Acura Teases Its First EV Made Without GM’s Help

Acura has teased a concept SUV that it said “previews” its first EV made on its completely in-house platform.

The performance-oriented car was billed as “segment defying,” but it’s not clear what that entails beyond the sleek appearance in the teaser photo. Acura will share more details during Monterey Car Week, which runs from today (August 9th) through August 18th.

Its main distinction at present is its use of the “dedicated” Acura EV platform. Unlike the ZDX or its Honda Prologue stablemate, it’s not using GM’s Ultium technology underneath. While Honda’s brief partnership with GM helped it get these electric SUVs to market relatively quickly, an internally-developed platform should help Honda and Acura better stand out from the competition.

There are no estimates of when a production version of the concept will arrive. Honda showed a Saloon concept sedan at CES in January that previewed an EV coming to North America in 2026, but Acura isn’t necessarily tied to that schedule.

The competition won’t remain still during that period. Tesla is expected to launch its Model Y redesign in the coming months, and German luxury badges like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes are well into the electrification of their lineups. Acura’s main rival Lexus isn’t a major threat with its RZ (which shares roots with the Toyota bZ4x), but it can’t be ruled out. Acura may have to move quickly to avoid losing sales from eco-conscious buyers.