX EV.
Honda and its premium sub-brand Acura, for that matter, are getting increasingly more protection on Electrek’s homepage because of the mixed efforts in including new BEV fashions… though that transition has nonetheless been comparatively gradual in comparison with different OEMs.
However, Honda launched the all-electric Prologue, which has discovered fast success with US shoppers. Shortly thereafter, Acura launched the ZDX, which sits atop the identical Ultium platform as Prologue, offered by means of a partnership with GM.
Honda has since backed out of that partnership—not less than the half the place GM supplies automobile structure—and has been growing its personal in-house platform that may at some point energy its new 0 Collection lineup of BEVs. These initially debuted at CES 2024 and remerged at this 12 months’s occasion as prototypes—and now they’re white! They can even characteristic a brand new proprietary automobile OS known as ASIMO (extra on that beneath).
Whereas we await the arrival of these Honda BEVs, we are able to anticipate to see a brand new Acura mannequin hit the market first, based mostly on an SUV known as the Efficiency EV Idea, which debuted at Monterey Automobile Week this previous August. On the time, the Acura Design Studio described the idea as “the evolution of Acura’s performance-focused design course and the model’s subsequent all-electric mannequin.”
That new manufacturing mannequin didn’t have a reputation but, however we did be taught it might be the primary BEV to debut on Honda’s new bespoke platform and the primary all-electric mannequin to roll off its meeting strains on the new Honda EV Hub in Marysville, Ohio.
At this time, we discovered that the Efficiency EV Idea has advanced right into a full-fledged passenger mannequin with a well-known title – the Acura RSX EV.
Acura brings again the “RSX” nameplate as an EV SUV
Throughout a media briefing earlier this week, American Honda shared its 2025 outlook, led by vp of gross sales, Lance Woelfer. This 12 months’s technique contains the manufacturing of its first unique BEV in Ohio utilizing domestically and globally sourced components as a brand new hybrid mannequin and a number of other ICE autos (boo).
Woelfer confirmed that the primary bespoke all-electric mannequin popping out of Ohio would be the Acura RSX EV. This transfer marks the return of a notable nameplate within the Acura lineup that advanced from the unique Honda Integra. The Acura RSX was bought in North America from the early- to mid-2000s and nonetheless has a good fanbase, particularly amongst followers of the Honda Integra and Japanese Home Market (JDM) fanatics.
Acura revived the Integra nameplate in 2021 as a Honda Civic-based liftback, and though that mannequin is sharp, it stays combustion, therefore why Acura has revived the RSX title as an EV mannequin. Per Mike Langel, assistant vp, Acura Nationwide Gross sales.
The nameplate pays homage to the Acura RSX with its coupe-like silhouette, nevertheless it really represents a forward-looking strategy to fun-to-drive efficiency. Our second all-electric SUV will solidify our EV credentials at the same time as its ICE stablemates, the all-new ADX, RDX, MDX, TLX and Integra proceed to draw new patrons to the Acura model.
The Acura RSX EV, seen in a singular camo wrap above, seems to be fairly smooth, however I predict Integra and RSX purists might reject this new mannequin out of the gate as a result of it’s undeniably an SUV, not a sporty compact just like the automobile(s) it’s named after. This jogs my memory of when Ford launched the Mustang Mach-E, and model loyalists argued, “That’s not a Mustang.” Identical to the Mach-E, the Acura RSX EV represents a brand new technology of efficiency fashions, it doesn’t matter what you name it.
The brand new SUV additionally represents an enormous step for Honda and its premium model, because the Acura RSX EV would be the first mannequin to make the most of Honda’s new EV platform and its new ASIMO OS working system launched at CES 2025. On the time, Honda mentioned ASIMO will consistently replace its in-vehicle software program by way of over-the-air (OTA) updates for each the digital UX and built-in dynamics controls that may permit the automaker to ship “a customized possession expertise that may improve the enjoyment of driving.”
Acura says the RSX EV is slotted to start improvement testing in real-world circumstances this week forward of deliberate manufacturing in Ohio later this 12 months. We plan to go to Honda’s EV Hub later this month, so maybe we are able to seize some photographs of the place this new SUV might be constructed or, higher but, have a look at the prototype up shut.
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