Update March 15: As it turns out, the images of the Acura sedan you see here may have been published by the patent office this month, but they aren’t new. An Acura spokesperson confirmed to Carscoops that the designs are actually a few years old and depict an internal concept car that has never been seen before, not a specific model slated for production.
“Our Acura design teams occasionally submit design concepts for patent protection as part of a standard design process for potential future products,” the spokesperson told us. “The design patent images in question are several years old and relate to a concept model that will not come to market.”
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Original story follows below.
Was anyone else here disappointed that the 2024 ZDX electric SUV’s face looked so much blander than the one on the 2022 Precision EV Concept that previewed it? Then hang in there, because that muggie is coming, as these fresh patent images of a new Acura sedan confirm.
The images we found show what appears to be a next-generation Acura TLX (or a near-production concept of it), the four-door sedan that straddles the divide between compact and midsize. And judging by what we see here, the new car will straddle the divide between handsome and butt ugly.
Okay, we’ll reserve judgement until we see some real images of real prototypes, but let’s just say we hope that front overhang isn’t to scale or that if it is, Acura better be justifying it by slotting an inline 12 under the hood. There’s definitely space for it.
Related: 2024 Acura TLX Gets A Nose Job, Digital Cluster And Extra Kit
As we mentioned before, this sedan’s face looks very much like the Precision EV Concept’s and features a grille that’s integrated into the bumper, and presumably body color, a bit like a Ferrari Roma’s. It doesn’t look like there’s a ton of grille area for cool air to pass through, which might suggest we’re looking at an EV – if it wasn’t for the presence of two pairs of exhaust tailpipes poking through the dark plastic section of the rear bumper.
The front headlights appear to be connected by a large, V-shaped light bar, and they’re mirrored at the back, where the lack of shutlines visible in the patent images leaves us unsure whether we’re looking at a liftback sedan (which seems plausible, given market trends) or a four-door with a conventional trunk (like the current car).
Likewise, it’s best not to put too much store into the fact that there are no door handles visible, and be content instead to ponder the handsome kink in the waistline that rises to meet the D-pillar so much more elegantly than the one in today’s TLX.
The existing TLX isn’t hugely old, having been launched in May 2020 and put on sale that fall, so we’re not going to be seeing this replacement in the next few months. But that 2021 TLX was previewed by a Type S concept in 2019, so logic suggests Acura could show a near-production ready concept of this new car in 2025 prior to it hitting the market, likely towards the end of the same year or in early 2026.