Sony and Honda on Thursday, January 5, Philippine time hosted its Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2023) press conference, where it finally revealed the brand name for its first electric vehicle (EV), the Afeela.
Sony Honda Mobility, the joint venture behind the EV, announced pre-orders would open in the first half of 2025, with actual sales happening in the same year. The first shipments are expected to arrive around the second quarter of 2026. Pricing details have yet to be revealed.
A prototype of the vehicle was rolled out during the conference, showing off some of its key features. The vehicle, for instance, sports a display on the front bumper, which can show different information, such as the Afeela brand name, the vehicle’s charge state, and the weather. It also has a total of 45 interior and exterior sensors that, according to Sony Honda Mobility, are meant to help develop an “interactive relationship” between drivers and the vehicle.
“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,” said Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno.
Sony, as announced before, would be responsible for providing the in-car entertainment systems, with a brief clip showing how the center console and the panels mounted on the seats can play music, movies, and even PlayStation games. The tech giant is also leveraging its artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality technologies to enhance the EV experience.
Qualcomm, meanwhile, is taking charge of developing the vehicle’s processor, while Epic Games is providing the graphical interfaces.
Sony first announced its EV ambitions at CES 2020, with a similar-looking prototype of the vehicle brought onstage this year. At that time, the vehicle was still called the Sony Vision-S. The Sony-Honda EV partnership was first announced in March 2022.
