Acura’s been pretty busy reinventing itself over the last five years to get back to that “Precision Crafted Performance” approach to luxury cars that first made it a household name. First came the beautiful new TLX, then the return of the Type-S performance line (hello NSX Type-S), then the rebirth of the cult classic Integra. Now it’s taking another big swing with the 2024 Acura ZDX, a $60,000 electric SUV that’s both Acura’s first EV and the first car born from Honda’s new technical partnership with General Motors.
Unveiled Thursday during Monterey Car Week, the 2024 ZDX boasts a 102 kWh battery, rear- and all-wheel-drive setups, up to 500 horsepower in Type S guise, an infotainment system built around Google apps, and a “Hands Free Cruise” mode that sounds an awful lot like GM’s SuperCruise. Because of that GM Ultium battery platform, it also has notable RWD proportions with a long hood and a swept-back cabin. The rest of the straight-lined design looks incredibly sharp, the rare case of a production version looking better than the concept. Also: we maintain these Ultium crossovers are actually lifted wagons, and the ZDX does nothing to disprove that. So be happy, enthusiasts.
Its dimensions also challenge convention: The ZDX is a hair smaller than the Acura MDX in length (197.7 in) and width (77 in), and it’s almost three inches shorter in height (64.4). Yet its wheelbase (121.8 in) is a full eight inches longer than the MDX.
Lest you think Acura just plopped its own body on GM’s running gear, Acura says its engineers worked over the multilink suspension to give the ZDX its own handling characteristics. The base A-Spec trim gets fixed coil springs and a single rear-axle motor putting out 340 horsepower. Pumping up the Type-S is the addition of adaptive air suspension, 15.6-inch front brakes with six-piston calipers, 275-width tires with optional sticky summers wrapping 22-inch wheels, and a front axle motor for a system total of 500 horsepower. Range estimates are 325 miles for the RWD A-Spec, 315 miles for the AWD version, and 288 miles for the Type-S.
Both will charge at up to 190 kW on a DC fast charger, adding 81 miles of range in 10 minutes to the RWD model. It’s worth noting that while Honda hasn’t signed onto the Tesla NASC charging standard bandwagon, it is part of the newly-announced consortium of automakers trying to build their own brand-neutral network to get past the appalling state of public charging in America.
Inside, the ZDX’s cabin certainly seems expansive, if less distinctive than what you’ll see in its platform mates from GM, like the Chevrolet Blazer EV and Cadillac Lyriq. An 11.3-inch touchscreen sits front and center atop the dash. For what it’s worth, unlike in GM’s EVs, Acura’s Google-focused OS will still offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Some choice with your $60,000-plus SUV—imagine that. An 18-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system comes standard on all models. It’ll also bring Acura’s Hands Free Cruise driving system to the market for the first time, which can mostly take over piloting duties on “400,000 miles of compatible roads.” If that sounds suspiciously similar to what GM touts for its own Super Cruise software, that’s because it is.
The ZDX carves a sharp profile to be sure, and it’s an interesting vehicle for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it looks like one of the few electric SUVs that’s spiritually connected to the rest of the automaker’s internal-combustion lineup. This is a moment that’s all too easy to botch—though of course, we haven’t driven it yet. So we’ll leave this by applauding Acura for being brave enough to revive a moniker last used on a high-riding origami egg and turning into something new and interesting. Well done, team.
