When Acura revealed the 2023 Integra, it was a nostalgic ode to its past. It marks the end of an era, though, as it will reportedly be the last new internal combustion engine-powered vehicle the brand releases.
Automotive News reports that the 2023 Integra will be Acura‘s last new gasoline-powered model and it will be followed by its first fully electric vehicle in 2024. We have reached out to Acura for comment on this story and will update it when we hear back.
“Positioning the Integra is really an important thing, as a true gateway to the brand, and a worthy successor of the original Integra,” Emile Korkor, the assistant vice president of Acura national sales, told the outlet. “We are excited about what this latest generation is going to do for building a loyal customer base as we build toward electrification.”
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Replacing the more conservative ILX, Acura focused on making the Integra a higher-spec and higher-performance vehicle to create an appealing vehicle, not just to give it an appealing price tag. And, in December, Korkor told AN that the timing was not an accident.
“The benefit of returning to the Integra right now is that it’s going to help shepherd a new generation of customers and build loyalty as we move into a new era,” he said. “That new era is, of course, electrification.”
The brand will be pivoting towards electrification faster than Honda and will skip hybrids, transitioning instead directly to fully electric vehicles. Its first EV will be built on GM’s Ultium Platform. Both Acura and Honda will be building vehicles on the platform and after that, any new vehicles will also be electric.
According to Korkor, the Integra will not make the shift to EVs but “whoever purchases an Integra is going to be ready for the next generation, whatever iteration it might take.”
