At the CES 2020 show, Sony joined hands with Nvidia, Qualcomm, ZF, Bosch and other suppliers to launch the concept car Vision-S, in which Sony supplied the core components of electric vehicle intelligence - image sensors, audio systems, etc. In January this year, the news of Sony's car manufacturing came out again, and the way it will build the car has become the focus of attention in the industry.
Recently, the mystery was officially revealed. Sony and Honda Motor jointly announced that the two sides will carry out a strategic cooperation and sign a basic agreement. The two companies plan to form a joint venture in 2022 to jointly develop and sell all-electric vehicles (EVs), subject to the signing of a definitive agreement and the approval of the relevant authorities.
Honda Motors is mainly responsible for the production and after-sales service of vehicles, while Sony mainly develops mobile service platforms for its models, while providing support such as sensors and communication technologies.
And electric vehicles are very compatible with Sony Dafa
Tech companies looking for a "second growth curve" is no longer a new story, and the huge automotive market is their best target. At home, Baidu, Huawei, xiaomi are like this, in foreign countries, Apple is like this, sony is also like this. Sony started from the electronics manufacturing industry, in the era when black technology has not yet entered the public eye, Sony is already a representative of hard-core technology in the hearts of many post-80s. But after entering the 21st century, Sony began to show weakness in the ace electronics business.
According to Sony's third quarter 2021 financial report, film and television business revenue accounted for about one-third of the total business revenue, followed by electronic products and solutions business and games and network services, each accounting for about one-fifth of the total business revenue, this revenue ratio means that Sony lacks revolutionary products, and there are still hidden dangers in the long-term development of the future.
In order to maintain the century-old foundation, Sony is also constantly changing itself, Sony once integrated its relatively scattered core business horizontally and integrated into smart phones, but the mobile phone business has been in a state of losing money. With the development of intelligence and electrification, the automobile has become a new mobile terminal. On this new mobile terminal, Sony is able to integrate its own products and services to maximize the comprehensive strength of software and hardware. The intelligence of the car is mainly reflected in the two aspects of intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving. In terms of empowering the intelligent cockpit, Sony's existing games, music, film and television and car networking services can be directly cross-border applications, which has also become Sony's biggest advantage in entering the automotive industry.
In the field of autonomous driving, Sony's image sensors must have names. Vehicle camera is an indispensable part of automatic driving technology, its industrial chain is mainly divided into lenses, modules and sensors several parts, the value of the proportion, modules accounted for 25%, lenses accounted for 25%, CMOS sensors accounted for 50%, in the value chain steadily occupy the core position. At present, almost 90% of the world's mobile phone cameras will use Sony's CMOS sensors, excellent sensors so that Sony has a large market share in lidar, high-precision cameras, VR and AR. At the same time, thanks to the gradual popularization of autonomous driving technology, Sony is also involved in the research and development of sensors for lidar in addition to sensors for cameras.
In January, Sony unveiled a prototype vision-SUV, a pure electric SUV, with up to 40 vehicle sensors, including CMOS optical image sensors, ToF distance sensors, lidar, millimeter-wave radar and other hardware. Not only that, this prototype also supports L2+ level automatic driving, and can be upgraded to L4 level and L5 automatic driving in the future through 5G interconnection. It can also be seen from the configuration of this car that in the field of automatic driving, Sony is forming its own unique competitiveness.
Does Honda need a new partner?
As mentioned above, Sony's unique advantages in entering the automotive industry are mainly reflected in the intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving, but automobile manufacturing involves a very large and complex industrial chain, which is still a complex problem for Sony. In this regard, Honda Motor, japan's second largest car brand, has considerable experience and is certainly the most suitable partner.
From another perspective, as a multinational giant that ranks in the top ten global sales, why did Honda Choose to join hands with Sony at this time?
Electric vehicles are the best carrier of intelligent products, and Honda Motors, which has been facing the transformation of electrification, still needs help at the level of intelligence. According to honda's announced electrification route, Honda will account for 40% of the electric or fuel cell vehicles sold by 2030, and this figure will increase to 80% by 2035, and by 2040, all honda vehicles on sale will be electric vehicles or fuel cell vehicles.
However, in terms of intelligent layout, compared with domestic car companies, especially the new forces of car manufacturing, the backwardness of Japanese cars is already obvious to all. Taking Honda Motor as an example, its intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit technology is only based on the evolution of Honda SENSING and Honda CONNECT, and there is no breakthrough change. In March last year, Honda Motor released its latest generation of in-vehicle systems, the third-generation Honda CONNECT. This new system basically realizes the functions of language control air conditioning, opening and closing sunroof and other vehicle control operations, voice interaction and so on. In terms of vehicle connection functions, functions such as remote car control through the mobile phone App before traveling are not new.
In order to improve its own level of intelligence, in April last year, Honda Motor and General Motors announced a cooperation on battery technology and autonomous driving technology in the North American market. However, compared with General Motors, which directly forms a competitive relationship, finding a cross-border partner is undoubtedly a better choice, and Sony, which has a deep intelligent technology and deep geographical relationship, is the best choice.
As giants in their respective fields, Sony and Honda Automobile jointly build cars is a cooperation that takes what they need, based on Honda's car-making experience, Sony can quickly achieve its goal of making cars; on the other hand, Sony's technical accumulation in the field of intelligence can also quickly improve the intelligent level of Honda automobiles.
As Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibu said in a statement: "While Sony and Honda have many historical and cultural similarities, our areas of technical expertise are very different. So I believe this alliance brings together the strengths of our two companies and offers great possibilities for the future of mobility." ”