Six years after Sony first announced its automotive ambitions, everything is looking a lot more concrete. Production of the Afeela 1, the electric sedan that has been developed by Sony Honda Mobility, is already underway in Ohio. Deliveries will begin later this year in California, expanding to Arizona and Japan in 2027. And last night, on the eve of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, it even showed off a crossover version.
“The way we are fusing diverse technologies to deliver a completely novel mobility experience is not limited to a single model type,” said Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno.
We first saw a Sony electric vehicle back at CES in 2020 when the consumer electronics company showed off the Vision-S, telling the world it was mostly just a showcase for things like sensors and infotainment. Then the world caught a hot case of electric vehicle fever. Tesla’s stock price went vertical, and the auto industry focused on EV optimism, even as a pandemic rewrote everyone’s working rules.
That optimism feels very thin on the ground here in the United States of late, but it continues apace in the rest of the world. And in China particularly, we’re seeing how tech companies can make highly competitive EVs with infotainment experiences that, I’m told, far outstrip anything we’re seeing here from more traditional OEMs.
The Afeela 1 is already going into production in East Liberty, Ohio. Credit: Sony Honda Mobility
So it makes sense that Sony decided to pursue the idea enough to form a joint venture with Honda in 2022, surprising those of us who expected the tech company to contract with Magna, which helped on the development of the Vision-S. At that year’s CES, Sony also showed an SUV version of the Vision-S.