Recently, Honda and Sony said that the two sides have signed a basic agreement to set up a joint venture this year to jointly develop and sell electric vehicles and provide commercial mobility services.
It is understood that in this cooperation, Honda will use its mobile product development capabilities, body manufacturing technology and after-sales service management experience accumulated over the years to combine with Sony's development and operation achievements in image sensing, communications, networking and entertainment technologies.
It is expected that by 2025, honda and Sony's new companies will start selling the first electric vehicle, the new company will only be involved in the planning, design, development and sales of electric vehicles, but will not own manufacturing facilities, production will be the responsibility of Honda manufacturing plant, Sony is responsible for developing and providing mobility service platforms to the new company.
In response, Honda Motor Corporation President and CEO Mibu Toshiro said, "In the new company, our goal is to lead the innovation, evolution and expansion of global mobility, and we hope to integrate the technology assets of the two companies through Honda's cutting-edge environment, safety knowledge and technology delivery, providing unlimited possibilities for the future of mobility." ”
When it comes to Sony's entry into the car track, it must start from 2020. At cess 2020, Sony unveiled the "VISION-S" concept for the first time, aiming to drive further development in the mobility space, and showcased its concept car VISION-S 01.
In order to make this concept really land, Sony began public road testing in Europe in December of the same year, verifying the safety of the image and sensing technology installed inside and outside the car, as well as the user experience of the human-machine interface (HMI) system, and began 5G environmental driving testing in April last year.
As VISION-S development enters a new phase, Sony also demonstrated vision-S 02 at CES 2022, which shows great potential in autonomous driving, vehicle personalization, remote control, in-car entertainment and so on. At the same time, Sony also announced that it will set up a company called Sony Mobility this spring, and the new partnership with Honda is also one of the paths for Sony to seek new development.