This joint venture is 50/50 between the companies.
Sony presented two electric concepts and announced that it was looking for partners to enter the EV market at the start of 2022. It found a partner in Honda in March and the two decided to create a 50/50 joint venture. The “New Company” was the name it used back then. Now, the final name has been announced. Sony Honda Mobility Inc., based in Tokyo will be established before end of year.
In 2025, EV sales will begin when Sony and Honda both start providing mobility services. The press release doesn’t give any details, but it does reveal that the responsibilities will be divided between the two companies. Sony Honda Mobility Inc will benefit from “Honda’s cutting-edge safety and environmental technologies, mobility development capabilities and vehicle body manufacturing technology as well as after-sales management experience.”
Sony will also provide its expertise in the development, application, and telecommunication of imaging, sensing and network technologies to create a new generation mobility and services that are closely aligned to users and the environment.
Both companies aim to produce “high-value electric vehicles (EVs),” although it is too early to know if Sony Vision-S 01 sedan or Vision-S 02 crossover will have any impact on the next generation of EVs. Honda, which is fashionably late to EVs, has already signed a deal to use its Ultium platform.
Honda’s long-term goal is to increase sales of fuel cell and battery-powered EVs to 40% of global annual deliveries by the end the decade. This percentage will rise to 80 percent by 2035, before Honda decides to retire the combustion engine entirely in 2040.
A new dedicated electric platform for this purpose will be unveiled in the second half decade. It is called e:Architecture and will be launched on a number of US-bound vehicles before moving to other markets. Separately, the deal with GM allows large Acura and Honda-badged SUVs to go on sale in North America during the 2024 model year.