Sony Corp. of Japan and Honda Corp. of Japan have signed an agreement to jointly develop and market battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), both companies announced on Friday. Article Contents Sony Group Corp. of Japan plans to start a venture to explore entry into the EV market this spring, looking to leverage its strengths in entertainment and sensors to play an expanded role in the next-generation mobility. Article content The new Sony Mobility Inc. comes as Japans Sony Group Corp. is exploring the commercial rollout of electric vehicles, Sony Chairman and President Kenichiro Yoshida said at a press event before the technology trade show CES in the U.S. Having unveiled a new prototype of an zero-emission EV, the groups second in three years, Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that the group will set up a new company called Sony Mobility Inc. to study the commercial rollout of its Vision-S concept vehicle.
This time around, Sony plans to possibly put the other prototype electric car into production, Sony is setting up Sony Mobility Inc. this year. Sony revealed another electric car prototype, Vision-S 02 SUV, at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Following its announcement, Sony showed off Sony IS Vision-S 02 Prototype Electric Crossover from CES Tech Showcase.
While Sony is not going to talk in details about the production version of the Sony-Mobile, it will be a fully electric crossover, similar to Sonys Vision-S 02 concept. Specific details are not released, so it is unclear just how extensive of a lineup of vehicles Sony could imagine, or when Sony will be entering the increasingly competitive EV market. It is also not yet clear if Sony plans to build electric cars on its own or work with an established automaker.
The announcement likely puts Sony ahead of other technology companies considering a vehicle business, particularly Apple, but also Googles parent company Alphabet, and Chinas search firm Baidu. The announcement might be more than eyeball-grabbing: Sony has actually said that Sony is exploring the possibility of commercially launching its Vision-S concept. Sony, if Sony takes it seriously, may wrest away a large chunk of Japans automotive market for itself when the time comes, and that is when the future is going to arrive, regardless of whether Toyota wants to.
Honda and Sony might agree to form a new joint venture to begin making EVs, and would like to get there fast, having them on the road before the mid-decade. The formalities might mean that Sony plans to explore other aspects of mobility — micromobility, ride-sharing vehicles, their own CarPlay-analog that would be sold to other carmakers — instead of focusing solely on electric cars. The reason why Honda has joined forces with Sony is because Honda wants to concentrate its energies on producing EVs and mobility services, further planning for the launch of sales and EV service operations by 2025. It is not clear whether electric vehicles would come from either of the above models, but given they are already capable, fully-engineered vehicles designed and built by Honda, that makes sense.
Notably, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida announced a plan to form a new firm, Sony Mobility, focused on EVs back in January, and Japans Sony has even shown off an electric prototype SUV. Sonys ambitions appear to be changing this year, with plans for a potential entry into the market in short order, with the presentation of yet another electric car prototype. The seven-seater was unveiled at CES technology trade show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. While it is known mostly for consumer electronics such as the PlayStation video game console, Sony could soon begin building an electric car, too, the companys senior executives suggested Tuesday at the Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas yesterday (Jan. 4), Sony announced plans to create an entirely different company by Spring 2022. Sony brought yet another surprise to this years CES, unveiling a sport utility vehicle version of its Vision-S Concept electric vehicle, which it showed at the CES 2020 trade show, as well as an announcement of a Sony Mobility, Inc., new company that will be focused on mobility and electric vehicle efforts. Sony also unveiled a Vision-S 02 SUV — a new version of its first-ever EV prototype, first shown off at CES 2020 CES 2020. Sony Corp. (SONY) said Wednesday that it is considering entering the EV market, and the Japanese electronics giant unveiled an electric sports utility prototype.
The new combined company would merge Hondas auto-making expertise with cameras, screens, and autonomous-driving technology from technology giant Sony, in an effort to build what both companies hope would be competitive electric vehicles, to be sold under (a new) standalone brand.
While we have not heard a lot of news about the vehicle for two whole years, the fact that Sony has shown it off at three straight CES events (with the actual road-testing footage included this past year), is building Sonys new company around it, and now has a second version of the car, really does indicate they may be on to something. We know nothing of any specs for the Sony EV proper, as Sony is not selling one, at least for now. While a Sony version might not show up in dealerships any time soon, it is probably something you would like to own if you are looking into electric cars. The even-earlier Vision-S 01 EV hatchback is already showing that Sony has intentions of entering the electric vehicle market on some level.
