Five years: this is the development time it took to Sony et Honda to develop their first common electric car, theAphela 1a high-end sedan. This journey is surprisingly long and even much too long, because in the meantime, the concurrence has clearly sharpened.
The Afeela 1 immediately starts with a significant handicap: a price/technology ratio that seems to be part of another era. In fact, the model starts at 90.000 dollars (87,600 euros for the Origin model) and its high-end versions are priced up to 103,000 dollars (100,200 euros for the Signature version) while its technical characteristics are already largely outdated.
Weak charging and autonomy
You only need to look at the figures to see that the Afeela 1 will have many difficulties to seduce. Indeed, the long-range version claims 520 km approximately range of action, which seems very little compared to the 629 km announced by the Tesla Model 3 Grande Autonomie which is… 40,000 dollars cheaper.
Advertisement – continue reading below
And that’s not all: for recharge also, it gets stuck since the model only accepts powers of 150 kWwhich is frankly weak for a car in this category. This is due to an electrical architecture of only 400 V. But not only because with such technology, the Tesla Model 3 accepts up to 250 kW thanks to very good management of pack heating. At this speed, it takes 40 minutes to recover 300 km of autonomy, twice as much as for a Model 3. Spot the mistake.
-Dumped?
Sony and Honda insist the Afeela 1 is positioned high endparticularly with its careful finish and advanced multimedia system. Okay, but compared to models billed at similar amounts, we can acquire a Lucid Air (800 km of WLTP autonomy) or a Porsche Taycan (320 kW charging power). So what?
The positioning – and, let’s face it, the car itself – of Sony and Honda seems totally irrelevant. Because it seems obvious that no matter how well thought out it may be, a multimedia system cannot justify such a price (28 speakers here and a huge screen crossing the dashboard). A story similar to that of smartphones from Sony, the Xperia, which despite their Zeiss optics do not make the difference compared to the high-end ones from Apple or Samsung. But this adventure is also not unlike that of John DeLorean and the DMC-12 with a chassis derived from that of the Lotus Esprit and equipped with V6 PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) windy and gluttonous. Like here, it was all about the “face” and the equipment, but for the rest, the offer didn’t hold up. Unless Sony and Honda are trying to impose it through cinema? But you still have to find the right film…
Looking for a car? Search, find and buy the best model on Gocar.be
