Sony Honda Mobility, the joint venture company co-owned by Sony and Honda, will be making a major announcement early next month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023. The announcement will be made on January 4, direct from the Las Vegas Convention Center. Along with that promise, Honda released a short teaser video, showing what looks like the outline of a vehicle’s hood. We know that Honda and Sony are engaged in the creation of a new electric vehicle that is filled to the brim with high-tech componentry.
Although Sony Honda Mobility is still
withholding details, it previously announced that it intends for its first EV
to start rolling off the line in 2026. That line, specifically, will be located
in North America, and online sales are being prioritized in the region. The
vehicle will also be exported to Japan soon after, and production may
eventually begin there, too.
Yasuhide Mizuno, the CEO of Sony Honda
Mobility, said previously that the goal of the company is to create a “high
value-added product” that is characterized by three tenets: Autonomy,
Augmentation, and Affinity. While there are a lot of details to confirm, Sony
Honda Mobility has promised that Level 3 autonomous driving will be possible
under certain circumstances (though Level 2+ will be available in more
situations). It has also suggested that subscription services will be used to
add value to the vehicle. In addition, reports suggest that the as-yet unnamed
vehicle could get non-automotive Sony technology integrated into it, such as
the PlayStation 5.
Honda, meanwhile, will provide the joint
venture with its production expertise, as well as its engineering and
after-sales support, areas that have tripped up other automotive startups
looking to break into the EV space and disrupt the dealership model. Pre-orders
for the first Sony Honda Mobility vehicle will open in the first half of 2025,
the company has said, and sales will start before the end of that same year.
