Sony strives to enter the field of EVs Japanese media: or rewrite the map of automotive power

Reference News Network reported on January 18 that according to the Kyodo News Agency website, as Sony Group shows a willingness to fully participate in the field of pure electric vehicles, cross-industry global competition may accelerate. Sony will challenge new areas with the strength of the entire group. The power map of automobile manufacturers may usher in major changes.

surprise

"We will continue to explore our involvement in the EV market in a comprehensive manner." As the world's largest consumer electronics show was ushered in in Las Vegas, Sony Chairman and President Kenichiro Yoshida officially "declared war." Although an electric car was first released two years ago, Sony is seen as negative about pushing the mass production of cars. After falling into a moment of silence, the scene erupted in warm applause.

As a rising star, Sony fought hard for this event that attracted global attention. Due to the rapid spread of the new mutant strain of the new coronavirus, Aomi Kerong, many companies gave up participating in on-site activities, and Sony chose to release heavy news in this case. In addition, the prototype released uses the world's best-selling sports utility vehicle (SUV), which also reflects the determination to enter the market.

The threshold for getting involved is not high

What has turned around is that with the intensification of the decarbonization trend, the rapid development of the electric vehicle market has brought business opportunities. Internally, in addition to sensors and smartphone-related communication technologies cultivated by the camera business, there are also many aspects of accumulation that accompany the production of audio and video. These are all areas that need to be consolidated in the existing automotive industry.

Simple electric vehicles have fewer parts than gasoline vehicles, lowering the threshold for getting involved. The trend of electronic and electrical companies involved is that overseas companies are ahead of Japan. Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industries will start OEM production around 2024, and Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi Technology has also set up a research and development company. The media also reported on Apple's EV program, which is named after the R&D code name "Titan" in the United States.

Launch a chase

For traditional automakers, how to deal with it is also a top priority. Tesla in the United States, which focuses on electric vehicles, will increase its global sales to about 936,000 units in 2021. Compared with Japanese car dealers' sales in 2020, Tesla has surpassed Subaru's about 879,000 units and approached Mazda's about 1.243 million units (all data released as of January last year).

Toyota Motor Corporation, which topped the U.S. new vehicle sales list for the first time in 2021 and achieved the world's largest scale, is also actively strengthening the EV market. Toyota will invest about 4 trillion yen (about 220 billion yuan) by 2030 to increase the number of models to 30, twice as many as originally planned. Honda announced that it will "say goodbye to internal combustion engines" in all new cars in 2040.

Seiji Sugiura, a senior analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Investigation Center, said of Sony's EV business that "accidents and breakdowns will be a problem to avoid accidents and breakdowns first" and predicted that "the involvement of popular brands around the world may pose a threat to existing manufacturers."