Sony and Honda unveil the Afila-branded, 2025 prototype car. – Dubai Car News

Sony Honda Mobility will launch its new Afeela car brand soon, the Japanese duo has confirmed, with pre-orders for its first car opening in early 2025.

As far as Australia is concerned, the future of Honda- or Afeela-badged EVs is cloudy.

what a trip At the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony unveiled a concept car it described as a rolling lab for testing vehicle systems that will include infotainment tech, cameras and sensors — all Features Sony has a lot of experience in different market segments. .

A year later, Sony confirmed that it had no intention of entering the automotive industry as a car brand in its own right, insisting that Concept of vision s Despite looking completely production-ready – there was only one tech-testing prototype.

Then, in 2022, Sony announced that it had partnered with Honda to launch a joint EV brand for a 2025 market launch. Moreover, it revealed another concept: the Vision-S 02 SUV.

Of course, Sony is no stranger to brand partnerships, having famously entered the mobile phone market as one half. Sony Ericsson brand in the early 2000s. (This writer must have owned at least five phones over the years…)

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Above: The 2020 Vision-S concept was unveiled.

Now, at this week’s 2023 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Honda Mobility has announced that its retail brand will be called Afeela, with a simple wordmark as its logo.

Along with this news came the unveiling of a new one. Near-production electric car prototypeStill unnamed

Little has been revealed about the new brand, but Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said the car will represent the culmination of Sony’s experience in AI, entertainment, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

The part that hasn’t been said – any actual experience in automotive manufacturing – will obviously be Honda’s part of the project.

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Mizuno said, “Afela represents our vision of an interactive relationship where people experience a sense of interactive mobility and where movement can detect and understand people and society by using sensing and AI technologies. “

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the announcement was how different the prototype car looks from the apparently production-ready concept revealed in 2020 – not to mention the car shown this week. The case had a better looking design.

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Afila Prototype EV Tech Specs

Sony Honda Mobility has yet to offer any official word on the Afela prototype’s specs, but we expect that to be built upon. Ultimate architecture that Honda shares with GM.

Honda unveiled its Prologue electric SUV in October, and while it too has yet to be fully detailed, Honda claims a driving range of up to 725 km on a single charge.

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Afila Prototype EV Dimensions

In terms of size, the 4895 mm long Afila will sit in the middle. Tesla Model 3 (4694mm) And Model S (4980 mm) in overall length, Although its 3000mm wheelbase will outstretch both.Which measure 2875mm and 2960mm respectively.

In fact, the Afila’s wheelbase is a match for it. Hyundai Ioniq 5has a wheelbase and is 100 mm longer. Kia EV6.

Will the Afila brand come to Australia?

So far, the Afila brand has only been talked about in terms of the North American market, suggesting that the left-hand drive configuration may be the only configuration for its cars.

Honda Australia did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, although it has previously clarified that it does not comment on overseas announcements – particularly for models that have no presence in the Australian line-up. There is no history.

Honda is one of the last Australian brands to offer any clear word on its EV plans. Internationally, the company has announced it will launch a range of electric cars by 2030, but it’s unclear which of these we’ll see in Australia.

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Above: A fla, not an afila.