Acura rebuilt the NSX in Ohio as a hybrid supercar, then killed it again

The original Acura NSX, built in Japan from 1990 to 2005, was what an Edmunds editor called "a Ferrari-type car for way less than Ferrari-type money" — its US sales peaked at 1,940 cars in 1991. After the model died in 2005, the name sat idle as Acura's showroom drifted downmarket.

In January 2012 at the Detroit auto show, Honda president and CEO Takanobu Ito unveiled the NSX concept and announced the supercar would be developed in the United States and built at a new central Ohio plant: "The U.S. will be the strong hub of our global business for the Acura brand." The new NSX would carry an all-wheel-drive hybrid system, and Honda took no government aid for the plant.

The second-generation NSX went on sale in 2016, hand-assembled at the Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio — at launch the only supercar actually made in the United States. It also moonlighted as a successful race car in IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but the American supercar market hardened around it, with machines like the mid-engine Corvette Z06 undercutting its proposition.

In 2021 Acura announced the 600-horsepower NSX Type S as the finale: all 350 units sold out within 24 hours. The last car, a matte Gotham Gray Type S, left the line on 16 November 2022, and the plant switched to a 300-unit TLX Type S PMC Edition. Acura vice president Jon Ikeda kept the door open: "We make an NSX when there's something we want to say... There's gonna be another one."

The 600-hp farewell Type S sold out in 24 hours and the car became an IMSA race winner — yet Acura built just 350 final units before ending production.

Acura needed its credibility halo back, and Ito explicitly tied the revival to making America the hub of Acura's global business.

Engineering the hybrid all-wheel-drive system in Ohio made the supercar a technology statement for the whole lineup rather than a side project.

Hand assembly at a dedicated low-volume centre kept the investment proportionate to the niche's realistic sales.

Scarcity was deliberate: capping the finale at 350 cars sold out the run in a day and protected the name's collectible value.

A halo car can reboot a brand's story but not necessarily its showroom: revive an icon only if you can accept the small volumes it realistically earns.

Production of the second-generation NSX ended on 16 November 2022 after six years, with the Performance Manufacturing Center handed over to special-edition TLX builds. The revived NSX never approached the original's volumes, but it re-established Acura's performance credentials that later carried into the Type S performance line and the 2021 Integra revival, and Acura publicly insists a third-generation, electrified NSX remains a matter of when, not if.