Text: Civil Engineering. Tesla's "booming" has led to it becoming a "global public enemy", and any brand that wants to make a difference in the field of new energy vehicles will regard it as a direct competitor.
But there are only a few brands that can really make Tesla sideways, and our Chinese brands are the mainstay. However, some traditional car powerhouses are obviously not convinced, such as Sony and Honda, which officially joined forces to build cars.
Sony Group and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. first announced their joint venture in March 2022, and have since unveiled only one concept model. It is only now that new developments have flowed out:
Sony Honda Mobility will launch three electric vehicles by 2030, including a sedan, a compact car and an SUV, all built on the same platform. Among them, the first sedan will be launched in 2025; Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) will be launched in 2027; An affordable compact sedan will be launched in 2028. And the main competitive target of all models is Tesla, I have to say, there is a sense of "newborn calves are not afraid of tigers".
Sony Honda's confidence comes from**? Let's take a look at its already unveiled model, the "Afeela Electric Car".
As the brand's first car launched in collaboration with Honda Mobility, its body is simple and sleek, and the overall shape is streamlined, and it is equipped with lidar, electronic rearview mirrors, hidden door handles, etc.
The exterior design adopts a through-type daytime running lights, the headlights are very slender, the middle is a luminous logo, the front face adopts a closed design, there are no redundant lines on the side, the wheels are closed-type design, and the rear is still the through-type taillights that we are familiar with.
As far as design is concerned, it has not jumped out of our impression of the new energy vehicle design style, and several eye-catching designs have long been seen in our domestic brand models. Tesla, with the alternative design of the Cybertruck, has also moved to another dimension, and the design of Afeela is not enough.
In terms of technical specs, the Afeela has a dual-motor system with all-wheel drive. The motor on the front and rear axles output 241 horsepower, respectively, and from a 910 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Owners can charge up to 150 kilowatts of direct current and up to 11 kilowatts for alternating current charging.
The whole data is not amazing, it can only be regarded as the mainstream level in the current market, and its listing event is 2025, and the market at that time does not know how far it will be involved.
In terms of intelligent driving, the pre-production model has 45 sensors, including lidar and 8 cameras, equipped with Qualcomm chips, and has L3 autonomous driving capabilities. Although Sony is indeed very strong in the field of sensors, it is more difficult to implement autonomous driving, and it is basically impossible for a newly established company to surpass Tesla in the field of autonomous driving.
In addition, the new car is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon digital chassis, as well as Epic's Unreal Engine 5 and Sony's PlayStation's DualSense controller, which can be connected to the center display. If the imaginative PS5 can really get on the car, it can save 5000 yuan for the majority of players landline, worthy of Sony.
It is true that Sony's entertainment business is very capable, and it may bring more unexpected technological experiences to the car system. However, consumer demand for car entertainment is actually not high, according to the current policy, drivers focus on driving safety, and simply do not have much energy for entertainment.
In fact, the in-car entertainment function of audio-visual integration provided by Sony is the core function of afeela, which is not fundamentally different from the entertainment function of electric vehicles in China, and it is only a matter of time before it is surpassed.
Written at the end: In fact, in addition to touching Tesla, Sony Honda has previously bombarded Chinese cars, saying that "Chinese electric vehicles will only arrange icons, and there are no real technical surprises". However, in the trend of global vehicle electrification, if Japan wants to return to the glory of fuel vehicles in the field of electric vehicles, it needs to continuously strengthen the research and development and innovation of related technologies, rather than touching porcelain everywhere.