Acura MDX Sport Hybrid – full details of 321 hp SUV

A year after the facelifted Acura MDX was unveiled in New York, Honda’s luxury offshoot has finally revealed full details of the top-of-the-range Sport Hybrid variant. As the name suggests, the premium SUV uses Honda’s three-motor Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) system that can also be found on the NSX and the RLX/Honda Legend.

The hybrid powertrain starts with a 3.0 litre naturally-aspirated SOHC i-VTEC V6 with automatic engine start/stop, producing 257 hp at 6,300 rpm and 296 Nm at 5,000 rpm. The mill is coupled to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, with an electric motor sandwiched in between to provide an instant performance boost and to act as a replacement for a torque converter.

At the rear sits a Twin Motor Unit (TMU) – just like the one at the front of the NSX – which can provide positive or negative torque to each rear wheel to provide proper torque vectoring. All in all, the MDX Sport Hybrid produces a total system output of 321 hp and 329 Nm.

Despite being 31 hp more powerful than the non-hybrid 3.5 litre V6 model – making it Acura’s most powerful SUV yet – its EPA combined fuel consumption figure of 8.7 litres per 100 km betters the latter by 2.5 litres per 100 km. Drivers can choose between four drive modes, including Comfort, Normal, Sport and Sport+, to alter the performance characteristics of the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system accordingly.

Safety-wise, all MDX models get the AcuraWatch (i.e. Honda Sensing) suite of driver assists, including Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Lane Keeping Assist (LKAS), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with low-speed follow and Road Departure Mitigation (RDM).

Also standard is a rear view camera, while the range-topping model gains blind spot detection, front and rear parking sensors, Rear Cross Traffic Monitor and a new Auto High Beam.

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