- Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) has canceled the development of Afeela’s upcoming electric cars.
- The joint venture was on the final stretch to launch an American-made luxury four-door electric sedan, and an SUV was also planned.
- The cars had integrated PlayStation consoles and promised supreme quality.
The Afeela 1 electric sedan and the upcoming Afeela electric SUV have been canceled by Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), the joint venture formed specifically for creating a luxury, tech-forward car brand.
In a joint statement, Sony and Honda said they have decided to stop the development and launch of Afeela’s first models, which were bound to go into production at Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio. The Afeela 1 sedan was already in the pre-production phase, while the second model, a four-door SUV, could have gone on sale as early as 2028.
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Source: Sony Honda Mobility
SHM decided to scrap its development plans due to the “changes to the EV market,” but also because Honda chose to cancel its own lineup of all-new EVs based on a bespoke architecture, namely the Acura RSX, Honda 0 Series SUV, and Honda 0 Series Saloon.
According to the joint venture, the Afeela EVs were designed to use certain technologies and assets provided by Honda, but seeing how the Japanese automaker has scrapped its upcoming platform, SHM is no longer able to use the underlying technology.
The decision comes during a rough time for some automakers that rely heavily on U.S. sales. Ford discontinued the F-150 Lightning pickup, Ram canceled the electric 1500 truck, Tesla is about to discontinue the Model S and Model X, and the Chevrolet BrightDrop van has been retired, just to name a few.
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Source: Afeela
At the same time, however, other brands are pushing hard with new models. Rivian has the new R2, BMW is bringing the iX3 and i3 stateside, Volvo debuted the new EX60, and Polestar is making a wagon version of the Polestar 4.
In Afeela’s case, there was always the question of how competitive a $90,000+ electric mid-size sedan with modest specs can be in an increasingly crowded and more affordable market. The Afeela 1 was marketed as a tech-heavy EV that promised to deliver hands-off, eyes-off driving one day, thanks to a 40-strong sensor suite, including 18 cameras, a lidar, nine radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors.
That’s nice for investors, but the bullet points that matter today were a bit lackluster compared to many of its rivals. The sedan had a Tesla-style NACS charge port, a range of around 300 miles, and a maximum charge input of 150 kilowatts.
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