Sony and Honda Team Up to Make Electric Cars

Japanese titans Sony and Honda are collaborating to create a new company that will design and sell electric vehicles (EVs). Although the venture is not finalized, the companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), outlining their intentions. The new, unnamed conglomerate is likely to be established this year, with sales of the first EV due in 2025, as reported by The Verge.

Honda will manufacture the initial model, the new company will manage its design, production, and sales, and Sony will develop a mobility service platform for it. This synergy will pool Honda’s skills in automotive design and commercialization with Sony’s strengths in image sensors, telecommunications, and most importantly, its trademark entertainment.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe explained:

The new company will aim to stand at the forefront of innovation, evolution, and expansion of mobility around the world, by taking a broad and ambitious approach to creating value that exceeds the expectations and imagination of customers. We will do so by leveraging Honda’s cutting-edge technology and know-how in relation to the environment and safety, while aligning the technological assets of both companies. Although Sony and Honda are companies that share many historical and cultural similarities, our areas of technological expertise are very different. Therefore, I believe this alliance which brings together the strengths of our two companies offers great possibilities for the future of mobility.

Sony has long been expressing its keenness to join the automotive industry for some time but this is its first actual step into the commercial sector. It had exhibited the Vision-S, an electric concept vehicle, at CES 2020, and the Vision-S 02 at CES 2022.

Back then it had revealed its plan to create a subsidiary called ‘Sony Mobility’ by spring 2022 but its new partnership with Honda seems to have put this project on hold.