Acura Teases 2025 ADX Entry Lux SUV

Acura plans to grow its SUV line with an affordable new entry it’s calling the ADX. Here’s what we know.

The first of the Japanese luxury brands has been rejigging its line-up over the last several years, introducing new models, like the Integra, while updating its existing line-up, including the flagship MDX. But it’s also looking to fill in some of what automotive marketers like to call “white space,” and that’s where the ADX will fit in.

Set to debut “later this fell,” the 2025 Acura ADX will take on a growing assortment of what you might call “entry-lux” crossovers, such as the BMW X1, Audi Q3 and Lexus UX.

“The all-new Acura ADX is another exciting model positioned at the gateway of our lineup, attracting a new generation of buyers to the Acura brand,” Mike Langel, assistant vice president of Acura National Sales, said in a statement released Wednesday. “When our new Acura ADX arrives in dealer showrooms, it will strengthen an exceptional lineup of premium SUVs that already includes the popular RDX, best-selling MDX and all-electric ZDX.”

What we know

The Acura ADX will slot in under the brand’s current base SUV, the RDX. If the competition offers any indication, we can expect to see the new Japanese crossover start somewhere in the high-$30,000 range.

Fitting its segment, it won’t be a stripped down model selling on price alone. In its release, Acura noted, it will feature an “upscale, feature-rich interior, including available features like a panoramic moonroof, ventilated front seats and a powerful Bang & Olufsen audio system.”

It also should deliver reasonable performance, with a turbocharged powertrain. While the automaker didn’t offer any details, ADX could borrow the 1.5-liter turbo-4 offered in the Civic Si. That package delivers a reasonably peppy 200 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque.

Questions, questions, questions?

The Civic Si is offered solely with a manual transmission – part of a dying breed. We know that Acura isn’t averse to stick shifts; it offers one in the Integra Type S. But whether it would go that route with a crossover seems highly unlikely, unless, that is, if it were to offer a performance package, like the Type S.

Considering the brand’s increasing emphasis on performance, a Type S package wouldn’t seem entirely out of the question. If so, it might borrow the 2.0-liter turbo-four offered in the Integra Tupe S which puts out a much more impressive 320 hp.

It’s possible that the ADX could mimic the Integra which is offered only in a front-wheel-drive configuration. Considering where the SUV market is going these days, however, it seems quite certain that the Acura ADX will offer a version of the brand’s well-reviewed Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive, or SH-AWD, technology.

Among the other questions: will the Acura ADX use the underpinnings of the Civic or Honda’s own entry SUV, the HR-V?

More Acura News

• First Drive; 2024 Acura ZDX Type S
• Acura HRC Prototype Takes Integra Type S to New Levels
  
• Acura Updates RDX for 2025

Rebuilding Acura

Acura was the very first Japanese luxury brand, launched in 1986 with two models: Integra and Legend.

While it scored some hits early on the brand later seemed to lose direction, especially as two competing Japanese luxury brands – Toyota’s Lexus and Nissan’s Infiniti – came onto the scene. Analysts fault Acura for making some ill-conceived product moves, compounded by questionable marketing decisions.

While it regained some momentum with the addition of the Integra last year, along with the updates of models like the RDX and MDX, it has stumbled again in 2024, volume down 12.1% for the first nine months of this year.

Based on current market trends, adding a compact luxury SUV like the ADX could give Acura another much-needed boost. Based on what Acura said in its teaser release we expect to see the new model make its formal debut at next month’s Los Angeles Auto Show.