Sony and Honda unveil Afeela, new electric car brand

Sony and Honda, which announced a joint venture last year to develop and build electric cars, revealed the name of their new car brand. He will be called Afeela.

In a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Honda Mobility Chief Executive Yasuhide Mizuno unveiled a prototype of the company’s first car, which looked like a midsize sedan but revealed few details about it.

The car will be available for order and even purchase in 2025, he said, but first deliveries of the car won’t take place in North America until 2026. The car will be built at one of Honda’s factories.

“At the heart of this mobility experience is the word ‘feel’,” said Mizuno, explaining that the focus will be on feeling and interacting with people.

The car will have safety and driver assistance systems from Honda, as well as entertainment and interactive features from Sony, Mizuno said. When developing the car, the emphasis is on software and user interface technology as much as driving dynamics and performance, he said.

Running above the car’s front bumper is a narrow outer screen that the company calls the media bar. This will allow the vehicle to display information and interact with people outside the vehicle, he said.

Inside, the company is working with Unreal Engine graphics technology from Epic Games, the company that produces Fortnite, to design interfaces for the vehicle.

The Unreal Engine technology has also been used by other car brands, including General Motors, which used the technology in the Hummer EV.

The car will come with a variety of entertainment options, he said.

Mizuno also highlighted the 45 cameras and sensors inside and outside the vehicle, some of which are used to detect the driver’s condition to help ensure alertness and safety.