AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/05 Report--

Sony Honda has finally made new progress in joint car building! On January 4, local time, at the 2023 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony Honda Mobility, a joint venture between Sony Group and Honda, two Japanese giants, announced the launch of a new brand of Smart + connected Electric vehicles, named "AFEELA", and the debut of the AFEELA concept car. Sony Honda Mobility Chairman and CEO Teixiu Mizuno (Yasuhide Mizuno) said on CES that he would develop a production model based on the first concept car. The AFEELA is scheduled to start production in the Honda US market, with bookings scheduled for the first half of 2025, sales at the end of 2025, and delivery of the first vehicles in North America in the spring of 2026.

According to reports, Sony Honda Mobility will work with a number of companies to develop trams, and the new car will be built by mobile platforms such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon digital chassis. At the same time, the game production team Epic Games will also provide technology such as Unreal engine 5, and the new car will also be equipped with 45 sensors for self-driving inside and outside the car to achieve L3 self-driving auxiliary functions.

From the published official map, the appearance, the overall design of AFEELA new concept car is very simple, but full of scientific and technological sense. The front face uses a closed grille with a penetrating LED light belt, and the center is marked with the word "AFEELA", which can be recognized more after glowing. On the side of the body, the lines of the new car are very smooth, and the door handle is concealed. The biggest highlight of the new car is the elimination of the traditional rearview mirror design, replaced by an external camera, and the bottom is equipped with large-size low-resistance design wheels. In terms of body size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4895/1900/1460mm, the wheelbase is 3000mm, and the B+ class sedan is located. In the rear part of the car, the new car taillights adopt the popular penetrating shape, with a slender and slender trim running through the left and right ends, and the tail is also marked with the word "AFEELA".

In the internal part, the new car also adopts minimalist design style, equipped with through multi-screen system, external camera display screen and unique steering wheel, air conditioning outlet adopts hidden layout, the overall sense of science and technology. According to the report, the new car will also use digital technologies such as "Metaverse" meta-universe to provide a new entertainment experience, or built-in games and entertainment platforms such as Epic Games. In terms of power, it has not been officially announced, and the new car is expected to be equipped with a dual-motor four-wheel drive system.

On March 4, 2022, Sony Group and Honda jointly announced a "marriage" to build cars, develop and sell high value-added electric vehicle products, and start selling them in 2025. At that time, this news aroused great attention in the industry. On June 16 of the same year, the two sides jointly established a joint venture company "Sony Honda Mobility", which is located in Tokyo, Japan, with a registered capital of 10 billion yen and 50% shares of each side. Mizuno Taixiu, a former Honda China minister, served as chairman and CEO of the joint venture, and Sony Mobile President and CEO Kawanishi Izumi served as president and COO of the joint venture.

With regard to the design of the new brand "AFEELA" and the concept car, Mizuno said that the new brand "AFEELA" will use Sony's artificial intelligence, entertainment, virtual reality and other technologies to build, and turn mobile space into entertainment space, that is, the tram jointly built by Sony Honda will be built around entertainment products. In fact, as early as the founding of the company, Sony Chairman, President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida revealed that the new car would use "PS5 entertainment" technology in the future. Izumi Kawanishi, the head of the company, also said in an interview with the media that he planned to build an electric car around music, movies and PlayStation 5, and made it clear that integrating PS5 into the car was technically feasible.

According to the plans previously announced by both sides, Sony is mainly responsible for developing car software and in-car entertainment systems and providing a travel service platform, while Honda focuses on production and sales. Responsible for vehicle driving performance, manufacturing technology, after-sales service management and other work. Sony's president has said that areas such as sensors, communications and entertainment systems needed for pure electric vehicles are Sony's strengths, and this is a good opportunity for Sony to redefine cars. It remains to be seen whether the new car can be redefined after the addition of the "PS5 entertainment" element. After all, the inclusion of PS5 in the car-machine system means better self-driving features. Although autopilot is a major trend in the future, from the perspective of existing technology, the current auxiliary driving is not perfect.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat