Sony Honda Mobility, the joint venture company by two of Japan's largest technology and automotive companies, has unveiled the name of its new electric vehicle car brand: Afeela.
The announcement was made by the JV's CEO, Yasuhide Mizuno, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during parent company Sony's press conference.
As the new name and logo debuted on screen, a prototype version of what appears to be the company's Vision-S concept car rolled onstage with a new front end sporting the Afeela logo. In fact, the logo appears on a screen embedded in the front end that can also display information to passersby like the weather, the car's state of charge, or, as they showed onstage, an advertisement for Spiderman: No Way Home. It's hard to tell how much of the car is carryover from the now-years-old Vision-S prototype and how much is all new; we'll be checking with Sony Honda Mobility, err... Afeela, to find out.
Mizuno San didn't offer very much explanation as to why the name Afeela was chosen, except to say that the word 'feel' is at the heart of the mobility experience they want to build, where the car both make you feel something and also senses what you feel.
Gallery: Afeela Prototype
The CEO also gave some concrete dates for Afeela's first car to appear on the market. Pre-orders will start in the first half of 2025 with actual sales being booked before the year's end. The very first shipments will go to North America in Spring of 2026.
Other executives and partners were welcomed on stage during the press conference to drop tidbits here and there including the car will have 45 sensors and cameras inside and out. Thanks to Sony's side of the partnership, it will also offer best-in-class entertainment for movies, music, and games inside the car. Qualcomm will provide its best Snapdragon chips to power the car's tech, and Epic Games will provide its Unreal Engine for graphical interfaces.
