Written by | Little devil
From the first time Sony brought the VISION-S concept into the public eye, sensitive people have smelled that the Japanese entertainment technology giant seems to have a hint of ambition to enter the automotive field.
It's just that at first Sony was very clever about this matter. In the early days, when they showed concept cars, they always focused on entertainment and software to prove to the public that they could provide better technical services (including self-driving technology) than traditional automakers.
So the signal that Sony's concept car sent to the outside world at that time seemed to be more like showing off technology than really wanting to build an electric car.
But until the CES show in North America in January this year, Sony seemed to be really considering mass production of its concept car.
Because when they showed the second concept car VISION-S 02, they also expressed their intention to "explore the commercial launch of this car", and also set up a new company, Sony Mobility, to explore the development of mobility and electric vehicles.
After Sony's car manufacturing got a real hammer, everyone began to care about how it was ready to start its own car-making business. Of course, for large enterprises with funds and strength, building their own factories and cars is the best way, on the one hand, they can grasp the initiative, on the other hand, product quality control is also better grasped.
But as analysts point out, the likelihood that Sony will choose to build its own factory and build a car is very low. Because for it with no experience in car building, it is not only the factory, equipment and personnel that must be paid, in order to push the two prototypes to mass production as soon as possible and form an effective competitiveness, time is also a very urgent issue.
So in February of this year, Sony's chief financial officer told the outside world, "We will not start producing batteries or cars ourselves", and will focus on finding partners. In this way, it basically shows that Sony wants to take the second way - the OEM route.
So who will its foundry partners choose? This question has been answered recently.
On March 4, Sony and its compatriot Honda signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of electric vehicles, saying the two would form a joint venture this year and plan to start selling the first electric vehicle in 2025. Honda will assume the responsibilities of the automaker, while Sony will be responsible for providing "entertainment, networking and other mobile services."
At present, the strategic alliance between the two is still in the discussion stage, there is no specific information about how much capital they intend to inject in the joint venture, or the composition of the two companies' shares in the joint venture, and they have not revealed whether the new car on the market in 2025 is one of Sony's two VISION-S concept cars, nor which markets they intend to launch the new car.
However, we guess that for a joint venture of the scale of Sony and Honda, their model products will certainly not be limited to Japan, and they will not be without action for the rapid growth of new energy vehicles in Europe, the United States, China and other new energy vehicles.
In addition, when asked whether the joint venture will have new partners to join, both companies said they were open to bringing in other companies. But Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibu added that Honda will continue to develop its own electric vehicle strategy and do it separately from the joint venture.
Sony's partnership with Honda to build the car is expected to be mutually beneficial, as the two companies point out, because it combines Honda's manufacturing expertise, sales and service experience with Sony's technology priorities, especially imaging, sensing and networking.
We actually hope that with this cooperation, Honda can really get on the right track of electrification.
Like most other Japanese automakers, Honda has been very slow to develop electric vehicles. While they finally seem to have taken some action under the leadership of the new CEO and former head of R&D, Mitsube Toshihiro, they are still far behind other mainstream car companies.
As we talked about before, Honda has not really created a global electric vehicle platform so far, but only relies on the market policies of different regions to launch individual products, and the promotion of electric vehicles has been very passive.
Europe is Honda's earliest electric vehicle market, and Honda has threatened to achieve 100% electrification in Europe by 2022. But in addition to the Honda e, which positions boutique electric cars in 2020, Honda has not followed up with other new pure electric models.
However, there are rumors that Honda is expected to launch its second pure electric vehicle in Europe in the second quarter of this year, which may be an HR-V pure electric version based on the Honda SUV e: prototype.
For the Chinese market, Honda did not debut two electric vehicles with honda logos until October last year, the eNP1 and eNS1.
Although these two cars are from Honda's new e:N Architecture F small and medium-sized car platform, but from the perspective of the mediocre three-electric system and battery capacity of the two models, the e:N Architecture F platform is most likely not a new pure electric platform.
It is difficult to say whether the follow-up Honda e:N Architecture W medium and large car platform models are competitive, and even let it really get rid of the suspicion of "oil to electricity".
In the U.S. market, honda is still moving slowly, with its first mass-market prologue EV not available until 2024, and it will rely on GM's Ultium platform technology rather than Honda's own platform, and manufacturing is fully entrusted to GM.
Obviously, Honda is shouting about positive transformation, but the action has been dragging its feet. With partner Sony's active exploration in the field of electric vehicles, it may be a kind of supervision for Honda.
The concern, though, is that Sony is also a Japanese company, which is known globally for its conservatism (in a commercial sense).
Although Sony is a technology company and is also developing faster than many Japanese companies, there is still a sense of traditionalism in the entire Japanese industry, which seems to invisibly hinder their bold reform and bold innovation ideas in the field of electric vehicles.
But anyway, Sony has now set up "Sony Mobility", which shows that it is interested in promoting the industry, so maybe it can influence Honda in a positive way.
Of course, whether it is Sony or Honda, we all hope to see them achieve positive results in the electrification business in 2025. 【iDailycar】