Sony and Honda’s Afeela EV will start customer deliveries in late 2026

Sony and Honda’s associated venture, Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), said it will commencement customer deliveries of the $90,000 Afeela 1 electrical vehicle successful in the US successful precocious 2026. The institution besides showed disconnected an SUV conception that it said would pass a accumulation exemplary successful the US for arsenic early arsenic 2028.

The caller Afeela Prototype 2026 looked remarkably akin to the Afeela 1 pre-production unit, pinch short overhangs, a agelong wheelbase, and an wide larger footprint. No different specifications astir the conveyance were released. SHM CEO Yasuhide Mizuno called it an “early-stage concept.”

The announcement of customer deliveries, though, was arguably much notable. The Sony-Honda associated task has been a regular beingness astatine CES since first revealing its Vision-S concept successful 2020. Since then, the companies person inched person to production, but not adjacent capable to connection america a trial thrust aliases thing beyond a hands-on pinch the high-powered infotainment system. Earlier this month, SHM said it had started proceedings production of the Afeela 1 astatine Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant successful Ohio.

In beforehand of deliveries, SHM said it would connection phased demo drives to early preservation holders. The institution besides said it would widen income to Arizona, successful summation to California, successful 2027. Japanese customers tin expect first deliveries to commence successful early 2027, Mizuno said.

In immoderate respects, Afeela feels much for illustration a level for Sony’s intermezo offerings than a driving machine. It boasts screens crossed the width of the dashboard, 40 sensors and cameras for semi-autonomous driving assistance, all-wheel drive, and hints astatine augmented reality integration and “virtual worlds” embedded into the driving experience. Sony precocious said that Playstation 5 owners would beryllium capable to stream games straight connected to the vehicle’s infotainment system.

When it does spell connected sale, Afeela will beryllium entering a crowded marketplace for EVs priced supra $90,000. Demand for these models has cooled importantly acknowledgment to saturation and aggravated title from brands for illustration Tesla, Mercedes, Audi, and BMW. Most of the manufacture is now shifting to processing much affordable models successful an effort to counteract the expanding power of Chinese automakers.