Honda is developing electric cars, both independently and with Sony. The next electric car from the collaboration between Honda and Sony will be – you guessed it – an SUV.
This year, Honda is launching no fewer than two brand-new electric models. Under its own brand name, but as part of an electric model family that Honda calls the 0-series. But more electric models that Honda is involved with are emerging. For example, Honda has a collaboration with Sony called Sony Honda Mobility, which also develops and sells electric cars under the Afeela brand. The Afeela 1, shown last year during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was the brand’s first production car, and during the current edition of that technology fair, Afeela is looking ahead to its second.
The perhaps somewhat uninspired ‘Afeela Prototype’ concept model is, unlike the Afeela 1, not a low, stretched liftback, but an SUV. The newcomer – which may be called Afeela 2 – is expected to hit the market in the United States in 2028. In terms of technology, the SUV builds on ‘the core of the Afeela 1’ according to Honda, but offers more space. That is also the only thing said about the car. Refreshingly little.
The Afeela 1 is a 4.9-meter long EV, comparable in length to a Volkswagen ID7. It has a 245 hp electric motor both front and rear and a 91-kWh battery in its floor, good for a relatively modest range of 482 kilometers. Fast charging is possible at 150 kW, which also doesn’t blow its competitors away. In the United States, the Afeela 1 will have a starting price of roughly 90 thousand. So it’s not a bargain, and its SUV alternative likely won’t be either.