**The Evolution of Electric Vehicles: Acura's Approach to Electrification**

In an effort to minimize mistakes and ensure a seamless transition to electrified vehicles, manufacturers are taking a cautious approach. The automotive industry is facing a market flooded with first-generation EVs, and companies like Honda are choosing to release their early models when the necessary infrastructure and technology are in place.

A key consideration for manufacturers is ensuring that charging networks are well-established and efficient. Charging network infrastructure has improved significantly over the years, with the switch from traditional charging cables (CCs) to more modern solutions like Networked Automotive Charging Systems (NACS). This shift has led to a decrease in wait times and an increase in the overall charging experience.

Another crucial aspect of electrification is battery technology. Advances in electric motor tech have enabled manufacturers to create more efficient and powerful vehicles, setting the stage for future generations of EVs. By 2030, Honda plans to release its next-generation cars, which will boast improved performance and a range of innovative features.

**Designing the Future of Electric Vehicles**

Acura's approach to electrification is characterized by a conservative strategy that prioritizes reliability and practicality over cutting-edge technology. This approach was evident in the unveiling of the Acura ZDX, a vehicle designed to appeal to early adopters who value performance and driving dynamics. The design team worked tirelessly to strike a balance between futuristic features and traditional elements, resulting in a car that feels both advanced and familiar.

"We're not just creating a laptop on wheels," emphasized Andrew Foster, Exterior Design Lead for the Acura ZDX project. "We want to create a driver's car that moves forward, not just one with a lot of screens and gadgets." This focus on driver-centric design has resulted in a vehicle that incorporates classic elements like gauges and dials, making it more relatable to traditional car enthusiasts.

**The Importance of User Experience**

One of the key challenges facing electric vehicle manufacturers is creating an intuitive user experience. With the rise of technology, cars are increasingly becoming mini-computers, but designers are still grappling with how to balance functionality with usability. Acura's design team made a conscious effort to create an interior that feels "driver-focused," rather than just a hub for technology.

"Our goal was to create an environment that encourages driving and minimizes distractions," explained Foster. "We've achieved this by incorporating familiar controls and keeping the interface clean and uncluttered." By prioritizing driver experience, Acura aims to differentiate itself from competitors and establish a strong brand identity in the emerging electric vehicle market.

**A New Era for Electric Vehicles**

As manufacturers like Honda continue to push the boundaries of electrification, it's clear that this is just the beginning of an exciting new era. With innovative technologies like NACS and advanced battery tech, the future of electric vehicles holds immense promise. Acura's approach to electrification serves as a model for other manufacturers, demonstrating the importance of prioritizing user experience and practicality alongside cutting-edge technology.

"The Acura ZDX is our first step in this journey," emphasized Foster, "and we're excited to see where it takes us." With Honda planning to release new EVs by 2030, enthusiasts can look forward to a future filled with innovative designs, advanced technologies, and improved performance. As the automotive industry continues to evolve, one thing is clear: electric vehicles are here to stay, and Acura is poised to play a leading role in shaping their development.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enMark we're here to talk about the Acura ZX and the Honda prolog and thankfully we have a good standard behind us the Corvette Ray cuz just like both the Honda and Acura it's really a GM and this is Peak GM behind us Mark I'm always going to be talking about vets look I went to Detroit and I talked to the chief engineer off camera and I interviewed the designer of this car to walk through the viewers why they would buy either the prologue or the ZDX because this is currently the future of Honda Acura at least for the next couple years these are their first EV products sold here in the US yes the Honda exists in Japan and in Europe but this is going to be their stop Gap yeah so this is going to be the biggest question why partner with GM for an electric car let's start there so Honda when you talk to their Engineers they are pretty honest they did not want to waste the development money on a first generation EV that was not going to be competitive they were late to the party and they knew it and they didn't want to have the problem that TOA had with the bz forx which they did with Subaru or the Lexus RZ come up with a first generation disposable EV that wasn't going to be competitive so so they went to the OEM that they felt built the best EV architecture that was in Tesla that was scalable and that is General Motors with the ultium architecture it is entirely scalable they can take that from everything from a Blazer EV to a Hummer EV they can make it a truck they can make it an economy SUV or they can make it a premium vehicle so in the case of the prologue and the ZDX the prolog is essentially the Blazer EV which means it's strut front multi-link rear the ZDX is the lyric the lyric is multi-link front and rear and it has optional air ride in the case of the ZDX the type S model is the sportiest variant the way they got these things to drive like Acura is they went to General Motors sent them an MDX Type S and some of let's call it Legacy driving signature Acura on Honda products want engineer this car to be entirely honest whether acur and Honda will emit it or not they didn't do real Automotive Engineering they did systems in migration they took the systems that GM built GM built the entire car they manufactured it they did all the engineering and went I want you to change these variables cuz cars are now essentially all software to make it feel even more like what I'm used to and they signed off yes or no the interior all the interior technology is General Motors if you look and you're really eagle-eyed you can see the HVAC is out of a GMC Denali it's got super Crews it has the head unit out of a Cadillac and even the seats the switch gear on the side of the seats are right out of the Cadillac lyric and they now have moved to a new audio system thankfully it's not GM this is going to be the new audio system in all Acura products but it's a GM so how do you convince anuran Honda customer somebody that might have been have a long history that they're going to go and buy an electric car from them that's essentially GM underneath like how are you going to attract those customers or are they not trying to attract those customers being honest the more I think about it talking to some other staff off camera they're banking the fact that the majority of people people who aren't watching this video aren't going to know and not going to care and the people that adamantly hate General Motors they're not going to win over anyway and they're not going to want to buy this EV this EV in the next couple years they sell the prologue and the ZDX and everything else that they're going to build with GM is a stop gap for when their EVS come out in like 2030 so let's cover that briefly Honda already has an eeve in Japan but it is more of a a city car Honda so that's not going to sell in the United States or North America everybody's obsessed with large cars be like the mx30 for Mazda it be a disaster and really that's that's the core oh if we're going to get anything across in this video because this is a first look Honda to your point is does not want to make a mistake in a market flooded with first generation EVS if somebody comes to buy it there's a level of disappointment that they can only do XY and Z with it and it hurts their chances of making a future Eevee that's better so they would rather release their first generation car when everything was sorted out that means charging network has better answers which we're starting to see now with switch to nacs versus CCs uh not only infrastructure figuring out how to get Chargers baked into the price so people can come home and have a charger installed and some of the Battery tech figured out electric motortech and by 2030 when Honda releases their next Generation cars you will be happy to go into a dealership that already has training for how to support an electric car you have an infrastructure that's ready and all of the other things that go into releasing electric cars so it's kind of smart in a way of like if you come into a dealership and you want an electric car they have one they have one to lease today I think it's an interesting way to do it I think it's a very very conservative way to do it but I would rather see something that's sorted out like to your point you drove the lyric and really liked it so if the ZDX is anything like the lyric with some some Acura spin on it in terms of suspension drivability and getting rid of some of that generic b feel bad audio system and the lyric it could be a really good driving vehicle also acur and Honda is not Toyota or General Motors they don't have the money and they have to be smart with the resources they have but I think it's time for us to hear from the designer hi well thanks for having me so my name is Andrew Foster I'm the exterior design lead for the Acura ZDX uh I've been with Honda approximately 16 years uh held various position positions both creative and management but this was an exciting project for the design team in Torrance and I'm happy to talk about it today how did you figure out what was going to be physical in the control structure versus touch and how did you find that balance between this being a futuristic product you know this is an EV this is for you know an early adopter in the Acura customer base but also still feel like a normal vehicle oh that that's actually a quite a tough question um I think obviously there's challenges uh we have to share certain things especially with the interior the the electrical architecture the interfaces um for the team it's about having that driver focused again so we still have the meter we have the center da and that we felt still built and emphasized this is a driver's car moving forward not just a laptop you basically yeah it's not just a big iPad within within the interior so I think it it may some people may see that as too traditional but I think it also will help Acura stay true to it its driver focused nature at least with the first accurate ZDX well I Lally agree with you I mean cars aren't laptops or phones yet so the fact that you've used Legacy controls definitely at least based on our viewer base is probably viewed as a huge win um is there anything you want to talk about I mean you guys have now you've unveiled this at Pebble this is sort of your Deep dive media event you're having here Detroit and you've seen the reactions of people online what do you want your future customers to know at least from a design perspective on this C this the Acura ZDX is the first step for us in our journey towards electrification within the studio in Torrance the design team is always exploring we're always ideating we're always uh creating internal Concepts um we tease the electric uh Vision design uh study at Pebble this year and that's just goes to show we're constantly pushing the boundaries so I I think the main point I would um emphasize there this is the first step in our journey and there's more exciting products to come that are going to be inherently accurate inherently performance-based and as the EV architectures evolve it's going to enable us to really change up what performance means for electrification and acur as a brand it's going to be an interesting five to 10 years as we watch all of the Legacy Brands like Acura Honda Ford GM start to move into the Eevee Future For Better or For Worse and what you guys as designers are capable of doing with essentially ground up platforms so Mark honestly just to conclude this if this car has some of the character of the MDX Type S has the better dealership and really service experience of an Acura product you don't have to go to a crappy GM dealer and you are a buyer who doesn't know or doesn't care that it's a not a true accurate Honda product you'll probably really like this thing goodbyeMark we're here to talk about the Acura ZX and the Honda prolog and thankfully we have a good standard behind us the Corvette Ray cuz just like both the Honda and Acura it's really a GM and this is Peak GM behind us Mark I'm always going to be talking about vets look I went to Detroit and I talked to the chief engineer off camera and I interviewed the designer of this car to walk through the viewers why they would buy either the prologue or the ZDX because this is currently the future of Honda Acura at least for the next couple years these are their first EV products sold here in the US yes the Honda exists in Japan and in Europe but this is going to be their stop Gap yeah so this is going to be the biggest question why partner with GM for an electric car let's start there so Honda when you talk to their Engineers they are pretty honest they did not want to waste the development money on a first generation EV that was not going to be competitive they were late to the party and they knew it and they didn't want to have the problem that TOA had with the bz forx which they did with Subaru or the Lexus RZ come up with a first generation disposable EV that wasn't going to be competitive so so they went to the OEM that they felt built the best EV architecture that was in Tesla that was scalable and that is General Motors with the ultium architecture it is entirely scalable they can take that from everything from a Blazer EV to a Hummer EV they can make it a truck they can make it an economy SUV or they can make it a premium vehicle so in the case of the prologue and the ZDX the prolog is essentially the Blazer EV which means it's strut front multi-link rear the ZDX is the lyric the lyric is multi-link front and rear and it has optional air ride in the case of the ZDX the type S model is the sportiest variant the way they got these things to drive like Acura is they went to General Motors sent them an MDX Type S and some of let's call it Legacy driving signature Acura on Honda products want engineer this car to be entirely honest whether acur and Honda will emit it or not they didn't do real Automotive Engineering they did systems in migration they took the systems that GM built GM built the entire car they manufactured it they did all the engineering and went I want you to change these variables cuz cars are now essentially all software to make it feel even more like what I'm used to and they signed off yes or no the interior all the interior technology is General Motors if you look and you're really eagle-eyed you can see the HVAC is out of a GMC Denali it's got super Crews it has the head unit out of a Cadillac and even the seats the switch gear on the side of the seats are right out of the Cadillac lyric and they now have moved to a new audio system thankfully it's not GM this is going to be the new audio system in all Acura products but it's a GM so how do you convince anuran Honda customer somebody that might have been have a long history that they're going to go and buy an electric car from them that's essentially GM underneath like how are you going to attract those customers or are they not trying to attract those customers being honest the more I think about it talking to some other staff off camera they're banking the fact that the majority of people people who aren't watching this video aren't going to know and not going to care and the people that adamantly hate General Motors they're not going to win over anyway and they're not going to want to buy this EV this EV in the next couple years they sell the prologue and the ZDX and everything else that they're going to build with GM is a stop gap for when their EVS come out in like 2030 so let's cover that briefly Honda already has an eeve in Japan but it is more of a a city car Honda so that's not going to sell in the United States or North America everybody's obsessed with large cars be like the mx30 for Mazda it be a disaster and really that's that's the core oh if we're going to get anything across in this video because this is a first look Honda to your point is does not want to make a mistake in a market flooded with first generation EVS if somebody comes to buy it there's a level of disappointment that they can only do XY and Z with it and it hurts their chances of making a future Eevee that's better so they would rather release their first generation car when everything was sorted out that means charging network has better answers which we're starting to see now with switch to nacs versus CCs uh not only infrastructure figuring out how to get Chargers baked into the price so people can come home and have a charger installed and some of the Battery tech figured out electric motortech and by 2030 when Honda releases their next Generation cars you will be happy to go into a dealership that already has training for how to support an electric car you have an infrastructure that's ready and all of the other things that go into releasing electric cars so it's kind of smart in a way of like if you come into a dealership and you want an electric car they have one they have one to lease today I think it's an interesting way to do it I think it's a very very conservative way to do it but I would rather see something that's sorted out like to your point you drove the lyric and really liked it so if the ZDX is anything like the lyric with some some Acura spin on it in terms of suspension drivability and getting rid of some of that generic b feel bad audio system and the lyric it could be a really good driving vehicle also acur and Honda is not Toyota or General Motors they don't have the money and they have to be smart with the resources they have but I think it's time for us to hear from the designer hi well thanks for having me so my name is Andrew Foster I'm the exterior design lead for the Acura ZDX uh I've been with Honda approximately 16 years uh held various position positions both creative and management but this was an exciting project for the design team in Torrance and I'm happy to talk about it today how did you figure out what was going to be physical in the control structure versus touch and how did you find that balance between this being a futuristic product you know this is an EV this is for you know an early adopter in the Acura customer base but also still feel like a normal vehicle oh that that's actually a quite a tough question um I think obviously there's challenges uh we have to share certain things especially with the interior the the electrical architecture the interfaces um for the team it's about having that driver focused again so we still have the meter we have the center da and that we felt still built and emphasized this is a driver's car moving forward not just a laptop you basically yeah it's not just a big iPad within within the interior so I think it it may some people may see that as too traditional but I think it also will help Acura stay true to it its driver focused nature at least with the first accurate ZDX well I Lally agree with you I mean cars aren't laptops or phones yet so the fact that you've used Legacy controls definitely at least based on our viewer base is probably viewed as a huge win um is there anything you want to talk about I mean you guys have now you've unveiled this at Pebble this is sort of your Deep dive media event you're having here Detroit and you've seen the reactions of people online what do you want your future customers to know at least from a design perspective on this C this the Acura ZDX is the first step for us in our journey towards electrification within the studio in Torrance the design team is always exploring we're always ideating we're always uh creating internal Concepts um we tease the electric uh Vision design uh study at Pebble this year and that's just goes to show we're constantly pushing the boundaries so I I think the main point I would um emphasize there this is the first step in our journey and there's more exciting products to come that are going to be inherently accurate inherently performance-based and as the EV architectures evolve it's going to enable us to really change up what performance means for electrification and acur as a brand it's going to be an interesting five to 10 years as we watch all of the Legacy Brands like Acura Honda Ford GM start to move into the Eevee Future For Better or For Worse and what you guys as designers are capable of doing with essentially ground up platforms so Mark honestly just to conclude this if this car has some of the character of the MDX Type S has the better dealership and really service experience of an Acura product you don't have to go to a crappy GM dealer and you are a buyer who doesn't know or doesn't care that it's a not a true accurate Honda product you'll probably really like this thing goodbye\n"