2023 Ford Maverick Tremor First Look: Our Mini-Truck Desire Quakes

ford f-150-lightning Full OverviewProsEffortless accelerationImpressive handlingAuthoritative one-pedal driving ConsBumps and potholes shake the cabinCharging times are unpredictableLong-distance towing is impractical Lightning-Quick ReflexesBig-Truck VibesYour Range May VaryModernizing the Pickup TruckThe EV Has ArrivedLooks good! More details?2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum Specifications Show All

No Acura today is electric, though a few are electrified—namely the NSX hybrid supercar, which is on its way out the door. It will most likely be replaced by an all-electric sports car in the future, but what might that car and every other electric Acura look like? The new Acura Precision EV concept SUV is the closest thing to a preview, at least until concepts previewing individual electric Acuras begin cropping up in the coming years.It Kinda, Sorta Previews the GM-Based Acura EV SUVWhile it'd be easy to jump to the conclusion that this Precision EV concept will become the promised electric Acura SUV that'll share its GM-sourced Ultium architecture with the forthcoming Honda Prologue, not so fast. Honda is known for showing "concepts" that are nearly production-ready examples of upcoming models; this isn't quite one of those direct snapshots. Inasmuch the Precision EV previews that model, it does so tangentially, just as it previews all future Acura EVs. Per the automaker, "The Acura Precision EV Concept is a design study that will shape the direction of future Acura products in the electrified era including our first all-electric SUV in 2024." What Acura is showing here instead is, in a nutshell, how it plans to tackle "the grille issue" that's common among established automakers attempting to adapt their current design languages to electric cars. For the past century or so, car designers have leveraged grille shapes, slats, and the like (along with other key components such as headlights) to create the literal faces of different car brands. Every car with an engine requires an opening somewhere to shovel air over and into said engine, after all. Electric cars, meanwhile, still need cooling airflow over components, but that air needn't enter explicitly through the vehicle's nose. A more closed-off schnoz, of course, aids range-conscious engineers in their quest for slipperier aerodynamics, while erasing a styling focal point from designers' arsenal.Acura Makes Light Work of the GrilleThe solution Acura's designers have come up with for that pesky grille issue? Lights! The Precision EV concept generally hews to Acura's current design theme, with slim headlights, clean surfacing, and a sporty stance—but where the pentagonal grille on today's Integra, MDX, RDX, and TLX lives there is… a pentagonal area. (Those vehicles, by the way, were all previewed by the last Precision concept from 2016.) This familiar outline is closed off, though—and rather than utilizing a black-plastic dummy grille like BMW employs on its iX SUV and i4 hatchback, Acura stuffs the Precision EV's pentagonal snoot with LEDs. Acura dubs it a "theatrical lighting approach" using "particle glitch" styled lighting.Essentially, color-shifting fragments form the general shape of Acura's diamond pentagonal grille, as well as the broad-strokes outlines of various internal-combustion-vehicle-standard addenda such as bumper intakes and other styling cues. It's an interesting way of delineating that this smooth-surfaced, squinty eyed SUV is, in fact, an Acura. After all, the overall profile of the vehicle is otherwise fairly standard stuff; heck, this could be the next-generation MDX family SUV, so conventional is its shape. The 23-inch wheels might be a stretch, though the eventual production Acura EV SUV does share its Ultium platform with GM, which offers its similarly sized products with fairly huge rims, so don't count those out.The RestAcura isn't talking much about the concept's powertrain—other than to say it is, theoretically, electric—but again, that's not really the point of this styling exercise. In keeping with the general theme of previewing the interactive and visual aspects of future Acuras, the automaker does outline two drive modes of sorts: Instinctive Drive and Spiritual Lounge. The former bathes the cabin with red ambient lighting, sportier instrumentation on the dashboard, and, presumably, primes the electric powertrain for maximum attack. The Spiritual Lounge deal aims for a calming vibe, delivering "soothing scents and restful 'under water' animated projection." The cabin is fanciful enough to support those mood-like modes, what with its steering yoke, floating central display, and copious ambient lighting. Overall the Precision EV concept's precise lighting blends well with Acura's athletic styling, which bodes well for the brand's evolution to an electrified future lineup. Unlike the steering yoke and translucent screens inside, the exterior lighting array looks vaguely production-feasible. Just takes some precision manufacturing, of course…

Honda's feistiest front-driver—well, its feistiest car, period—is getting a whole lot spicier for 2023. We've already seen the latest Honda Civic Type R in all its winged, flared glory. The one thing Honda fans have been waiting for since the 2023 Civic Type R debuted in Los Angeles in July? This hottest of hatches' power output. Just over one month and a leaked internal Honda presentation slide suggesting a solid power gain later, we have the official horsepower and torque figures for the U.S. market.Power HourThe 2023 Honda Civic Type R's updated K20C1 turbocharged 2.0-liter I-4 engine will produce 315 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque. That hp figure in particular might seem like a letdown, but it's a solid 9 hp gain and right on par with what we predicted for this market based on the leaked Honda information. Torque is up even bigger time, by 15 lb-ft. The new Type R's 315 hp peaks at the same 6,500 rpm as the old model's 306 hp, while its torque peak lands 100 rpm later, at 2,600 rpm, and only sticks around through 4,000 rpm (compared to 4,500 rpm).Honda extracted those extra ponies and twists via a new turbocharger with a fresh turbine blade and inlet designs, as well as a new exhaust setup with an active flap for controlling the Civic Type R's volume at higher revs. A larger grille opening and a bigger cooling fan play supporting roles, helping ensure the engine's breathing needs are met while keeping temperatures in check.A revised six-speed manual transmission and a lighter flywheel back up the K20C1, and Honda fits a more rigid shift lever and tightened up the shift gates, too. We had no complaints about the previous Type R's shift quality, so this sounds like pure gravy. To top it all off, Honda also improved the automated rev-matching function that auto-blips the throttle to smooth out shifts by matching the engine speed to road speed. We're assuming that, as before, this widget can be turned off so that fancy footwork fans can do their own throttle-blipping.The Competition Lurks... Provided the Civic Type R's weight is kept in check—i.e, it weighs in within a hundred pounds or so of the last one, despite the new hatchback's larger size—performance from the 2023 Civic Type R should improve. By exactly how much is a detail that will need to wait for our test track results. But, to recap, the old 306-hp Civic Type Rs we tested reached 60 mph in 5.2 seconds to 5.4 seconds.A proper comparison test with its key competitors also must wait until we actually have a Type R in our possession for a test. In the meantime, we can compare its 315 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque with its immediate competitors. Those are the 2023 Toyota GR Corolla (300 hp, 273 lb-ft, with the Morizo Edition pumping out 295 lb-ft); the 2022 Hyundai Elantra N (276 hp, 289 lb-ft); and the 2022 Volkswagen Golf R (315 hp, 295 lb-ft). Yes, factoring in torque, this means the Civic Type R is now not only the most powerful Honda available, but also tops among its competitive set.