Acura is finally getting serious about entering the EV Age. On Thursday, the automaker revealed this Precision EV Concept ahead of the show car’s public debut at California's famously posh Monterey Car Week. This striking matte-blue SUV is a glimpse at the brand's battery-powered future, drawing its inspiration from luxury power boats.
Longer, lower, and wider than today's gas-powered RDX, this crossover is actually closer in size to Acura's three-row MDX flagship. While you won't see this exact vehicle in showrooms, the Precision EV Concept delivers significant hints about Acura's plan for its 2024 EV in much the same way that the 2016 Precision Concept sedan thematically previewed today’s TLX. Beyond the eventual production model being codeveloped with General Motors, key tech and design elements also shine a light on where Honda's luxury brand is headed.
Given that the Precision EV Concept is a show car, concrete performance details remain few and far between. During a July media preview at the Acura Design Studio in Los Angeles where the vehicle was conceived, officials were keen to focus on the vehicle's design, foregoing any talk of dynamic targets, including range and power. Instead, presenters talked up the SUV's aesthetic influences and its two-mode interior.
Acura Precision EV Concept
Nautical exterior design
It's fairly easy to see the nautical design theme in the Precision EV Concept's appearance. The front end has a prow-like quality, with the leading edge of the prominently sculpted hood forming the vehicle's foremost point, not unlike BMWs of yore. "One of our first challenges when designing this vehicle is (that) we had to come up with a strong facial characteristic in a time where grilles are no longer necessary," said Guy Melville-Brown, the concept's lead exterior designer.
Accordingly, instead of a traditional flow-through register, the nose features a dynamic backlit surface that riffs on Acura's trademark diamond-pentagon grille.
As for the vehicle's illumination, Acura's team was "...heavily inspired by bioluminescent jellyfish," said Melville-Brown. Upon approach, the Precision EV greets the driver with a dynamic welcome sequence that flows light through the skeuomorphic grille and into the “chicane” headlamps and lower-fascia lighting elements. The latter incorporates a so-called "Particle Glitch" motif, a design theme echoed in the massive 23-inch wheels.
The flowing body sides display clean surfacing, with the deliberate exception of the blacked-out greenhouse's silver floating D-pillar trim, which stops well short of the body's Double Apex Blue shoulders. Like any concept worth its salt, the Precision EV substitutes camera nacelles for mirrors and foregoes door handles altogether. Wraparound taillights point to an illuminated Acura badge on the hatch, with the Particle-Glitch theme reprised in the outboard lower lighting.
Overall, the Precision EV Concept's exterior is a handsome, organic design, but it doesn't feel exceptionally groundbreaking.
Acura Precision EV Concept
Acura Precision EV Concept
Acura Precision EV Concept
Dual-mode cabin
The Precision EV Concept's cabin is a split-personality affair, boasting a Formula-1-inspired “Instinctive Drive” manual drive mode as well as a more restful “Spiritual Lounge” autonomous setting.
We've seen companies adopt this twinned approach before, but not as holistically. In Instinctive Drive mode, performance cues like red ambient lighting, racing-style instrumentation, and the steering yoke take center stage, while the HVAC system pumps out an invigorating scent that displays "notes of eucalyptus" and "a distant campfire," said Gypsy Modina, team lead for Acura's Color Material Finish department.
For times when the owner wishes to relax and leave the driving to her or his vehicle, the steering yoke recedes into the dashboard, the pedals fall away and the seats recontour for a more relaxing, hands-off commute. The unique floating gauge cluster goes dark, revealing its transparency. A calming aromatherapy scent redolent of leather and wood is diffused into the cabin. The lighting dims, with the headliner displaying a Rolls-Royce-like celestial pattern and the footwells bathe in an animated projection that mimics a swimming pool illuminated at night. Finally, a lifelike robotic arm delicately feeds occupants hand-dipped, gold-leafed chocolates when summoned via voice activation. (We may or may not have made up the last part.)
While it's unclear when or if Acura will market an autonomous vehicle, the Precision EV Concept also offers a material look at the near-term future of Acura—literally. The surface and trim treatments tip Acura's hand about what its next interiors could look and feel like.
In the case of this concept, the upholstery is made of chrome-free leather and 70% recycled Alcantara, and overall, the cabin places a heavy emphasis on upcycled, sustainable materials, including recycled aluminum and marbled plastic trim, as well as ethically harvested wood. The latter includes the milled timber door trim, whose rippled surfacing is inspired by famed architect Zaha Hadid's curving facades.
Acura Precision EV Concept
Production prognostication
Acura is codeveloping its first electric SUV with GM to share costs and speed products to market. Like its recently teased Honda Prologue sibling, Acura's eventual production BEV is expected to ride atop GM's BEV3 platform and include the Detroit automaker's Ultium battery and motor technology. Set to be assembled at GM's Spring Hill, Tennesse, factory (which presently builds Cadillac's new Lyriq) the model will feature styling and performance tuning wholly unique to the Japanese automaker.
Whether or not Acura's production SUV features a yoke-style wheel like Tesla's Model X and Lexus' forthcoming RZ 450e, we're likely to see future models embrace the Precision EV Concept's relocated drive-mode selector, which is prominently mounted on the wheel hub instead of today's space-hogging center-console-mounted solution. We also expect to see attributes of the design study's next-generation HMI interface, which employs a wide, curved transparent display and haptic feedback. (Today's Acuras rely on the True Touchpad Interface, a controversial finger-swipe controller seemingly beloved and bemoaned by users in equal measure.)
If you happen to be hobnobbing in Monterey this week, the Precision EV Concept will be on public display on Friday at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, before gracing the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Concept Lawn on Saturday.
—by Chris Paukert
