- Acura is pivoting away from an EV-only future due to weak customer demand.
- Executives confirm hybrids are now a serious part of the brand’s evolving strategy.
- Future hybrids could include updates to existing Acuras and all-new nameplates.
Although electric vehicle sales continue to grow, they haven’t surged quite like some industry experts and automakers had expected. As such, a growing number of brands are turning their attention to hybrids, viewing them as an important stopgap between traditional ICEs and EVs. Acura is the latest carmaker to follow this trend.
While parent company Honda has several hybrid models in its family, Acura has long remained committed to ICEs and EVs, largely disregarding hybrid powertrains. Now, American Honda chief executive Kazuhiro Takizawa has acknowledged that due to “customer demand, it’s not realistic” to only focus on EVs moving forward.
Read: Honda’s Future Is Packed With New Models And It Isn’t All Electric
“We will max production of ICE and hybrid models to meet the needs of our customers in North America,” he told The Drive while speaking at Monterey Car Week. “This means extending key ICE models and adding hybrid products. Our strategy to invest in flexible production in our EV hub in Ohio is proving very smart. This will enable us to make ICE, hybrid, and EV models on the same production lines, and adjust production fluidly based on customer demands.”
Importantly, shoppers shouldn’t expect to see hybrids from Acura for quite some time. When asked why Acura doesn’t simply borrow the hybrid powertrain of the Civic for a car like the Integra, Takizawa-san noted it usually takes several years to overhaul a vehicle to this extent.
More Than An Engine Swap
“When you change the powertrain, with crash tests and all those things we have to start from scratch,” he said. “[Our engineers] say it’s quite difficult. But of course, it’s not impossible, and we have that technology, so it’s just a matter of lead time and development of the models. To have a new vehicle, we usually need four years or more. [With] this lead time, we need to wait. Once we made our decision, it still takes several years. So it’s just a matter of time.”
During a separate interview with Auto News, Acura senior managing director and chief officer of automotive operations at Honda Motor Co, Katsushi Inoue, said the hybrids have “always been an option, but now we are taking this option very seriously.”
He did not specify which Acura models could get hybrid power, but he indicated the automaker is looking at adding hybrids to existing models, as well as exploring potential all-new hybrid models.
