Sony And Honda EV Team Up Will Be Here By 2026

There is no denying that the adoption of EVs across the world is gathering speed. The pace of this growth could be gauged from the fact that the share of EVs in global light vehicle sales stood at just 0.44% in 2014. By 2021, this figure had surged to 9.49%. Fast forward to 2022, and in the first five months alone, EV sales constituted a sizable 12.3% of the light vehicles market (via EETimes). In numerical terms, EV sales of light vehicles — which stood at just 315,000 units in 2014 — surged to more than 6.5 million units in 2021. 

It is becoming evident that this rising market share of EVs has come at the expense of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. Interestingly, this healthy growth has come despite range anxiety and concerns about the true environmental impacts of EVs. With more than 20% of the global EV market as of 2021, Tesla is the undisputed leader in this space. Unfortunately, traditional ICE carmakers have been too slow to react to the onslaught of EVs, leading to virtually unknown companies — many of them from China — topping the EV sales charts.

The only exception to this seems to be Volkswagen, which — as of 2021 — held around 9.8% of the global EV sales. Other players like Honda, Toyota, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, and BMW are yet to make a noticeable impact on the global EV market. The dominance of relatively unknown upstarts in the EV space has led to some rather unlikely partnerships. Honda, for example, joined hands with GM earlier this year to develop affordable electric vehicles. In another such instance, Sony and Honda are coming together to create a premium electric car within the next four years.

In June 2022, Sony and Honda signed a joint venture to develop new electric cars. The plan was to work together, tap into each other's strengths, and deliver a compelling range of electric cars. Four months on, the partnership has a new name — Sony Honda Mobility — and both companies seem to have a clearer goal of what they intend to achieve. While they're still some time away from determining the pricing, battery range, and the platform on which the new EVs will be based, the plan is to get the vehicles' production ready by 2026.

According to Reuters, Sony has been entrusted with developing the car's software system. This includes the car's onboard controllers and cloud-based services powering its entertainment and payment systems. The vehicle is also likely to feature a bevy of connectivity features and could also lock features behind a subscription tier, the report added. The car may be a Level 3 autonomous vehicle that will allow users to ride along without watching the road. Honda's responsibility will be to decide the platform on which to base the vehicle and to deal with issues like sourcing the bright battery supplier and deciding on the electric motors that will power the vehicles. The Reuters report adds that Honda could make these future electric cars at the company's Ohio plant.