Acura’s Performance EV concept looks like an angry sports boat

Acura has a new EV concept debuting today at Monterey Car Week, featuring an all-new electric vehicle platform developed by parent automaker Honda. Dubbed the Acura Performance EV concept, the vehicle is a crossover SUV with a boat-like front end that resembles the Precision EV concept from 2022, but with a sportback-style rear.

The new Acura concept is a representation of an upcoming electric model that is planned for production next year at Honda’s new manufacturing “EV hub” in Ohio. At a media event today, Honda’s global executive VP, Shinji Aoyama, told Motor1 that there’s also a new “NSX-type” electric sports car in the works for “2027 or 2028.”

So far, Acura’s only EV in the market is the ZDX, which, like Honda’s Prologue, is built on GM’s Ultium EV platform.

As first teased last week, Acura says its new concept is “dynamically styled,” and today, it explains it as having a “powerful, athletic stance” with its long wheelbase and beefy wheel arches. The concept as shown has 23-inch rims that have spokes with variable spacing designed to “evoke a sense of movement even while still.”

When looking at the side profile of Acura’s EV concept, it looks sort of like a Mustang Mach-E with a proper sport hatch for a coupe-style look (instead of the Mach-E’s fake roofline swoop illusion trick). From the front, however, you’ll notice aggressive hood and side vents, plus some squinty headlights that add an overall angry vibe to the Acura.

Meanwhile, Honda is working on a new EV series dubbed Honda Zero that so far includes a funky sloping-shaped EV concept along with a larger “Space-Hub” concept.

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