Well, it was sure to occur. With Honda ditching its 0 Series sedan and SUV earlier this month, it will little sense to maintain the related Afeela models around, so the corporate and its partner Sony have jointly announced their cancellation.
The news affects each the Afeela 1 sedan – which, just like the 0 Series, was only months away from entering production at Honda’s shiny recent EV hub in Ohio – in addition to the SUV that was previewed by a prototype at CES just this yr. In line with the press release, the cancellation of the 0 Series had “fundamentally altered” the tenets of the business operation, comparable to the usage of Honda’s technologies and assets.
Sony and Honda said it will review the business direction of their three way partnership, Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), evaluating the initial purpose to “develop and sell high value-added mobility products and to offer mobility-related services,” in addition to the present EV market. They added that they plan to jointly announce their future direction and their mid- to long-term positioning “on the earliest possible opportunity.”
While anticipated, the news is an extra blow to the Ohio EV plant, which cost Honda an enormous US$1 billion (RM3.99 billion) to construct. The corporate now stands to lose as much as 2.5 trillion yen (RM6.5 billion) over the subsequent couple of years in consequence of this and other missteps.
It also puts paid to Sony’s ambitions to enter the automotive sector, at the very least for now. At CES in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, the electronics giant showed the Vision-S, a curiously well thought-out concept showcasing its technologies. Although the corporate denied the automotive was headed to production, it then released an SUV version in 2022, before ultimately partnering with Honda later that yr.
The cancellations may provide some respite from the impact of US tariffs, the dismantling of EV incentives there and the decline in Honda’s competitiveness in Asia, particularly in China. It does mean, nonetheless, that the corporate will lose out on the present uptick in EV sales as fuel prices proceed to skyrocket within the wake of the Iran war.
GALLERY: Afeela 1
GALLERY: 2026 Afeela Prototype
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This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
