Sony Honda Mobility, a joint venture between those two Japanese companies, will be introducing two all-new electric vehicle models by the late 2020s to go along with its already-revealed Afeela sedan. The move is being done with the intent to go up against EV mainstays like Tesla.
SHM will debut the aforementioned Afeela sedan in 2025. It’ll then be followed by an unnamed SUV in 2027 and some sort of “affordable” compact in 2028 or later, according to Nikkei Asia. The joint venture previously said the sedan would be launched under the Afeela brand, but now it appears two more models will be included in that lineup. All three vehicles will apparently share the same chassis to reduce costs and speed up development.
Sony Honda Mobility is angling to beef up that development structure because of this newly-expanded lineup. In January, it began hiring “mid-career engineers,” and it now intends to double its workforce to about 500 employees, Nikkei reports.
The unnamed compact electric vehicle SHM plans to build could end up being comparable in size to other compacts like the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Volkswagen Jetta. It’s also expected to share parts with some of Honda’s independently developed EVs like the ones we saw at CES this year. Nikkei reports that retail prices will be kept low by dropping equipment and functions.
It’s not really clear what the price points of these vehicles will land. The Afeela sedan, which has been called a “high-value-added EV” is expected to start around $US66,400, according to Nikkei. That’s nice and all for a flagship-esq vehicle, but the company will almost certainly need something on the lower end to really get a foothold in the global market.
Here’s why SHM decided to add two new future members to its lineup, according to Nikkei Asia:
Sony Honda Mobility’s expanded lineup was prompted by the evolving EV market. Although Tesla had been the dominating presence in the 2010s, rivals from China, Germany and South Korea began entering the market in the 2020s, with China’s BYD, quickly becoming a global brand thanks to the popularity of its affordable EVs.
Tesla also cut prices in its main markets — the U.S. and China — to regain its edge.
While EV sales have been slowing around the world recently, they are expected to grow in the mid to long term. Around 10.8 million EVs were sold in 2023, accounting for 12% of all new car sales, according to U.K.-based GlobalData. The research agency forecasts EV sales to rise to around 24.54 million by 2027, comprising 25% of all new car sales, and to 36.37 million by 2030, when they will make up 36% of all new car sales.
I was able to see an Afeela up close at CES, and if the production car is anything like the concert, it’ll definitely be a cool midsized sedan with a lot of neat tech packed in courtesy of Sony.
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