It’s safe to say that the electric car market is a bit weird right now. From vanishing incentives to manufacturers pivoting away from all-electric plans to startups facing a harsh reality, a huge shake-up means we’re going to see some casualties. The latest EV to bow out early isn’t from some fledgling company that went public via SPAC, it’s from the engineering might of two global automotive giants. The Acura ZDX electric crossover has been discontinued after the shortest production run of any Acura model ever.
In case the Acura ZDX slipped under your radar, this midsize electric luxury crossover is part of a collaboration between Honda and GM. Essentially, it’s Acura’s take on a Cadillac Lyriq, sharing a wheelbase, powertrain options, and overall architecture with the popular Cadillac crossover. It’s an expensive proposition, and the $65,850 price of admission may be partially responsible for a certain degree of model year weirdness.
See, despite it being almost October of 2025, there is no 2025 ZDX. Instead, Acura is still exhausting its supply of 2024 model year EVs, with 202 brand new units listed for sale on Cars.com. Considering you can’t just stamp VINs using a previous year, this means that some electric crossovers on Acura lots are roughly a year old. That’s not a position anyone wants to be in.
Still, even throughout a largely slow sales year, questions lingered over whether the ZDX would get another run for 2026. While penalties for exceeding federal fleet emissions standards are dead, along with California’s EV mandate, the ripple effects of that on the agreement between GM and Honda hadn’t yet been seen. Well, it looks like an answer has arrived.
Car Dealership Guy News initially reported that “Acura has discontinued production of its ZDX electric SUV effective immediately, according to an internal memo obtained by CDG News.” As soon as we heard that, we knew we had to reach out to Acura for the full story, and here’s the brand’s official response:
To better align our product portfolio with the needs of our customers and market conditions, as well as our long-term strategic goals, we can confirm the Acura ZDX has ended production.
ZDX has played a valuable role for the Acura brand, and will provide a foundation we will build on next year with the arrival of the all-electric Acura RSX, which will be produced at the EV Hub in Ohio in the second half of 2026, as well as with hybrid-electric Acura models now in development.
Acura ZDX customers will continue to receive full product support through our dealer network, including service, parts, and warranty coverage.
While the discontinuation of the ZDX after just one model year is a bit surprising, future product plans mean that Acura’s first electric crossover is getting squeezed out. Not only is the incoming RSX crossover an in-house product, it’s also slated to occupy a smaller, more popular segment than the ZDX. Assuming the few hundred remaining ZDX crossovers in inventory sell out by the end of 2025, this does mean Acura will have a time gap between EV offerings, but it seems like a gap that the brand can afford.
Eerily, the last Acura to wear the ZDX badge wasn’t exactly a hot seller either. A crossover coupe based on the MDX was always a niche proposition, so it’s understandable that the original ZDX only yielded 6,119 U.S. sales over a four-model-year run. By comparison, the electric ZDX sold considerably better, shifting 18,911 units from the start of production in 2024 through August of 2025. Still, considering the bulk of those were leftover 2024 models sold this year, maybe it’s time to retire the ZDX nameplate if you’re superstitious or anything like that.
So, if you like GM’s Super Cruise hands-free highway-focused advanced driver assistance system, electric power, and Apple CarPlay, options fulfilling those three criteria are about to get slimmer. Once the 200-ish ZDX electric crossovers still on dealer lots are gone, they’re gone.
Top graphic image: Acura
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I believe the rule is that manufacturing of any given model year cannot span two January firsts. So if the 2024 ZDX was first made on 1/2/24, they can keep making them until 12/31/25, nearly two full years.
So, just because they are 2024 models doesn’t mean they were made last year.
I actually think this looks better than the Cadillac. If I had to choose, I would take the Acura.
We’ve had 2 Acuras (MDX / RL) and they are fantastic.
Just like the first gen ZDX, this will be a rare and fun car spotting opportunity in a couple decades.
I think history should be kinder to the original ZDX, for better or worse, the market has gone in the direction of that styling.
Even rarer after most of them rot into the ground thanks to modern GM manufacturing.
The interior looked nice. The price didn’t.
I was surprised they resurrected the ZDX moniker, because the original was even uglier than the Honda Crosstour.
I have a friend with a Chevy Equinox EV and it was very nice to ride in, and she loves driving it. I’m not sure I’ve even seen a Blazer EV.
Blazer EV is pretty cool looking, guy I work with has one and really likes it.
Good riddance, it should of just stayed the Lyriq. The writing was on the wall with GM curtailing operations at the Spring Hill, TN plant where they are made. Now I am just waiting for GM to kill production of the Blazer EV so the Prologue can finally die as well.
Every time I see a ZDX I’m reminded of the Jaguar E-type hearse in “Harold & Maude.”
Shame, it’s a good-looking vehicle. It’s hard to make sense of Honda spending so much in design and tooling only to market this low-volume model so briefly.
What the hell is going on with that rear c-pillar/panel mess? Sheesh.
“ZDX has played a valuable role for the Acura brand,”
Acura PR person, I don’t believe you.
If the role it played was truly valuable, then it would continue to be on sale into 2025 and beyond.
Check the tense: “has played” vs. “is playing.” PR person was speaking carefully.
Regardless, that person is still a liar.
Meanwhile, I see this story:
https://electrek.co/2025/09/23/honda-offering-over-20000-off-prologue-right-now/
Eh. Still not buying, but I’m not in the market right now.
Chevy and Kia also in the game, realizing it will be a lot harder to sell these vehicles after 9/30 without slashing even more off the price.
I just completed an EV purchase. The ZDX was immediately disqualified for the GM bones under pinning it, based on reputation. I’m not at all surprised. Also ZDX name wasn’t bringing anything to the table.
Interesting to disqualify the American EV pioneers from your EV buy list. I’ve heard the Equinox EV is very good.
Calling them them the EV pioneers is generous. The EV1 resembles an Equinox the same way a Detroit Electric resembles an EV1.
A neighbor has a Blazer now, hoping it would fair better than the Bolt EUV he traded in. So far it appears to be a mixed bag.
My Wife’s Cousin/BFF has one of these. She drives basically no miles other than shopping and local kiddo athletics and between the EV credit and the dealer incentives, I’m pretty sure that when the lease is up she will have driven the car for 3 yrs for free.
Sidenote: Last month my wife had to drive it and it took her around 15min to figure out how to put it in drive.
Why does every EV seem to be a science project in terms of controls? We figured out automotive ergonomics decades ago. But they seem to want to re-invent the wheel.
They were talking about this on this weeks “Clutch Culture” podcast. Why isn’t there a mandated standard for certain operations like transmission, lights, indicators, etc. Why are manufacturers just allowed to go crazy with designs and placement?
Agreed. Even if it would probably outlaw one of my personal favorite controls, the BMW “monostable” column stalk as being too different from the norm. Once in a while a science experiment really is better. But not very often.
From edmunds there is a ’24 prologue near East St Louis (my work’s internet hub must be there, today) 24K miles for $23K.
after reading few articles and comments, I look back and…. I see my 1988 E28 528e parked on my driveway.no screens, no batteries to charge, no apple car play, no lease, no depreciation. and it has everything i need from the car: AC, power windows and seats, cruise control. and the thing is absolutely reliable and with M20 super eta engine it will probably outlive me. oh yeah and insurance is $12/month
And one of the best Hoffmeister kinks.
But it does have a battery to charge…
“ no batteries to charge”
Unless of course it develops an electrical issue..
They are lovely cars, my stepfather then mother drove an ’83 528e for more than 20 years from new – then a buddy of mine bought it and drove it another five years, and since he sold it I’ve seen it around town a couple times. I’ve had a pair of ’86 535i’s – they crank up the fun factor quite a bit.
But my ’11 328i has actually been FAR more reliable while needing a lot less scheduled maintenance compared to the first 15 years of that car (similar low miles too). I still have all the maintenance/repair records for it – looks like a phone book. While being massively faster, using less fuel, and polluting a whole lot less. And being rather more resistant to the tinworm. My car is nearly as simple being a 6spd, RWD car with no iDrive or anything. The good old days weren’t THAT good – but I do think the automotive shark has been well and truly jumped in the past decade.
Nice. same, my 1997 E39 528i is also far from reliable, I have gone through all standard E39 issues
I am perfectly OK with fixing stuff if the car is fundamentally durable and makes me smile when I drive it. Life is too short to drive boring dreck that is “reliable”. My feeling is that today all the “known issues” are easy to find out about. Just fix them all before they cause a problem and enjoy the thing. Which is why my BMW had the oil filter housing gasket and serp belt tensioner replaced BEFORE they became issues. Just did both as part of it’s last major service. I’ll also replace the water pump at 100K – though at my current rate of mileage accumulation that will be in rougly 2050 and I will be in my 80s, so will likely pay somebody to do it.
And I find that anytime I am in a stereotypical Toyota or whatever that has “needed nothing” in 200K that the owner has either conveniently forgotten about a billion things that have been fixed, or the car is fundamentally broken in myriad ways and they just ignore it.
went to about 500miles trip last Friday and on the way home my E28 locked the clutch on AC, blew a fuse and jammed the pulley making a dying squirrel-like sound. I jinxed it 🙂
Yesterday my 128i puked a rear wheel speed sensor and lit the dash up like a Christmas tree. Must be going around. Sigh.
sorry but this makes me feel better. Hope your fix is just the sensor and good luck with it!
No worries at all – I though the same when I read your post. Whipped out the code reader as soon as it happened. $30 and 15 minutes to install it. They seem to have a 15 year lifespan, this is the second one this year (lost a front one six months ago), and I bet the other two go within the next year. Though since I bought all three remaining ones, maybe that guarantees the other two will last until the heat death of the universe. 🙂
yes, once you have a spare the original never fails.
Seeing as Honda publicly cut ties with GM almost two years ago to the date, it’s not too surprising.
The Prologue was meant to sell only enough to get people in the Honda EV ecosystem before they release their real in-house EV.
Yes, the Prologue is basically a re-badged Equinox EV. That made the ZDX a copy of a copy with a higher price-tag. Fooled no one.
But it didn’t cost Acura much to have it in the lineup. Maybe the dealers, but not corporate.
***Prologue is a rebadged Blazer EV, not Equinox.
Doh!
I’ve seen several on the road, they do look pretty good, but haven’t been inside or driven one.
Using DMX in the commercials was just weird. X Gon’ Give It To Ya? Nope, y’all gon’ make me lose my mind.
A friend who is a long time owner of Acuras purchased a ZDX and within only a few weeks hated it. Besides the teething issues which kept it in the shop days after purchase, they never felt it was an Acura product. The drivetrain did not feel right and the design and overall fit and finish of the interior, they felt, was a lesser standard than the one they turned in. Its one thing to rebadge a car when its a Honda, but luxury buyers expect more.
Were they aware it wasn’t an Acura product?
Well it is a Honda product. /s
hahah!
Some of Acura’s product lineup decisions are baffling to me. Something in me wants to like Acura as a company, although I’ve never personally owned one. This article was part of my twice yearly reminder that they exist, so I went over to their webpage, clicked on the “Vehicles Tab” and was greeted by 6 vehicles- two cars, the soon to be gone ZDX, and three of the most interchangeable/indistinguishable grey crossovers ever.
Seriously- try this, go to the Acura page, look at the three crossovers in the right column and use your hand to cover the names and prices. Which one is which? you have an ADX, an RDX, and an MDX. What do these names mean? What’s the difference between “A”, “R”, and “M”? It doesn’t appear to correlate with size or performance- and now the ZDX is leaving so that the RSX may return. How on earth is the general car buying public supposed to care, or even be able to distinguish between these things??
I know the scourge of alphanumeric nonsense car names is nothing new, and definitely not exclusive to Acura, but it feels somehow especially bad here to me.
To be fair, I’ve always found the TLX to be one of the more handsome sedans on the market ever since it came out. The Integra is interesting, and I think the ZDX is one of the better looking electric crossovers, but their lineup of “mainstream” crossovers is doing them no favors with regards to initial impressions.
My (now) ex-wife and I replaced her ’15 X5 with an ’18 MDX and it was a much better car to drive and put lots of miles on. The BMW was just a PITA. Or should I say Payne Diaz. (Props for that username, Bjorn!)
She has since replaced it with a ’23 Lincoln Aviator. Which she says she likes even better. I probably wouldn’t have. But I haven’t driven it. She’s a dentist, so I guess she can afford to have huge car payments in perpetuity. And fuel bills.
I’m afraid Acura has lost their way. I’ve Uber/Lyft ridden in some relatively new Accords and they’re really not a lot nicer than my ’17 EX. I don’t think I’ll be replacing it until I have to.
More than once while waiting at a red light, I’ll see a Chevy SUV across the way, and have no idea what model it is, until it passes by. Is this the identity car makers want today?
I was really disappointed in the new ZDX. It’s so bland compared to the original and doesn’t stand out at all from all the other suv’s out there. You knew when you saw the first one that it was something different. I know it was polarizing but I liked them a lot. I keep checking them out on autotrader, i just hear they don’t get very good gas mileage.
Doug DeMuro is going to have a field day with this on their podcast LOL.