Santa Barbara, California — I pulled to the brief left passing lane on California Route 154 and — ZOT! — my 2024 Acura ZDX Type S tester exploded past a line of slower traffic down the Santa Ynez Mountains north of Santa Barbara. Merging into heavy Route 101 traffic along the coast, the ZDX’s Hands-Free Cruise system took over and I sipped a can of iced tea while riding hands-free at 70 mph. On the screen, I tapped the nearest fast charger and Google Built-In took me eight miles to an Electrify America station in tony downtown Santa Barbara.
Electric vehicles’ niche is the luxury market, and Acura’s first EV has found the sweet spot with its swashbuckling, high-tech $75,000 Type S entry. Call it the Type Sweet Spot.
Like its sister Honda Prologue, this is new territory for Acura. The brand captured American hearts in the 1990s with the Acura Integra Type R (Type S nameplate predecessor), a nimble, Honda Civic-based driver-centric pocket rocket that turned heads in town and turned on a dime on country roads. Forty years later and Honda-Acura is on a new mission to go all-electric — dovetailing with government mandates that will ban new internal combustion car sales here in California by 2035.
But EVs have flipped Acura’s marketing script. The giant 102 kWh battery the ZDX Type S requires to give you goosebumps carries an equally giant price tag. So Acura’s first performance EV — unlike its first performance ICE — is aimed at the upper-crust LA suburbs, not gritty LA parking lots where Acura tuners gather for weekend autocrosses in their Integra gas-burners.
The ZDX is more muscle car than pocket rocket.
Tipping the scales at over 6,000 pounds (nearly 1,600 pounds more than a similarly sized Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack, and 1,200 pounds more than a gas MDX Type S SUV), ZDX is a rocket ship in a straight line like a Charger. The grunt suits Acura’s performance vibe, and Type S is a very different animal than the more domesticated 85-kWh battery Honda Prologue EV.
That muscle-car girth makes this a different Type S than the icons before it. Not far from Santa Barbara last year, I tested the Integra Type S and wrung its neck through the spaghetti roads of Oija, leaving sport bikes in the dust. We laid rubber marks across the landscape like Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote.
The luxurious, air suspension-clad ZDX is an ocean liner next to Integra through the curvy stuff, its three tons apparent. Drive the Integra Type S daily (or any of if its MDX or TLX siblings) and you’ll make the occasional two-minute stop at a gas station to fill up its 367-mile range tank. Drive the 278-mile-range ZDX Type S and you’ll make more regular 15-minute stops at supercharger watering holes like the busy, four-stall Electrify America charger in Santa Barbara where I stopped in — adding 100 miles in 17 minutes.
While I charged, other EVs — a Hyundai Ioniq 5, Lexus RZ, VW ID.4, Porsche Taycan — hustled in and out, topping up for 10-15 minutes to complete their daily chores. The Porsche driver unloaded on EA as we waited — complaining the charger never achieves the advertised 350 kW charge, and he’s had a regular dialogue with the company to get the chargers to work properly.
I, too, was delayed an extra 10 minutes calling EA to wake my buggy charger. No wonder brands like Acura are rushing to adopt Tesla’s reliable charging network with plug adapters.
ZDX is assembled next to its midsize EV-competitor Cadillac Lyriq SUV (they share GM’s Ultium EV platform) in Spring Hill, Tennessee. But they give off very different pheromones.
While Caddy channels the Eldorado Broughams of old with its easy ride, gem-encrusted interior and blingtastic exterior, the Acura electrifies its athletic Type S personality. Acura has extracted another 100-pound feet of torque out of the same twin-motor setup as the Lyriq Sport for freight-train power.
Lyriq starts with a base, $52K model and tops out with the Sport at $65K. ZDX begins at $65K with its A-Spec model, then goes straight to the top-dog $75K Type S.
Type S is a premium value thanks to its GM parentship. Hitting dealerships now, it immediately sheds $7,500 — cash on the hood — thanks to the General’s locally sourced batteries and domestic production. That cuts the price $67,245 — a healthy $20K less than comparable, performance-minded BMW iX xDrive 50 and Audi e-Tron SQ8 electrics — and right on top of non-performance models Lexus RZ and Genesis GV70 that don’t qualify for government sugar.
Acura’s nondescript tablet-screen interior won’t wow like the Caddy, BMW and Genesis. But get it in classic Acura red leather and it really pops. Cabin seating is palatial, with a healthy 40 inches of legroom in back. It’s all wrapped in Acura’s chiseled exterior design language — the menacing “heartbeat” LED running lights communicating its performance intent.
The biggest payoff of the GM partnership is shared tech. Google Built-in is Tesla’s equal in charting a charging course for road trips (right down to nearby restaurants/stores to visit while you fill up) — as is Acura’s version of GM’s Super Cruise, Hands-Free Assist.
Oooooh, Hands-Free Assist.
The system comes standard on the Type S with its comprehensive Acura Watch 360+ safety perimeter, including adaptive cruise control, blind-spot assist, emergency braking, 360-degree camera and electric force field to zap Sith invaders (kidding about that last one).
Tesla pioneered hands-free driving, but GM has perfected it for divide highways. Its consistency, auto lane changes, and escalating warning steps separate ZDX and Lyriq from other premium brands.
Advantage Acura as it enters a stalled EV sales market. With EVs competing in a niche luxury space, brands must conquest sales to grow. From Tesla, primarily. Take my Model Y ride-share driver in LA, for example.
While he loves Tesla’s cutting-edge self-driving and charging network, he’s worried about maintenance and sales quality. Acura, Caddy, Genesis appeal to him — especially if Google Built-in can find him the chargers he needs.
But Honda-Acura isn’t alone in upstart brands who see electrification as an opportunity to capture new customers.
Hyundai’s terrific midsize Ioniq 5 N SUV is priced at $67K, weighs a relatively light 4,800 pounds, corners on rails and screams like an F-22 fighter jet when you engage its 545 pound-feet of torque.
Honda-Acura is working on its own lightweight electric platform that will spit out cars at its East Liberty, Ohio, plant. Maybe one of them will be named Integra EV?
Next week: 2024 Volkswagen Golf GTI
2024 Acura ZDX
Vehicle type: Electric rear- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
Price: $65,850, including $1,350 destination charge ($74,850 Type S as tested)
Powerplant: 102-kWh lithium-ion battery with electric motor drive
Transmission: Single-speed
Power: 358 horsepower, 324 pound-feet of torque (A-Spec RWD); 490 horsepower, 437 pound-feet of torque (A-Spec AWD); 499 horsepower, 544 pound-feet of torque (Type S AWD)
Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.0 seconds (Car and Driver est.); top speed, 150 mph (Type S AWD); towing, 3,500 pounds (A-Spec AWD)
Weight: 6,052 pounds (as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA est. range 313 miles (A-Spec RWD); 304 miles (A-Spec AWD); 278 miles (Type S AWD)
Report card
Highs: Sculpted exterior; high-tech performance
Lows: Modest interior; porky
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.
