- The new Honda Series 0 platform launches this year, with a new software experience, AI assistant and electrical architecture developed by Honda.
- The Acura RSX and Honda 0 Series SUV will launch in 2026 as scheduled, but the saloon has been postponed to 2027.
- Honda is late in developing electric vehicles, so the company has to get these cars right.
The Honda 0 Series Saloon has been delayed until 2027, the company confirmed to InsideEVs on Wednesday.
Honda initially said it would launch three models on its new “0-Series” platform this year: acura RSX, the Honda 0 Series SUV and Honda 0 Series Saloon. Two of them are on track. But after a year of regulatory changes, tariffs and a declining tax credit, Honda has pushed back the schedule a bit.
The RSX will arrive first in the “second half of 2026,” American Honda assistant vice president of communications Jessica Feeney told reporters. It confirmed that the Honda 0 Series SUV will arrive later in 2026, with the 0 Series saloon pushed “to ’27”.
The 2027 Acura RSX will be the first 0 Series model to arrive, sometime in the second half of this year. So far, Acura has only said it will have dual-motor all-wheel drive, a 0-60 time of about 4 seconds, a range of more than 300 miles and a wishbone front suspension.
Photo by: Acura
A company spokesman said that Honda shared news of this delay with journalists during the Japanese Mobility Expo, but the news was not widely circulated. Honda’s landing page for the 0 Series still says that “production models” of the SUV and sedan will arrive in 2026, so the company hasn’t really announced that delay.
It’s hard to blame Honda. The company will be among the last automakers to launch a homegrown long-range electric vehicle in the U.S., and it has had some false starts on the road to going electric, including the already-disqualified Acura ZDX. but Honda buyers are clearly open to electric vehicles; The GM-made Prologue is selling wellThe model designed by Honda itself should be more suitable for its customers.
The Honda 0 SUV is likely to be the most important and popular model of the 0 Series, targeting the heart of the compact crossover segment.
Photo by: InsideEVs
For now, though, there’s little information to go off. We know that the Series 0 platform will be 800V capable, but it doesn’t appear that early vehicles will use 800V architectures.
We know that they will have a completely new API, Asimo OS, With the new artificial intelligence assistant. But Honda has so far struggled with in-car software, and hasn’t shown much about how ASIMO will work, or what it will be capable of. It’s too early to tell whether it will launch at the right price and position to succeed in today’s tough electric vehicle environment.
In addition, most automakers have struggled with bugs, quality issues, and design shortcomings in their first real EV projects. Honda has a reputation for building extremely reliable cars, so I’m interested to see if the company can avoid the initial issues we’ve seen in almost every competitor’s experience. If a small delay helps Honda avoid that, so much the better.
Frankly, it might also be smart to focus on SUVs first. An electric sedan is a long shot at the best of times. Launching a wild-looking sedan into the uncertain electric vehicle market of 2026 could be too risky, and there may be a slightly larger market for crossovers. Additionally, most companies will need to make ongoing changes or issue recalls on entirely new platforms, and polishing one product before launching the next is a smart approach. By late 2026 or early 2027, consumers may be less tolerant of bugs and growing pains, and will want the sedan to arrive fully prepared.
I’m sure Honda knows that. But this news comes as another in a long series of delays, revisions and reviews Relapses to Honda’s plans for electric cars. I hope that these are thoughtful adjustments by a company that understands the magnitude of this challenge. But after years of over-promising and under-delivering, Honda needs to deliver something real in 2026. It may not be a saloon, but I hope it’s something good.
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com
