7 hours ago
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💀 Sony and Honda have taken the decision to kill off their Afeela electric car venture
😖A statement stated the brands would “discontinue the development and launch” of the Afeela 1 and 2
👎 It added that both would re-evaluate the business direction, suggesting that it may be killed off completely
💰 Honda recently posted a near $16 billion loss, writing off a large portion of its EV investment
Sony and Honda have axed the brand’s planned collaborative EV venture, widely dubbed as the “PlayStation car” in yet more sad news for the automobile manufacturer.
In a collaborative statement posted to Sony’s website, the two brands said that they would “discontinue the development and launch” of the Afeela 1 and 2, the long-in-development electric cars.
The statement added that it would review its “business direction” and announce any future plans “at the earliest possible opportunity”, which sounds like the whole business venture is going to shut down, or scaled back to the point it doesn’t resemble the original idea.
The reasons given for this decision are things such as unspecified “changes to the EV market” and “the underlying assumptions of SHM’s business operations, such as the utilization of certain technologies and assets planned to be provided by Honda, were fundamentally altered.”
The Sony Honda Afeela included features like Remote Play from PS5 and game-specific engine sounds and themes. Sadly, those gaming centric features will never come to be.
It doesn’t seem that Honda has had a brilliant time of things lately, with the company posting a near-$16 billion loss on March 12, as it wrote off a large portion of its EV investment.
Furthermore, the pivot of the USA back towards fossil fuels with the removal of federal EV tax credits, and the prominent tariff issues, seem to have hit Honda rather hard, leading to the rug being pulled on this EV development with Sony.
Sony, meanwhile, began its journey into EVs with the announcement of the Vision-S some six years ago, which turned into the Afeela later on. Sony only mentioned it had discontinued the Afeela 1 sedan, which some commentators had deemed out of date before it had even hit a production stage, given folks have moved over to SUVs and crossovers in recent years.
The statement didn’t give much of a mention therefore to the Afeela 2, suggesting that it was more of an afterthought in this instance.
Up next: Sony’s new entry-level Bravia 3 II gaming TV comes with 4x HDMI 2.1 ports
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.
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