Sony Honda Mobility, established with investment from Japan's Sony Group and Honda, said on the 25th it will halt the development and sale of electric vehicles.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) and the Asahi Shimbun that day, Sony Honda decided to stop all sales of the Afeela 1 electric vehicle, for which it had taken preorders in the United States, and of a successor model that had been under development for release after 2028.
The Afeela 1 had been scheduled for delivery in the United States this year. The starting price was $89,900 (about 134.77 million won). Afeela drew attention as a collaboration between Sony, a Japanese entertainment company, and Honda, an automobile corporations. Founded in 2022, Sony Honda defined Afeela as a "moving entertainment platform."
Nikkei said, "Sony Honda drew expectations as a Japan alliance to take on U.S. Tesla by combining Sony Group's digital technology with Honda's production technology," and noted in particular that "Sony Group sought to position Afeela as a new space for entertainment use."
However, as Honda decided to scale back its electric-vehicle business amid weak demand, Afeela will not even make its market debut. Honda has already decided to halt development of three EV models that were to be produced in North America. In addition, in mid-month it said that due to a review of its EV strategy, it expects a loss of up to 690 billion yen (about 6.5 trillion won) in the 2025 fiscal year (April 2025–March 2026).