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Acura replaces chief Accavitti with designer Ikeda

Acura is shaking up its senior leadership, as Honda ushers the current chief of its luxury division out the door and replaces him with a new one. Exiting stage left is Mike Accavitti, who held the reins at the premium automaker as its senior vice president and general manager of the Acura division. Taking his place will be Jon Ikeda, one of the Japanese automaker's most senior designers. Accavitti (pictured above at left) had been promoted to the job from his previous position as senior vice president of auto operations after Honda separated the Acura brand into its own division. He had previously served as a senior executive at Chrysler, rising up the ranks to run the Dodge brand, and joined Honda in 2011 as its chief marketing officer. At this point it remains unclear why Accavitti is leaving and where he might land, but Honda says he's leaving the company altogether. To replace Accavitti, Honda has named Jon Ikeda (pictured above at right), a veteran designer with the company. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, Ikeda has worked for Honda on both sides of the Pacific since 1989. He previous headed up the design and product planning divisions at Honda's American R&D operations, and was instrumental in creating an independent design office for the Acura brand, separate from Honda's. This isn't the first time we've seen Accavitti replaced in his role as a senior executive by a design veteran. After only four months at CEO of the Dodge brand, he was replaced by Ralph Gilles, who retained his role as senior vice president of design for the entire Chrysler group in parallel. Gilles was ultimately replaced as head of Dodge as well, but was recently promoted to serve as head of design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Related Video: Acura Announces Leadership Changes TORRANCE, Calif. July 27, 2015 – Acura today announced that Jon Ikeda has been promoted to Vice President and General Manager of the Acura Division of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. In this role, Ikeda will oversee all Acura brand activities including sales, marketing and parts and service. Ikeda was formerly Division Director of Auto Design at Honda R&D Americas, Inc. (HRA). He began his career at Honda in Japan in 1989, joining the advanced design studio in Tokyo, where he worked on the award-winning Honda FSX show car. After six years in Japan, he returned to Los Angeles in 1995, to continue his career at Honda R&D in Torrance, California.

Honda renews trademark for Acura CDX compact crossover

Honda recently renewed its U.S. trademark for the name "CDX," which the Japanese carmaker first applied for in 2015. Back then, observers expected the name to apply to an Acura version of the Honda HR-V, and they were right — but no one expected the CDX would go on sale only in China, in 2016. For the past two years, the U.S. auto media has speculated on whether the CDX will ever make it here. "(We) have our R&D guys looking into the possibility," group VP of Acura U.S. Jon Ikeda told Wards Auto last April about the CDX. However, he went on to note that it's not as simple as just shipping it over due to regulation differences between China and the United States. The trademark application doesn't mean a green light, but it shows Honda's at least leaving the door open to the prospect. The Chinese-market CDX is a Honda HR-V after a wardrobe change. The only engine option is the 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from the Civic, CR-V, and Accord, with 179 horsepower and 177 pound-feet (our HR-V uses a 1.8-liter four-cylinder with 141 hp and 127 lb-ft). The only transmission offered is an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Drivetrains can be had in front- or all-wheel drive. We wonder how much longer Honda can sit on the sidelines. The CDX doubled Acura's sales in China in one year. Acura sells more crossovers than sedans in the United States, and in the past two years that the CDX has been on sale in China, the compact crossover segment here has got more crowded and more popular. The Cadillac XT4 is imminent, and we could see the new Lexus UX compact crossover at the Geneva Motor Show. Really, an American-market Acura CDX can't come soon enough. Related Video: News Source: Bozi Tatarevic via Autoevolution Auto News Government/Legal Rumormill Acura Honda Crossover Luxury honda hr-v

Honda signs on as Pikes Peak sponsor, race participant

Honda plans to storm the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 30, entering ten cars in nine classes at the race to the sky, and signing on as a corporate sponsor. Part of the company's return to grassroots racing - if that's what you can call factory-backed efforts - the banners of Honda R&D and Honda North America will fly on these entries: a first-gen Acura NSX, an Acura TL SH-AWD, Honda CR-Z, Honda Fit EV, one CRF450R and two CRF250R motorcycles, a CBR1000RR motorcycle and a TRX450 ATV.
One more entry, details of which are to be announced later, will be driven by IndyCar pilot Simon Pagenaud of Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports. LoveFab (pictured above during practice last year) will be there with its new, NSX-based Enviate, but as a privateer entry.
Honda's been to the mountain before, with high-powered gear in 2012 and record-setting EVs in 1994 and 1999, but it's never made noise like this. Have a read of the press release below for more info.