Properly, it was certain to occur. With Honda ditching its 0 Collection sedan and SUV earlier this month, it might little sense to maintain the associated Afeela fashions round, so the corporate and its associate Sony have collectively introduced their cancellation.
The information impacts each the Afeela 1 sedan – which, just like the 0 Collection, was solely months away from coming into manufacturing at Honda’s shiny new EV hub in Ohio – in addition to the SUV that was previewed by a prototype at CES simply this yr. In response to the press launch, the cancellation of the 0 Collection had “basically altered” the tenets of the enterprise operation, akin to the usage of Honda’s applied sciences and property.
Sony and Honda stated it might evaluate the enterprise path of their three way partnership, Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), evaluating the preliminary objective to “develop and promote excessive value-added mobility merchandise and to supply mobility-related companies,” in addition to the present EV market. They added that they plan to collectively announce their future path and their mid- to long-term positioning “on the earliest attainable alternative.”
Whereas anticipated, the information is an additional blow to the Ohio EV plant, which value Honda a large US$1 billion (RM3.99 billion) to construct. The corporate now stands to lose as much as 2.5 trillion yen (RM6.5 billion) over the following couple of years on account of this and different missteps.
It additionally places paid to Sony’s ambitions to enter the automotive sector, at the least for now. At CES in 2020, simply earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, the electronics big confirmed the Imaginative and prescient-S, a curiously properly thought-out idea showcasing its applied sciences. Though the corporate denied the automotive was headed to manufacturing, it then launched an SUV model in 2022, earlier than finally partnering with Honda later that yr.
The cancellations might present some respite from the affect of US tariffs, the dismantling of EV incentives there and the decline in Honda’s competitiveness in Asia, significantly in China. It does imply, nonetheless, that the corporate will lose out on the present uptick in EV gross sales as gas costs proceed to skyrocket within the wake of the Iran battle.
GALLERY: Afeela 1
GALLERY: 2026 Afeela Prototype
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