At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday, Sony and Honda Mobility announced the brand name for their electric vehicle joint venture, "Afeela".  Afeela plans to demonstrate a new relationship between people and mobility with its corporate purpose “Move people, through the pursuit of innovation with diverse inspirations.”

During the announcement, Afeela showed their concept car that will serve as the basis for a production vehicle slated to go on the market at the beginning of 2026.

The soft lines of the concept are designed to make occupants feel like they are in a cocoon of safety. The interior has an airy, minimalist design to reduce distractions. A new human interface, HMI*4, will provide a personalized in-car experience with augmented reality and cloud-service connectivity to provide entertainment beyond driving.

The platform is equipped with a powerful new Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis for maximum computing power, and it will need it to run the 45 cameras and sensors inside and out. Updates over the air will come via the built-in 5G network.

Driving autonomy is a big push in the industry currently, and the Afeela concept is no exception. Afeela promises Level-3 automated driving in limited conditions and Level-2+ in certain situations, such as urban driving.

Afeela did not release mechanical specifications such as battery capacity, expected range, or power outputs. Still, they did indicate that it was all-wheel drive, meaning that it likely has a dual motor setup.

The Afeela concept is roughly 193 inches long and 75 inches wide, making it about the same size as a Ford Fusion, but with a wheelbase 6 inches longer than the Fusion, the Afeela promises to have a very spacious interior.

For Honda, this partnership with Sony helps Honda with its slow start in the electric vehicle segment.  Honda’s first EV, the Prologue was developed in partnership with General Motors using their Ultium BEV platform and is due out in 2024.

 

View full article

? Talk about a big YAWN of excitement. To me the outside is as boring as it can come and I do not get this cocoon feeling.

I hate the Yoke as this forces hands to be 9 & 3 rather than the safer 10 and 2 position. In fact that is one of my observations of people who have the Tesla with a Yoke and how they one hand drive at the bottom of the steering yoke, not very safe or responsive to road issues.

Interior is very minimalist of blah for me. Never did get into the minimalist thing, but this car will sell to the Sony faithful as well as the Honda Faithful which are anything but excitement of drivers.

Meh, ?

People want a Honda, they don't want an Afeela, because they don't even know what an Afeela is.  This is just yet another aero car with a plain, no style interior with screens.  Boring.

12 hours ago, smk4565 said:

People want a Honda, they don't want an Afeela, because they don't even know what an Afeela is.  This is just yet another aero car with a plain, no style interior with screens.  Boring.

Agreed. They must have shared a beer or two with the design folks over at Daimler before coming up with this. 

Bland, bland, bland...very much an appliance. 

Clean styling to the extreme of perhaps becoming the most blandly styled vehicle, but I like that there are minimal trendy styling cliches.  I think the earlier concepts were more attractive.  I like that it has lidar.  They will probably get the yoke to work properly, but there seem to be better solutions for visibility of the instrument panel.