Sony and Honda plan to make electric vehicles together

Sony and Honda are going to form a new company to make and sell electric vehicles. The venture hasn't been finalized yet, but the two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding. A new company is expected to be formed this year, with sales of the first EV model planned for 2025.

Honda will manufacture the first model, with the new company handing the vehicle's design, development, and sales to Sony. Combining Honda's expertise in making and marketing cars with Sony's capabilities in image sensors, telecommunications, and entertainment is intended to be the result of the partnership.

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida says in a statement that the company wants to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology.

The New Company will aim to stand at the forefront of innovation, evolution, and expansion of mobility around the world, by taking a broad and ambitious approach to creating value that exceeds the expectations and imagination of customers. Our areas of technological expertise are very different from those of Sony and Honda. I believe that this alliance brings together the strengths of our two companies and will offer great possibilities for the future of mobility.

This marks the first concrete move into the commercial industry for Sony, which has signaled its intentions to enter the automotive world for a while. At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2020, Sony showed off an electric concept car called the Vision-S. It would appear that the new Honda partnership has rendered the idea of a Sony Mobility dead.