LAS VEGAS — If opposites attract and ultimately make for good marriages, then Sony Honda Mobility very well may be on solid footing.
It would be difficult to point to an odder couple united in an automotive joint venture than consumer-electronics company Sony and Honda Motor Co.
In 2019, when rumors first began to surface Sony was considering producing a battery-electric vehicle of its own, capable of high levels of autonomous driving and designed around a state-of-the-art-infotainment system, it set tongues wagging throughout the industry. Was the Japanese electronics giant serious? Could it really pull it off?
By then, Sony already had begun assembling a cadre of technology partners to help create its Sony Vision concept vehicle, sprung on the world for the first time at CES 2020. The list of collaborators included chip and solutions supplier Qualcomm, systems-integration specialist Elektrobit, mapping company HERE Technologies and gaming developer Polyphony Digital.
Still, many doubted Sony would join the ranks of upstart car manufacturers. The Vision concept, many contended, was simply a demonstration of what an infotainment-centric car of the future might look like and what Sony’s role might be in creating it.
But any remaining skepticism vanished in 2022, when the electronics company announced it would collaborate in a new JV with Honda to build and market the car under the newly created Afeela brand.
This month, the final production version of the Afeela 1 sedan was rolled out on the CES stage, along with a prototype for a second model that could come as early as 2028, as Sony Honda Mobility announced additional plans to expand its market reach beyond California and Japan to Arizona.
However, with such disparate backgrounds, Sony and Honda unquestionably have widely diverse objectives when it comes to their JV. Honda wants to monetize its manufacturing operations, so selling cars in volume is its ultimate goal. Its partner wants to distribute movies, music and gaming and keep its customers in the fold as they turn in greater numbers to in-vehicle entertainment. For Sony, it may be more important Afeela serve as entree into other car brands than whether it does well on its own.
Despite that, Sony Honda Mobility of America President and CEO Shugo Yamaguchi, who comes to the JV from Sony, told WardsAuto on the sidelines of CES 2026 the partners are well-aligned on the fledgling auto company’s path.
“What we’re trying to go for in creating this new technology, that’s something we have a shared vision about,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “And we have a shared vision in how we want to overcome our challenges as well.”
Yamaguchi acknowledged he’s been involved in several joint ventures while at Sony, but compared to those, he said: “This has been the fastest experience in the merging of cultures and of people just coming together and working together.”
That doesn’t mean it’s been without hurdles. Even for Honda, the Afeela development program, so heavily reliant on outside engineering and design input from its ecosystem of tech suppliers, represented a huge adjustment.
“I think the people that came into this from Honda had a really tough time probably from the get-go,” Yamaguchi said. “They had to change their mindset — and they were able to do that. But at the same time, the people from Sony didn’t understand the difficulties of creating and manufacturing a vehicle, that basically you’re putting someone’s life into the hands of the vehicle.”
Yamaguchi acknowledged some differences in ways of working have sparked conversation among colleagues.
“There’s been so much discussion around why this is common sense for you when it’s not common sense for us, and why is this a practice that’s standard for us but not standard for you,” he said. “We’re having so much conversation about that.”
The next objective, he said, will be to learn from other employees who have come from outside of both Sony and Honda and continue the JV’s evolution.
“The next phase is going to be incorporating their knowledge, their know-how and their culture, and infuse that with what we’re doing,” he said, adding “there have been so many surprises,” but Sony Honda Mobility is working its way through them.
