Report: Acura V8 won’t arrive until 2015

Posted Wed Nov 26 2008 9:41 PM by Alex Kaufmann

The new V8 will be reserved for a flagship saloon due around 2015

Acura has made it clear it wants to be a top tier luxury brand but to do this it will need to change its lineup to suit the tastes of wealthy buyers, who are more likely to demand RWD cars with powerful engines.

The company’s CEO Takeo Fukui recently confirmed that a new V8 engine was in the works and that it could arrive within the next 18 months. However, an inside source at Acura has told Auto Observer that there is no V8 in the immediate product-development pipeline, and that the previous comments made by Fukui were very general and were more about the development of the engine rather than the actual launch.

According to the source, the new engine won’t be ready for the next-generation RL, due around 2010 or 2011, but will most likely appear in the generation after that, sometime around 2015. Acura has major plans for its future lineup, with a range of RWD models designed to target BMW’s 3, 5, and 7-Series.

While the current global economic climate has seen most manufacturers downsizing their engines and focusing on fuel efficiency, Acura is eager to build a top tier brand image. The bigger and more powerful V8 engine should give it the boost it needs in terms of marketability.

However, fuel efficiency has not been completely forgotten. Referring to the future V8, Fukui remarked that it will be "completely different from conventional, past-generation" engines and that it will "have excellent fuel efficiency".

Another senior Acura executive, vice president Koichi Kondo, also recently revealed that a V10 engine will appear in the NSX replacement due to arrive in 2010 and there’s a strong possibility the supercar will feature a V8 option as well.

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Reader Comments

Wed Nov 26 2008 9:43 PM
NoNameDenton says

By then the V8 will be dead and replaced, by turbo V6s with DI
Thu Nov 27 2008 12:13 AM
www.mywheelsonwalls.com says

I would suspect that by then the power plant of chioce has not even reached the drawing board yet. Although clearly it wont be a V8 as we know them today.

I would say that this press release is nothing more than Acura's marketing departments attempt to keep their ho hum FWD brand alive, in what is proving to be a very tough environment to shift some metal.
Thu Nov 27 2008 1:08 AM
Michael D says

I hope that information is wrong about delaying the V8 until 2015 - why so late in the game?!
This would ultimately make the next-generation RL not so much above a TL, even though the RL successor would be RWD.
Thu Nov 27 2008 3:05 AM
NoNameDenton says

wheels you and I do not always agree, but your right, the powerplant of 2015 will probably be very so ver different it has not been thought of or is a very black poject (meaning very secret)
Thu Nov 27 2008 9:55 AM
Edward says

2015??? A gas turbine engine will be fine and dandy by that time.
Thu Nov 27 2008 12:22 PM
Michael D says

Maybe this is wishful thinking, but maybe the upcoming RL successor, in top level, would get a detuned version of the V10 from the upcoming NSX successor and the V8 would eventually come on board, whenever that may really be (up to 2015) as an addition to the engine arsenal line-up. The V10 is already/closely in place whereas the V8 is still in development. There is indication that the NSX successor many get a V8 down the road as an addition to the V10. Also indicated is the the next-generation Acura lines (RL, TL and TSX) will be RWD and RWD-bias SH-AWD instead of all front-drive based - that's a good thing if true.

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