The Acura NSX is almost dead. To send it out in the big, bad blaze of glory befitting a hybrid supercar that never really got the attention it deserved, Acura is producing a limited run of 350 Type-S models with a combined 27 extra horsepower and a new beak that I actually don’t hate, for the record.
I think we all heard that news and assumed that the NSX nameplate would be retired too — or at least, destined for a lengthy hiatus. But it turns out that’s not the plan, as Acura chief Jon Ikeda has been teasing as of late.
“If you notice, we make an NSX when there’s something we want to say,” Ikeda was quoted by The Drive as saying in a story published Monday. “The first-gen was gas. Second-gen was a hybrid. There’s gonna be another one.” Days earlier, Ikeda said to Motor Trend “There will be a next one, at some point, I am sure.”
Honda’s been a late-comer to modern battery electric vehicles. Its first volume EV — and by that, I mean a model with broad appeal, rather than a novelty like the Honda e — will be the Prologue, an SUV due to arrive in 2024 and built upon GM’s Ultium architecture. Given this, it’s somewhat surprising to hear the company tease an all-electric NSX, especially because we might not see the result for a good while.
The thing is, making a premium performance EV priced out of the realm of affordability for most people is easier than making one that’s competitively priced, and gets decent range and that regular people with regular people problems are willing to buy. The current NSX has been unfairly overlooked as something of an also-ran within its own segment. At any other time in history, Acura might not have even bothered attempting to keep it going. But the potential to frame it as an EV flagship might have just saved it.