Honda+Sony= Afeela…
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Sony and Honda announced their new brand of electric cars called Afeela.
Not sure what this exact model will be called, but we now have the name of the brand at least. Which seems very strange to me. Both Honda and Sony are very famous and respected brands. Why not use these names at all? At least something like “by Sony” or “by Honda”.
The design is nice and simple. Very simple. It could also be one of the many new Chinese electric sedans we now see every day. It also really looks like a true hatchback, which is nice. And it does look nicer and much more modern than Sony’s previous concepts ( I Guess now we’re supposed to forget about those…)
I personally don’t like the interior and could never consider one for my own use. First the stupid yoke steering wheel. Which is something I don’t want under any circumstances. And the huge super wide screens across the whole dashboard. Another thing I never want in my own car. Otherwise, again, nothing surprising or even original.
I’m not sure that Sony really brings to this, except screens everywhere and 45 cameras all around the car. And what they call “an Epic game integration”. I guess you’ll be able to play your Playstation games? Is that it?
Production of the new car will not start until 2025. And US sales aren’t planned before Spring 2026. That’s over 3 years away!
I’m afraid the competition will have a lot to offer in over 3 years. This looks fine now, but it could just look old in 2026. I also hope Honda didn’t put all their “EV Eggs” in this. So far they’ll have the new Prologue and Acura ZDX out by the end of this year. But there’s nothing officially planned after these. Until Affera in 2026. Which means they will totally depend on GM for their near-term EVs. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t plan ahead…
This looks like a total fail before it even hits the streets. Other car makers are leveraging the freedom offered by electrification by making very sexy or very fast or very unique cars. Honda and Sony are offering what exactly? In general I see ALL the Japanese brands totally dropping the ball on the move to EV. They are acting like GM (and the rest of the Big 3) did back in the 70s with the oil crisis by offering 1/2 ass models.
Honda is capable of some really stunning things. Great beautiful cars, as well as complete block headed failures. I wonder which category this will fall into. 2023’s and 2024’s MY products are already planned. So, 2026 isn’t all that far out. Yet, its still going to be forever for Honda who is playing a very dangerous game in the US, called push all upper trims to hybrid in the volume lines, and use old tech for the larger trucks.
Here’s my prediction – it will take them more than two years to figure out that their CR-V and Accord redux is a failure (top trim hybrid-only, cheapened, and dull), simply because of limited supply chain. The Ultium twins will be available in the most modest of volumes and not have any impact on perception of the two brands. Honda will continue to rely on their bigs (Pilot, Odyssey, Ridgeline) for margins, and will continue to slip further behind. By the time this Afeela shows up, no one is gonna know or care WTF Honda’s been doing.
ie – They’re squandering their hybrid game with bad designs, while they wait for their solid state battery research collab to bear fruit. Meanwhile, …..zzzzz. But profits are good – at the moment. When the bottoms falls out of that, we’ll see a 2012 Civic style rush to revamp their mistakes.
PS. Afeela = worst name ever. Might as well have been Chevy making the No Va (Nova) and selling it in Mexico (oh, yes they did). Who buys a car call “doesn’t go”?
I’m not Afeelin it. And yokes are a joke. A dangerous one, you Hondiots.
Afeela??? This sounds like a prescription drug name…I am sure Pfizer much be jealous they did not come up with that one.
If Honda-Sony could not even come up with a decent company name I don’t have much hope for the car itself. It looks like a lot of wasted corporate funds on what look like an EV DOA…
Honda needs to get serious about EVs asap before they get driven out of business. Wasting time with this Sony JV is just another way for Honda to drag its feet on EVs.
Looks stolid when it should look dynamic.
Meh.
agree 100% with X & MAVV….. this thing looks really old…. looks like something out of the the 1980’s talking about the car of the future.
hard pass
#fail
things not looking good for honda…. hence their stock