Honda CEO: Acura’s direction will be ‘smart premium,’ not top tier

2011 Acura ZDX

Acura has no V8 engine, no halo sports car and is no where close becoming a top tier luxury brand – and it looks like things are going to stay that way.

In an interview with Automotive News, Honda Motor CEO Takanobu Ito said that there are a lot of discussions going on inside the company about Acura and why way it should be going. He said that executives have so far decided that the brand’s “direction should be smart premium, not top tier.”

“Among the technologies we have at Honda, we must apply those that symbolize our advanced performance technology and environmental technology,” Ito said. “We call this ‘smart.’ We agreed that smart premium is what we should be targeting with Acura, not the upper-segment vehicles such as Lexus orĀ Mercedes-Benz. We must apply advanced technologies which make our vehicle more fun to drive, achieve a more comfortable drive and high environmental performance.”

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)