Acura’s future design direction has been laid out with the gorgeous Nexera Vision Concept, which has been unveiled at Monterey Car Week – complete with head- and tail-lights that glow through the bodywork and disappear when they’re not being used. While the supercar won’t enter production, some of its elements will make it into models like the next-generation RDX Hybrid.

Smooth is one of the first words that comes to mind when you see the Nexera. Muscular is another. It combines a very clean, uncluttered look with an active spoiler that retreats seamlessly into the bodywork when it’s not deployed, and the flared wheel arches help give the car a powerful, aggressive stance.

Man in a dark shirt stands beside a white futuristic sports car with upward-opening doors inside a bright showroom or hangar.
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Clad in Matte Titanium paint, the Nexera sports dramatic butterfly doors, with the angle of the sloping windscreen melding straight into the line of the front end. It also gets the first centre-lock wheels seen on an Acura, with carbon-ceramic brakes behind the 22-inch rims, hinting at high-performance credentials, although no power or drivetrain specs have been released. For what it’s worth, there isn’t a visible exhaust pipe on the car, and Car and Driver saw it move slowly under electric power.

The lighting package is a real eye-opener, to put it mildly. You’d be forgiven for thinking the car has no illumination at all until suddenly, the Acura logo seems to magically emerge at the rear as the head- and tail-lights – in the shape of an A – glow through the bodywork. The brand calls it “phantom lighting” and says it gives the coupe “uninterrupted sculpted surfacing”. It also makes you think you’re watching an AI video at first.

In addition to that retractable rear spoiler, the Nexera gets a large rear diffuser, plus vents behind the front wheels and a forged carbon aero-channel fascia up front. Forged carbon has also been used on the rocker panels, inner door structures and rear diffuser. 

Rear view of a dark, high-performance car with a central red accent line and spoiler highlights.
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The interior has been stripped back with the aim of “eliminating distractions”, according to Acura, and it makes extensive use of recycled materials. The cockpit features aluminium, Alcantara and what the brand calls CircuLeather, all sourced from “post-consumer” materials.

There’s one touchscreen and a very clean and tidy dashboard, while the low-slung seats are fixed to the floor, meaning the steering wheel and pedals move to accommodate the driver. Pink accents stand out amid all the black and grey, showing up in ambient lighting at the bottom of the seats and in the luggage tray. If you’re wondering, that tray (pictured in the gallery) holds cubes that represent the materials used in the car.

It’s a pity a car this good-looking will likely never be seen in traffic, but at least we can hope upcoming NSX and Integra models take their cues from the Nexera’s new design language.