Sony Group Corp. and automaker Honda have formed a joint venture to produce and market electric vehicles, the companies announced on Friday. Sony Group Corporation and carmaker Honda are seeking to form the new company this year, with plans to start selling its first vehicles in 2025. Sony has teased us over the past few years with its unveilings of electric sedans and crossover concepts, and now the Japanese electronics giant has announced that it is exploring the possibility of setting up a joint venture with Honda to design, manufacture, and market electric vehicles.
After teasing electric car (EV) concepts earlier this year, Honda and tech conglomerate Sony said on Thursday that they had signed a joint venture deal to build and sell them. Japanese multinationals Honda and Sony are setting up a new joint venture to develop and market battery-electric vehicles, with sales of the first EV slated for 2025. Japans Sony and Honda have signed an agreement to jointly develop and market battery electric vehicles (BEVs), the two companies announced on Friday.
In perhaps the only major PlayStation-generation partnership that the generations ever knew it wanted, Sony and Honda have formally confirmed they will be working together on EVs through a new joint-venture. Honda and Sony are considering joining forces to make an electric vehicle that would draw on both of the industry giants experience in their respective industries. The two Japanese giants announced on Friday that they have forged a partnership that would ultimately give Honda a shot at producing a competitive electric vehicle by 2025, using the complementary skills Sony has in the entertainment sector.
In January, Sony announced plans to create a new company called Sony Mobility in spring, in order to study commercially rolling out its Vision-S electric vehicle concept. Sony unveiled a second concept car, Sonys crossover EV prototype called the Vision-S 02, at the January Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in an effort to underline its intentions. The other electric vehicle prototype is now called Vision-S 02, which is yet another testing ground for future automotive-focused technology from Sony. At CES 2022, the odd-bedfellows-out-of-bed introduced the Vision-S SUV, an electric crossover vehicle borrowing its platform from Sonys first electric vehicle concept, the Vision-S sedan.
Now, however, two years into prototyping testing of the original Vision-S, Sonys established Sony Mobility Inc. in an effort to investigate a move into the electric vehicle space. Sonys ambitions appear to be changing this year, with plans for potentially entering the market very soon, showing off yet another EV prototype. This time, Sony plans to possibly put a vehicle into production, with Sony setting up Sony Mobility Inc. this year.
Honda will build the first electric vehicle models, and the new company would handle the vehicle development, design, and sales, while Sony would work on developing the mobility services platform. The agreement confirmed specifies the new company is expected to plan, design, develop, and market the electric vehicles, and the automakers expertise at manufacturing means that it will produce battery-electric vehicles that offer a higher level of added value.
Honda will be responsible for manufacturing its first jointly manufactured electric vehicles in a Honda owned plant, but the two Japanese companies will collaborate in planning, design, development and sales. The new car will be developed by Honda and Sony through This New Company, which will plan, design, develop and market EVs, but will not own or operate manufacturing facilities, and that last distinction is critical. Dubbed Sony Honda Mobility Inc., Sony Honda Mobility Inc. will be involved in selling high-value-added electric vehicles (EVs) and providing mobility services, according to the press release. Sony Honda Mobility Inc. is set to establish itself in Tokyo by year-end, with sales of its manufactured vehicles commencing in 2025.
The joint venture, which was first announced in March and is called Sony Honda Mobility, would see Honda Motors (7267.0T) bringing its know-how of making and selling cars, while Japanese Sony (6758.T) would be adding its chops in software and technology, the companies said Thursday. Sony plans to develop future electric vehicles using the Vision-S platform under the companys newly formed wholly owned subsidiary, Sony Mobility Inc., which takes over responsibility for the Vision-S platform and vehicle development in the spring of 2022. For CES 2022, Sony displayed the second concept, and announced that Sony was creating the new wholly-owned subsidiary. At CES 2022, tech conglomerate Sony returned with a concept SUV, Vision-S 02, saying that they will be setting up a company to make the vehicle in-house this year.
The confirmation of the deal follows the electronics brand Sonys early-2022 announcement that it plans to be an EV brand, having shown off its Vision S 02 concept at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Sony Vision-S is a fully electric vehicle platform being developed by Sony, and its first model was unveiled at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, called Vision-S Concept. Confirming its interest in, and involvement with, electric car technologies and manufacturing, Sony, for its part, has also developed and built the brands first two EV concepts, the Vision-S 01 hatchback in 2020, and Vision-S 02 prototype last year. It is not clear what happens with Sony Mobility, which is possibly set to launch alongside the Vision-S concept, but if Sony does kill off Sony Mobility in order to merge with Honda, that is only one more somewhat circuitous path towards becoming a vehicle manufacturer.