Recently, Sony Group and Honda Motor announced that the two companies will jointly develop and sell high-value-added electric vehicle products, with the goal of launching the first model in 2025. The two sides have now agreed to form a joint venture to develop and sell electric vehicles and have signed a memorandum of understanding on the transaction..."
I believe that the digital circle and car circle fans who see this news will probably play a "Hodony?" in their hearts. ”（ほんとうに？ /Really? Not only because of the suddenness of the incident, but more importantly, this is the first time that a Japanese digital tycoon has really built a car, and he has also found a car industry to escort the crossover.
In the wave of intelligence, Honda is waiting for a gorgeous turnaround opportunity, and Sony's long-lasting car-making ambitions have finally reached the moment of landing. The "double kitchen ecstasy" of the Dafa world, coupled with their respective aura blessings, reminded me, a "middle-aged man" who does not look at Japanese anime, of the fusion technique in "Dragon Ball".
However, whether or not the "Gotenks" can be sacrificed after a dream linkage is probably not as simple as we think.
A powerful combination? Or do you have pity for the same disease?
From the current point of view, the first wave of crab-eating new car-making forces can survive after the big waves and sandstorms. Among them, Tesla is quite good, and has the momentum of becoming the second toyota in the electric era. What follows is naturally the "new and old bases" in people's perceptions, and the oil trucks under the traditional vision are ruthlessly kicked out of the vision of future development.
However, this division may be started by new forces, but it will definitely not be manipulated by new forces, after all, under the profit-seeking nature of capital, as long as the cost of transformation is less than the future gains, there is a reason to continue. Not to forget that today's electric vehicle industry chain is rapidly maturing, and the difficulty of hatching a new brand that can stand is not much greater than that of a hundred years ago.
In this context, we can see that the valuation peak of the automotive industry has been frequent in recent years, but it has also been accompanied by rollercoaster fluctuations, such as FF, Tesla, and RIVIAN, which has recently fallen into the "price increase storm". The attributes of new energy and intelligence have never been as fascinating as they are today.
As a result, the pressure came to the side of traditional car companies, and the strong people who used to be in the limelight trembled in such a violent change.
Perseverance or betrayal, like Hamlet's soul question, is deafening and has nowhere to hide. This life-and-death choice, shelving it and not caring is only temporary, you will have to face it sooner or later.
Therefore, the mouth is as hard as the like of Toyota Akio, and it is also possible to send seventeen consecutive hairs in one breath without warning, and then bend down to cooperate with the Chinese descendants on an equal footing. The hydrogen energy fantasy of the past was thrown away, and it did look a little chilly, but in the end it was still necessary to bow to the times.
In contrast, Honda's situation is less optimistic, the iMMD hybrid string parallel route is efficient, and the seamless conversion of strong mixing and interming also means that it is a better stopgap measure. But other than that, Honda's position is not very good. The once pure electricity juxtaposition has not stayed in the "oil to electricity stage" until now, the domestic market with plug-in Binzhi to make up the day, the European market Honda e's three electricity can not see.
Not to mention that Honda still lacks a thigh that can give enough global electrification support, and the general Aoteneng platform can only shine in the North American market at most, and the domestic pure electric architecture has not been able to release a big move for a long time.
In this situation, you let Honda achieve 40% sales of EV pure electric and FCV hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2030, 80% in 2035, and completely ban the internal combustion engine in 2040?
Unfortunately, similar scene inferences can be placed on Sony's body.
After nine years of "One Sony" strategy, progress has been slow. Three years ago, I thought about restructuring the imaging department, the home entertainment department, the music department, and the mobile communications department to strike hard with the "consumer electronics" army.
But the question is, does the consumer electronics market at this time still have the world where this hard-core Japanese company can show its fists?
To say that technology, Sony's technical strength can not be questioned; to say that the ecology, Sony can also give you what to do; to say brand influence, I am afraid that many Chinese have to contact Sony products at least once in their lives, and the "Japanese goods" aura thus established is still not to be underestimated to this day.
But all this has not brought gratifying changes to the terminal sales of Sony consumer electronics, the core reason is that the various departments still maintain a certain degree of independence, the technical barriers established by each other still have not been completely broken, even the very charismatic "uncle in charge" has not put this seemingly beautiful strategy in place, the product top is at the top, the praise of "killing crazy" is endless, but the overly extreme showmanship operation is not like a sincere move to seriously march in a big way.
In this way, the hand in hand of Honda and Sony is more like a deep -- "pity for the same disease".
I out of the smart you out of the production capacity, Dafa double to build the car
But no matter how to find common ground, business is business after all, just "pity each other" is far from enough, but also think of ways to cure the "stubborn diseases" of both sides.
Coincidentally, both sides have a "panacea" that the other wants.
In terms of electrification, Sony is the well-deserved originator of the 18650 battery, although the follow-up Panasonic products have become the source of power for Tesla to take off, but this does not mean that Sony's technical reserves in the power battery have been beaten into the cold palace.
In other words, as long as there is money and factory investment, Honda and Sony can form a self-sufficient supply relationship without suffering from the constraints of Chinese and Korean battery giants.
In addition, the intelligent driving assistance and intelligent cockpit that Honda has not been able to get out of the hand can be handed over to Sony directly. The latter's package covers self-developed sensors, self-developed chips, human-computer interaction, application ecology, these aspects of Sony's technical reserves can be solid and excellent, VISION-S, VISION-S 02 concept car as a "model room" also gives people enough confidence in the future.
Imagine how exciting these longboards will be to make up for Honda's shortcomings and finally present a product.
On the other hand, honda, which has been "empowered", is not in a relatively weak position, in addition to its own huge production capacity to meet market demand, the electrification strategy it has previously launched is also prepared for the underlying technology related to the driving experience.
And don't forget, Honda's pure electric sub-brand "e: N" was first launched in the Chinese market, and it is matched with the intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture covering FWD, RWD, AWD, exclusive design language and full-stack intelligent control ecological OS, which if it can be connected with Sony's ecology in the future, combined with Honda's unique insight into driving pleasure, becoming a "JDM leader" in the era of electric vehicles is not without this strength.
The only obstacle to such a beautiful business vision is not the technical limitations of the parties themselves, but the common occurrence of such cases in the business world.
Far from it, let's say that in China, Baidu and Geely's cooperation with Jidu, Huawei's cooperation with Xiaokang's AITO, Ali's cooperation with SAIC's Zhiji... These routines that are played indiscriminately in the Internet car-making circle have given Chinese car fans the confidence to shoot their chests at consumers around the world and say that they have "eaten and seen", not to mention the various tumultuous operations brought to us by the new forces of various foundry cars earlier.
This also shows that honda and Sony cooperation has some hindsight, but this is not a bad thing, after all, the latecomer advantage + brand reputation + technology accumulation is enough to accumulate enough catch-up capital for the Dafa combination, even if the Internet's money-burning style is also the same, it will also make a group of new car-making forces only look forward to it.
What's more, this is not even the whole of Sony's desire to build a car.
After all, in this cooperation intention, we did not see "Sony Mobility Inc." (Sony mobility) figure, which shows that Sony can give Honda a bonus, is likely to be based on the "One Sony" strategy under the consumer electronics department's technical strength, and the real three electric technology used to build and sell cars, vehicle-level sensing elements, terminal channels and even exclusive industrial design language, will not necessarily meet with everyone in the name of "Honda" in 2025, but keep their own use, put the possibility of success in as much basket as possible.
In, it is the "Sony" car running all over the place; the retreat is also the "Sony" supply all over the world.
It's hard not to say that Sony really won the hemp.
Written at the end: In any case, I just want to sigh first, "The world is really becoming more and more incomprehensible." The huge profits brought by car manufacturing are well known, but this wave of lively scenes of everyone who is down to build cars, to this day I am a little confused, even if it seems to be a clear division of labor cooperation, Sony does not forget to leave a real end of the "trumpet", the temptation can be imagined.
On the other hand, this cooperation is not a sure deal for Honda, at least Sony does not intend to do its best for the future of its compatriots, and even explicitly gives an option to "replace", which is not a small sense of crisis. I hope that the cooperation will bring Honda the imminent change, rather than the steady victory of god teammates, after all, at least the Chinese market will not leave too many opportunities for this arrogance.