The latest member of the 2017 Acura MDX crossover family, the MDX Sport Hybrid, will go on sale this spring carrying a starting price of $69,990.
With this announcement, the MDX is the third Acura model to gain a variant of the brand's three-motor hybrid powertrain, following the NSX sports car and the practically-invisible RLX luxury sedan. To the MDX, that arrangement adds 31 horsepower and a 1.7 L/100 improvement in combined (city and highway) fuel consumption.
That means a total of 321 hp and an unspecified amount of "instant" torque from a 3.0L gasoline V6 working with one electric motor built into a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and two more at the rear axle; the engine itself makes 257 hp and 218 lb-ft. Acura claims fuel consumption estimates of 9.1/9.0 L/100 km (city/highway).
Acura says those two rear motors are key to the hybrid MDX's Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD): Under acceleration, the car can deliver extra power to the outside rear wheel and simutaneously apply regenerative braking to the inside rear wheel to improve cornering.
The manufacturer hasn't yet published a complete list of the MDX Sport Hybrid's standard features, but its safety suite matches that of the gasoline Elite model to include expected items like collision mitigation braking, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, road departure mitigation, surround-view camera and blind spot and cross traffic monitors. The Sport Hybrid's price is about $1,700 more than that for the gas-only Elite model, a surprisingly narrow gap that we suspect may be due to the exclusion of some luxury items. We've reached out to Acura Canada for a full list of the Sport Hybrid's list of standard features.
You may also like
