Acura says upcoming ZDX EV will define Type S performance

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Acura may be awkwardly late to the EV game, but it’s playing catch-up big time in a wild race toward electrification. While it can’t make an EV fast enough to compete in today’s world, the automaker can make some strong claims for tomorrow’s world, when it hopes to have some battery-driven products in showrooms.

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Its ZDX fully electric SUV, for example (who approved that cursed name?) has been green-lit for a Type S performance variant, and is currently going through real-world testing ahead of its 2023 unveiling, and 2024 on-sale date. It’s refreshing to see Acura finally plugged into the changing world.

Acura Canada says “As the brand accelerates toward an electrified future, Type S models will continue to put the driver experience first and will exemplify Acura’s unyielding commitment to delivering on the Precision Crafted Performance brand promise.”

In an odd strategy, Acura is releasing the ZDX and ZDX Type S simultaneously. Usually, performance variants show up in years three or four of a new vehicle’s generational lifespan.

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Co-developed with GM, the ZDX will benefit from Acura’s flexible global EV platform powered by Ultium batteries, in a smart cost-savings maneuver. Starting in 2026, Acura plans to launch additional EVs using its own global e:Architecture. Makes sense to me; work with an experienced EV-maker (never mind that EV1 catastrophe) and then branch out on your own. First gear, then second, right? Right.

Exactly zero information has been released regarding any power/battery/range/charging figures to date, but if we’re benchmarking it against the current TLX Type S, then this ZDX Type S better be remarkably agile and quick. What we mean is, for a company that claims to want to have 100 per cent of its North American sales be battery-electric or fuel-cell electric vehicles by 2040, that Type S will really have to zig and zag through the competition.

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With hundreds of thousands of alphabet-soup acronyms available, why did Acura go back to the bone-dry well of “ZDX”? The company says it “pays homage to a previous Acura model of the same name, which was the first vehicle styled from the ground up in the Acura Design Studio.”

Oh, right, that old thing. The original ZDX saw sales of just 7,191 between 2009 and 2013. For comparison, Toyota sold over 16,000 Corollas in November 2022. Let’s hope when it hits the market, Acura can dodge any short-circuits that might similarly turn the ZDX into a Dead-DX—again.