Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), the joint venture company co-owned by Sony and Honda, will be making a major announcement early next month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023. The announcement will be made on January 4, direct from the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Along with that promise, Sony Honda Mobility released a short teaser video, showing what looks like the outline of a vehicle’s hood. We know that Honda and Sony are engaged in the creation of a new electric vehicle that is filled to the brim with high-tech componentry.
Although Sony Honda Mobility is still withholding details, it previously announced that it intends for its first EV to start rolling off the line in 2026. That line, specifically, will be located in North America, and online sales are being prioritized in the region. The vehicle will also be exported to Japan soon after, and production may eventually begin there, too.
More: Sony And Honda To Debut Their First EV In 2026 In North America And Japan
Yasuhide Mizuno, the CEO of Sony Honda Mobility, said previously that the goal of the company is to create a “high value-added product” that is characterized by three tenets: Autonomy, Augmentation, and Affinity.
While there are a lot of details to confirm, Sony Honda Mobility has promised that Level 3 autonomous driving will be possible under certain circumstances (though Level 2+ will be available in more situations). It has also suggested that subscription services will be used to add value to the vehicle. In addition, reports suggest that the as-yet unnamed vehicle could get non-automotive Sony technology integrated into it, such as the PlayStation 5.
Honda, meanwhile, will provide the joint venture with its production expertise, as well as its engineering, areas that have tripped up other automotive startups looking to break into the EV space and disrupt the dealership model. The two companies have not yet disclosed whether after-sales support will be provided by Honda or SHM.
Pre-orders for the first Sony Honda Mobility vehicle will open in the first half of 2025, the company has said, and sales will start before the end of that same year.
