Sony and Honda are Afeela-ing good, Stellantis to build an air taxi, GM back on top in sales race

Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Honda and Sony form new brand Afeela

Intake: The new Honda/Sony joint venture electric car company will be known as Afeela, because “At the heart of this mobility experience is the word feel,” says Sony Honda Mobility boss Yashuhide Mizuno. Announcing the new brand at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mizuno also unveiled its first vehicle, which, going against the grain, is more sedan than SUV. Mizuno confirmed that the car would be available to order in 2025, with deliveries beginning in 2026, but few details were forthcoming. Honda is bringing its safety and driver assistance to the party, while Sony takes care of entertainment and interactive features, such as a media bar above the front bumper which displays information to people outside the vehicle. Sony is working with Epic Games to utilize its Unreal Engine graphics for the car’s displays, while 45 cameras and sensors will be deployed to feed the car’s safety systems. The promotional video above shows a kind of Lucid-lite vehicle with a spartan but spacious interior dominated by infotainment screens and a yoke-style steering wheel, suggesting it will have a steer-by-wire system. The exterior also reveals a prominent front-facing monitoring system, presumably LIDAR to drive the car’s autonomous capabilities.

Exhaust: This is a recipe for strong collaboration, even if the name is a little weak. A Playstation and powerful audio entertainment system for passengers and, hopefully, a dash of driving joy from Honda could well prove a winner in the EV market where new brands are popping up every day. — Nik Berg

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Comments

    You know what would make me “feel” better? A new car I can see out of. A pillars are so thick now that cross traffic can be impossible to track. The 2003 Malibu has become the go to shopping vehicle because backing up is not a guessing game.

    “I Feel ya” is giving me that Edsel feeling. Or maybe “No Va”. I hope they do a little more market research.

    I don’t know about all that damn Sony infotainment or the yoke. But the car looks quite good, with styling that’s simple and elegant. The video sure was boring.

    Reading about $1000.00 a month car payments made me laugh and cry. The suggestion about a career in repo
    is a great idea. If you are considering buying a car now, don’t do it unless you have an absolute need. Like what
    you own went to Car Heaven and there is no choice. I think it was the 70s, when interest rates on conditional sales contracts went through the ceiling and the customer walked away from the market. So walk away. Banks
    deserve it.

    Afeela funny about this toaster on wheels. A media bar on the front? Is this car going to have rolling ads or a billboard on it? No thank you Honda / Sony. The only thing that might be good is the Sony Audio would hopefully be better than the crap Honda currently puts in it’s cars.

    Afeela that it will be like SONYs Xperia on wheels with 2 years software support. After that please buy a new flagship. 😅

    Afeela like a fool. Afeela like an invalid who can’t open his own car door. Afeela like Toyota is the only car company left that I can still take seriously.

    I expect within a few years cars will repo themselves, right out of your locked garage. With all the communication electronics they have they can open the garage door, and they certainly could self drive a few miles to a storage lot.

    Another car brand…? I feel ya pain…an absolutely comic name, they should speak to some of us (Americans, the target market) before they badge. But, I like the outside message display, I can verbally flip-off other drivers in NYC. Comical, this all is.

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