Every year, the Afeela brand gets talked about again at CES Las Vegas. But despite five years of development, the joint project of Sony and Honda intrigues more than it convinces, starting with its commercial strategy limited to a single American state.
It has become one of the rituals of CES Las Vegas: Sony and Honda provide news of the progress of their joint project during the Sony conference. The brand named Afeela has just proudly announced, on January 6, 2025, the opening of pre-orders for its first model after 5 years of development. But there is a catch, you have to live in California to be able to buy an Afeela 1.
The joint brand of Sony and Honda seems to have decided to copy the commercial strategy of the Tesla Model S, well, that of 2012. This decision is confusing, especially when we see how a brand such as Xiaomi managed to develop its car electric and turn it into a commercial success in record time.
3 times more expensive than a Xiaomi SU7
This first electric car from Sony will be available in two versions:
- Afeela 1 Origin at $89,900 (around €86,500)
- Afeela 1 Signature at $102,900 (around €99,000)
These prices include a free subscription for 3 years to different features including level 2+ driving aids and an AI-powered personal assistant. But this means that after these 3 years, these services will become paid. For a car costing almost €100,000, this seems incongruous, but everything will depend on the prices offered. Tesla has introduced paid premium connectivity.
For comparison, the Xiaomi SU7 sells in China from €27,650 to €38,400. The price gap is incommensurable, but it cannot be reduced solely to the Chinese production of the Xiaomi model. Sony has clearly decided to attack the high-end market by going after very good electric cars: the Tesla Model S and the Lucid Air. It’s hard to imagine how Afeela hopes to succeed in attracting a large number of customers from these brands, especially in their home territory: California (and exclusively this state for the moment).
A model not yet finalized, but almost
The first deliveries of the Afeela are not scheduled for mid-2026 for the most high-end version (Signature) and in 2027 for the more affordable version (Origin). The project will therefore have taken more than 6 years since the presentation of the Sony Vision concept in 2020, an eternity in the world of electric cars compared to 2 years for Chinese brands and 4 years for European ones.
According to The Verge, Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno described the prototype as a version “ almost final » of the car. The Afeela site allows you to obtain some technical specifications:
- Sedan with a length of 4.91 m
- All-wheel drive (AWD) engine
- Front motor power: 180 kW, and the same for the rear motor
- 91 kWh battery
- Range: 482 km (American EPA cycle)
- Fast charging up to 150 kW, NACS socket (Tesla)
Of course, the brand emphasizes all the on-board technologies: driving aids, numerous sensors (camera, lidar, radar, ultrasonic sensor, etc.), large screens, 5G connectivity, a noise reduction system, and the artificial intelligence assistant.
The boss of Sony Honda Mobility once again took advantage of CES to promote a feature that will probably not exist in the final version. For the show, he called the car by voice from a smartphone app. Last year, he did the trick by remote-controlling the car with a PlayStation controller. This is all just nonsense.
Sony and Honda promised a revolution. However, the Afeela 1 already seems outdated even before its release. With a lackluster technical sheet, average performance and a narrow commercial strategy, it is difficult to imagine how this model will be able to compete with Tesla or the Chinese brands on the rise.
