Japanese firms will team up, with Honda building the cars and Sony providing the service platform
► First vehicle to be manufactured by Honda...Sony's making moves towards the mainstream when it comes to developing its own electric cars. The brand has just announced it will pair up with Honda in order to develop and sell battery-powered vehicles, forming a joint partnership within 2022 and intending to produce a new model by 2025.
'I believe this alliance which brings together the strengths of our two companies offers great possibilities for the future of mobility.'Sony Vision S SUV revealed at CES 'I think we certainly have a lot of opportunity in the automotive space,' Kawanishi told CAR over video link. Known especially for his work on Sony's robotic Aibo dog, Kawanishi's background in AI Robotics is more related to automotive than you'd first think.
Kawanishi tells CAR that a coupe was chosen over the more typical SUV shape because of the inherently sportier and more stylish opportunities it brought. It’s not slow; the Vision-S it’s powered by two 200kW motors good for 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds. Top speed is rated at 149mph. For Sony, safety means autonomous technology – from lane-changing to parking – and it’s not taking the task lightly. ‘Automotive technology or automotive quality is completely different from consumer products because we have to secure human life,’ he reminds us. ‘It’s a very big challenge.’