Sony-Honda EV takes type with new prototype, Afeela model

The Sony and Honda’s EV three way partnership got here into larger focus this week at CES, the place the 2 corporations unveiled a brand new prototype and confirmed Afeela because the model title for the enterprise.

Wanting a bit completely different from the Sony Imaginative and prescient-S idea first proven in 2020, the smooth prototype previews a manufacturing mannequin scheduled to start pre-orders in 2025, with full gross sales following later within the 12 months, and the primary North American deliveries in spring 2026.

Outlined by easy edges, the sedan prototype options cameras for facet mirrors and lightweight bars entrance and rear that talk with the skin world by way of shifting gentle patterns, and likewise serve to welcome the driving force when approaching the automobile.

Afeela electrical sedan prototype

Inside, the automotive has screens galore. Screens cowl the complete dashboard, together with the bottom of the ahead pillars, the place they function screens for the digital camera mirrors, and supply leisure choices for rear-seat passengers. Some bodily controls are included, nevertheless, together with a yoke-like steering wheel.

Afeela goals to supply Stage 3 automation, permitting drivers to take their eyes off the highway in some conditions. That can be enabled by a complete of 45 cameras and sensors, feeding data to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, offering a most 800 TOPS (tera operations per second) of computing energy.

Afeela can also be working with Epic Video games on in-car content material, doubtlessly together with cloud-based options and augmented actuality parts like navigation, as a part of an ecosystem of software program add-ons, a few of which can probably be provided by way of subscriptions. That tracks Sony’s plans to maybe make the automotive a money-maker for content material and leisure.

Afeela electrical sedan prototype

No data on the powertrain or vary was introduced, nevertheless. We do know that the manufacturing automotive can be American constructed. Honda, maybe in preparation, final 12 months introduced plans to make its Ohio crops a hub for EV manufacturing.

The Sony-Honda undertaking has moved quickly since final March, when it was introduced that the 2 corporations would ally for a manufacturing mannequin and new model. A crossover SUV is probably going additionally deliberate, as Sony confirmed the Imaginative and prescient-S 02 SUV idea at CES in 2022.