The first production prototype of the joint venture between Japanese electronics giant Sony and auto giant Honda has been revealed, with deliveries promised by 2026 in North America.
sony sling Mobility, a joint venture between the two Japanese industrial giants, has confirmed plans to sell its first electric car under the Afeela badge.
The sleek, sedan-style four-door hatchback follows two previous Sony-designed concept cars: the Vision-S of 2020 and Vision-S 02 from 2022.
Sony and Honda say pre-orders will open for the first Afeela model in the first half of 2025, ahead of the first North American deliveries expected in 2026, with cars to be built at a factory in North America.
To drive has contacted Sony Honda Mobility to confirm if there are plans to introduce Afeela in Australia.
There are no technical details about the battery, electric motors or driving range of the Afeela prototype, other than that it is all-wheel drive and is about the same size as a Tesla Model 3 or Hyundai Ioniq 6, at 4895mm long, 1900 mm wide and 1460 mm high.
“Our innovation in mobility will be based on the three A’s: autonomy, augmentation and affinity,” Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said at the CES presentation.
“We believe that our vision for mobility will write a new chapter in the story of how people move.”
Sony announced its collaboration with honda last March to provide a manufacturing facility and assist in vehicle development, even though the automaker has been slow to introduce electric vehicles in its own showrooms.
The Afeela prototype includes 45 cameras and sensors, both inside and outside, as well as the installation of the latest ‘Snapdragon’ computer processor from electronic hardware company Qualcomm.
It also has graphs of unreal enginethe technology used to power popular computer games such as Fortnite either Mortal Kombat.
Mizuno said that Sony Honda Mobility was planning to “evolve automotive design to focus not only on driving dynamics and performance, but also on networking and software interfaces.
“We want to think outside the box to review the underlying philosophy of vehicle design.”
Although the Afeela has a relatively conservative five-door body, it has a “yoke”-style mid-size steering wheel and an unusual “media bar” between the headlamps that can display information and also “interact with people outside the vehicle.” ‘.
“We anticipate beginning to receive pre-orders in the first half of 2025. The first shipment will be delivered to customers in North America in the spring (March) of 2026.” said Mr. Mizuno at CES.
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