Overall image in the marketplace and street status have often been one of the roadblocks for Japanese luxury brands to expand and get their name known out there. With Lexus on its way to build an image and status and Infiniti right behind Lexus, Acura is having a hard time with its own push to build an image and status on the street. Thus, it's making a push to boost its image and achieve Tier 1 luxury automaker status, but in a unique and different way than the others. As most automakers use big powerful engines making 400+ hp as luxury image attention grabbers, Acura is looking in the opposite direction, instead of power, it will focus hard on fuel economy to differentiate itself in the very competitive luxury car market.
"Hitting the 2016 CAFE requirements is going to be hard," said John Watts, senior manger of Acura product planning. "We are betting more in the fuel economy direction."
For many many years, automakers have been battling it out for horsepower and engine output, from luxury cars that produced around 200-300hp 10 years ago, now produce 500-600 hp. But lately a balance of power and economy seems to be drawing in crowds and as the economy is stabilizing and fuel prices set to rise, it's only sensible that the balance will continue for some time. Acura's focus on fuel economy has eliminated the V8 engine that was originally developed to be featured in the Acura RL and MDX and has cancelled a plan to move the RL from SH-AWD to a rear-wheel-drive platform. Instead of high output engines, we are likely to see Acura adopt hybrid technology, an option Watts said that the company is studying.