Honda And Sony Are Killing Their Two Afeela Electric Cars

Sony surprised everyone when it dabbled in the car scene at CES 2020 with an electric sedan, followed a year later by an SUV. The tech giant teamed up with Honda in 2022, establishing the Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) joint venture to bring these concepts to production. However, that’s no longer happening, as neither the sedan nor the SUV will ever go on sale.

Development of both vehicles has come to an abrupt end, although the decision is not entirely surprising. Earlier this month, Honda canceled two of its own EVs and a third model that was supposed to resurrect the Acura RSX. In a joint statement released today, Honda and Sony said the automaker’s sweeping changes to its electric car strategy are also affecting the Afeela-branded models intended for sale by the joint venture.

'As a result of Honda’s reassessment of its automobile electrification strategy announced on March 12, 2026 and factoring the changes to the EV market, the underlying assumptions of SHM’s business operations such as the utilization of certain technologies and assets planned to be provided by Honda were fundamentally altered, resulting in the announcement by SHM today to discontinue the development and launch of its first model, AFEELA1, and its second model.'

Afeela SUV prototype

Photo by: Afeela

Not only that, but the two parties will “review SHM’s business direction.” While that may paint a grim picture of the joint venture’s fate, Sony and Honda are not breaking up. The companies intend to announce their “mid- to long-term positioning, as well as contributions to the future of mobility, at the earliest possible opportunity.”

SHM was supposed to kick off customer deliveries of the Afeela 1 late this year. The launch trim was the $102,900 Signature, with a more affordable $89,900 Origin scheduled for a 2027 debut, but those plans obviously won’t materialize. Pre-production had already started at Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio, so canceling the car this late doesn’t bode well for the joint venture established less than four years ago.

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Motor1's Take: Times are tough for Honda, considering it has already said it will book up to $15.8 billion in losses after axing the 0 SUV, 0 Sedan, and the Acura RSX. With the Afeela EVs no longer happening either, these cancellations will further dent the balance sheet. Automakers rarely pull the plug on a product that has already reached the pre-series stage and is rolling off the assembly line.

As you can imagine, such drastic decisions are something companies try to avoid at all costs. Honda now appears to be cutting its losses and rethinking its EV strategy, likely concluding that the planned models wouldn’t have been successful enough.

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