Honda and Sony Announce Plan to Start New EV Brand Together

What happens when an automaker like Honda teams up with a tech company like Sony to create a new brand of electric vehicles? The world could find out in the not-so-distant future as the two industry giants announced today that they will work together to jointly develop and sell new electric vehicles.

While Honda and Sony are still in the process of negotiating the details of such a partnership, they said in a joint statement that the goal is to create the new company within the year. The ambitious plan is also said to include selling the newly formed brand’s first EV model by 2025, with further plans to commercialize and provide mobility services.

The new company has yet to be named­–Sonda or Hony mashups immediately come to mind–but the business plan is for it to handle the design, development, planning, and sales aspects. However, Honda will be charged with manufacturing the vehicles using its facilities. Sony is said to be responsible for building the platform for the mobility service.

Honda last year said it’s committed to only selling battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles by 2040. The gradual increase in those types of vehicles over the next two decades will coincide with declining production and the eventual elimination of the automaker’s internal-combustion offerings. The first two of the brand’s new EV models–created in a partnership with GM and not part of the Sony team-up–are expected to arrive on our shores starting in 2024, one being the Honda Prologue and the other being part of Acura’s premium lineup.

At the announcement today, Sony had its Vision-S 02 prototype electric crossover from the CES technology show on display. That, plus an earlier Vision-S 01 electric sedan, had already indicated Sony’s intention to enter the EV market in some capacity.

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