Sony & Honda Announces Their New EV Brand Afeela

Sony and Honda showcased a brand-new electric vehicle prototype dubbed Afeela during Sony's presentation at CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The brand will be on the joint venture's first electric vehicle that will be sold in North America in 2026.

The CEO of Sony Honda Mobility, Yasuhide Mizuno, claimed the vehicle would draw on Sony's expertise in artificial intelligence, entertainment, virtual reality, and augmented reality to deliver a distinctive EV.

The new EV will be priced to rival models from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, and Audi as well as other luxury automakers. According to Sony, its software will likely offer subscription services, meaning car owners will probably have to pay a monthly charge to access particular functions.

Three years ago, Sony surprised CES spectators by introducing the elegant Vision-S concept automobile. The Vision-S was designed to show off what a Sony car may look like, with pillar-to-pillar multimedia screens and a focus on music and entertainment. Which, it reassured everyone, was not what it intended to do.

A total of over 40 sensors, radar, ultrasonic, including cameras, and lidar, will be integrated into the outside of the vehicle to improve its capacity for object detection and self-driving. Afeela will make an effort to exemplify the three key concepts of autonomy, augmentation, and affinity, claims Mizuno.

In other words, Sony views automobiles, and electric vehicles in particular, as an essential platform for the development of its tech and entertainment offerings.

The concept that Sony first introduced at CES three years ago was not much like the prototype that was revealed on stage. Instead, it was a sedan with a high-gloss black roof, a light bar across the front, and an enclosed grille. Some of the more intriguing exterior elements included black hubcaps and a light accent over the wheel wells. The Afeela prototype was compared by a number of onlookers as a cross between the Porsche 911 and the Lucid Air.

Early in 2022, rumours got that Sony and Honda were forming a joint company specifically for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing electric automobiles. The Sony-Honda vehicles will be manufactured at one of Honda's 12 US plants, though no information regarding the anticipated volume has been released. In 2026, the US will be the first market to sell EVs, followed by Japan and Europe. Preorders are expected to begin in 2025.