Sony and Honda’s joint mobility enterprise introduced a brand new automobile model, Afeela, for the corporate’s first electrical automotive, set to go on sale in North America in 2026. A prototype was unveiled throughout Sony’s presentation at CES in Las Vegas Wednesday.

Much continues to be unknown concerning the new model, however Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno mentioned the automotive would leverage Sony’s expertise with AI, digital actuality, and augmented actuality to current a singular EV.

“Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility and where mobility can detect and understand people and society by utilizing sensing and AI technologies,” Mizuno mentioned.

The new EV shall be priced to compete with different premium automakers, like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, and Audi. Sony has mentioned it expects its software program to supply subscription providers, so automobile house owners will seemingly need to pay a month-to-month price to be able to entry sure options.

It was three years in the past when Sony surprised attendees at CES by rolling out a smooth idea sedan known as the Vision-S. With its pillar-to-pillar infotainment screens and an emphasis on (what else?) music and leisure, the Vision-S was imagined to showcase what it might appear like if Sony truly made a automotive. Which it assured everybody it had no intention of doing. 

Well, it turned out that wasn’t totally true. In early 2022, information bought out that Sony was making a three way partnership with Honda with the specific goal of mass producing and promoting electrical automobiles. The Sony-Honda automobiles will go into manufacturing at one among Honda’s 12 services within the US, although no particulars have been shared on deliberate quantity. The EV shall be offered first within the US in 2026, after which Japan and Europe at a later date. Preorders are mentioned to open in 2025. 

Among a few of the concepts which have been floated for the Honda-Sony automotive was a totally built-in PS5 for gaming and leisure. According to Yasuhide Mizuno, chair of Sony Honda Mobility and senior managing officer of Honda, the plan was to “develop a car as hardware that will cater to the entertainment and network we would like to offer,” he mentioned in an interview late final 12 months. 

In different phrases, Sony sees automobiles — and EVs specifically — as an important platform for the way forward for its tech and leisure merchandise. But it’s not content material to license its {hardware} and software program to automakers, or design its working system like Apple and Google. It desires a hand within the design and improvement course of too. Making automobiles is extremely dangerous and costly, particularly for a corporation that has by no means completed it earlier than. Just have a look at Dyson. Just since you make actually nice non-car merchandise, doesn’t imply those self same expertise essentially translate into the automotive house. 

Of course, Honda is growing its personal lineup of EVs, beginning with the Prologue, which is being inbuilt collaboration with General Motors. The Prologue, which is anticipated to go on sale in 2024, is Honda’s first long-range EV focused on the North American market. It marks the start of a wave of 30 hybrid battery-electric fuel-cell automobiles that Honda says it can launch by the top of the last decade. Honda will use GM’s Ultium platform to energy the Prologue in addition to an unnamed 2024 Acura mannequin based mostly on its Precision idea launched earlier this 12 months.