Sony and Honda are starting a new company to make electric vehicles
By Michelle Toh, CNN Business
Two of Japan’s biggest names in business are teaming up.
Sony and Honda announced Friday that they plan to start a joint venture to make and sell electric vehicles. The company will be established later this year, and deliveries will begin by 2025.
Details of the agreements are still being worked out, and will be subject to regulatory approval, the two firms said in a joint statement.
“The new company is expected to plan, design, develop, and sell the EVs, but not own and operate manufacturing facilities,” they added. Honda will handle production at one of its factories.
Sony will be tasked with creating a platform that will provide mobility services, it said, without elaborating further.
The Japanese conglomerate is best known for its electronic gadgets and entertainment products.
But it has recently signaled a desire to jump into the auto industry, unveiling its first prototype vehicle at the CES consumer tech trade show two years ago. Sony started testing the car, called the Vision-S 01, on public roads in Europe in December 2020.
This year, the company took another step by confirming plans to launch an electric car company and debuting a new sports utility vehicle concept.
“With our imaging and sensing, cloud, 5G and entertainment technologies combined with our content mastery, we believe Sony is well positioned as a creative entertainment company to redefine mobility,” Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said at CES in January.
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said Friday that the companies could work well together.
“Although Sony and Honda are companies that share many historical and cultural similarities, our areas of technological expertise are very different.”
“Therefore, I believe this alliance, which brings together the strengths of our two companies, offers great possibilities,” he said in the statement.
— Anna Cooban contributed to this report.
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