Acura took the wraps off of its Precision EV concept this evening at a private event in Carmel, California, adjacent to the annual Monterey Car Week. The first hint of the luxury brand’s all-electric future, the Precision offers a glimpse of the design language Acura plans to use its future electric vehicles starting with the 2024 ZDX SUV, which will closely mirror the Precision EV in shape and style. 

Last week, ahead of the events at Car Week on the Monterey Bay peninsula, Acura offered up a short teaser of the Precision and followed it with photos earlier today, now we’ve gotten to see it in the flesh and learn more about Acura’s plans.

The crossover-style EV gets a low-slung floating roofline, frameless windows all around and a blindingly bright “Particle Glitch” grille with a similar pattern echoed onto the concept’s huge five-spoke wheels. The grille styling echoes that of the MDX, Acura’s best-selling SUV, and the midsize TLX sedan, which was also Acura’s most buzzworthy car in years until this the 2023 Integra came on the scene at last year’s Monterey Car Week. 

Acura says that the design is inspired by “luxury Italian powerboats,” and the rear gets a slight boattail styling with a split spoiler, topped with a single, red taillight fin. From the rear, the body appears wider than the greenhouse, giving the Precision EV Concept a wide and slightly squat look. 

Inside the futuristic cockpit, which Acura says is inspired by Formula 1 racers, the driver gets a wide yoke-style steering wheel with a transparent bar in the middle. The unconventional wheel sits in front of a curved dash and small screen, presumably a driver’s instrument panel. At the center of the vehicle sits what Acura says is a preview of a future infotainment screen: A large, curved, transparent touchscreen with haptic feedback. There are tons of compound angles and swooping shapes that give the cockpit a sense of movement and wavelike forms. 

Acura says that the Precision EV Concept will offer two driving modes: “Instinctive Drive Mode” and “Spiritual Lounge Mode.” Instinctive, indicated by digital sport-style instrumentation and a red lighting treatment, offers the driver the ability to control the car with the yoke steering wheel. Spiritual Lounge tucks the steering wheel away for (theoretical) autonomous driving and fills the cabin with water-themed lighting and “soothing scents.”

Acura’s presentation this evening highlighted the sustainable materials used to build the concept, including recycled plastic trim, biomass leather and recycled aluminum.

If the Precision name sounds familiar, it should. “Precision” is in both the brand’s tagline (“Precision Crafted Performance”) and previously tied to its history of influential concepts.

In 2016 Acura unveiled another idea car with the same name that has since defined the brand’s current design language. That includes the muscular, trapezoidal body lines, the characteristic diamond mesh grille and angular lighting like on the TLX, MDX and new Integra. 

Back in the real world, Acura’s first EV will be built in partnership with General Motors, which means it will get GM’s Ultium battery technology and platform. This comes as a result of a 2020 partnership between Honda, Acura’s parent company, and the American automaker. 

Like Honda, Acura is aiming to take its lineup of vehicles fully electric by 2040, even though the Japanese company continues to explore hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as the possible future of transportation. As a result, both the production ZDX and the related Honda Prologue will be built on the same architecture as the upcoming 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV. Acura says the ZDX will also include a Type S variation, which might mirror the 557-horsepower Blazer SS.

If the GM and Honda connection seems like an odd tie-up, it’s worth noting that the two companies have been connected on SUVs and other projects in the past. Acura’s very first SUV, the 1990s-era SLX, was a reworked version of the Isuzu Trooper at a time when GM owned that company. Later on, Honda engines powered versions of GM’s first-generation Saturn Vue crossover.

Those long-ago products won’t bear any relation to the 2024 ZDX, but the crossover will resurrect one other piece of history. The ZDX badge previously adorned a low-slung Acura crossover from 2010 to 2013. While stylish, the old ZDX’s “crossover coupe” styling simply sacrificed too much interior room to make it practical. Expect the new ZDX to be properly SUV-sized within despite its sleek exterior.

The coming Honda and Acura models will be built at GM’s Spring Hill plant in Tennessee, the same place the Cadillac Lyric is currently being built. Acura will design the exterior and interior of the future EV, while GM is in charge of the powertrain and will engineer it to Honda and Acura’s specifications.

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