Sony and Honda are teaming up to create a new company that will build and market electric automobiles. Although the partnership has not yet been completed, the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding outlining their intentions. The new firm, which has yet to be named, is anticipated to be created this year, with the first electric vehicle sales in 2025.
The first model will be built by Honda, with the new business handling design, development, and sales, and Sony is developing a mobility service platform. The collaboration aims to bring together Honda’s automotive design and marketing skills with Sony’s strengths in image sensors, telecommunications, and entertainment.
“Sony’s purpose is to ‘fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology,” Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida says in a statement. “Through this alliance with Honda, which has accumulated extensive global experience and achievements in the automobile industry over many years and continues to make revolutionary advancements in this field, we intend to build on our vision to ‘make the mobility space an emotional one,’ and contribute to the evolution of mobility centred around safety, entertainment and adaptability.”
“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,” says Honda CEO Toshihiro Mile. “We will do so by leveraging Honda’s cutting-edge technology and know-how about 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 indicated its desire to penetrate the car business for some time, but this is its first tangible move into the commercial sector. Sony debuted the Vision-S, an electric concept automobile, at CES 2020, and the Vision-S 02. During CES 2022, Sony debuted the Vision-S 02. At the time, Sony announced plans to create a subsidiary called Sony Mobility by the spring of 2022; however, the new Honda cooperation appears to have put that ambition on hold.
