Sony Honda Mobility Afeela 1

ProjectWHaT
In person preview of the Afeela

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So, the biggest feature of the car is the option of being distracted by watching Sony Pictures movies on a large display, while having your passengerseated child swiping your navigation map left and right and all over the place?
 
I was wondering why Sony and Honda kept pushing forward on this, but remembering when it was first announced and the recent mega disaster that was Concord, it makes more sense.

This is basically Sony's response to both the belief that Apple was moments away from getting into the car business themselves and that self driving cars would be an established thing on the market by now. Only by the time Apple quietly abandoned their car plans to chase the AI craze instead, and it became apparent that FSD is still many years out at best (and that most people don't even really want it anymore), Sony had already plowed too much money into it to just quietly can the project and try to explain the loss to their shareholders.

So they have to see it through even if they take a huge beating on it because the perceived market segment for this kind of vehicle never materialized, and Honda likely doesn't care too much if it flops because their mobility arm will be eating the loss, so it stays off the main company's books even though their name is on it.
 
www.theverge.com

Sony and Honda’s Afeela electric car will start at $89,900

The Afeela is coming into focus.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

$90,000

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At its press conference at CES today, Sony Honda Mobility announced pricing and preorder details for Afeela. The vehicle will come in two trims: the $89,900 Afeela 1 Origin, and the $102,900 Afeela 1 Signature. That price includes a complimentary three-year subscription to a variety of in-car features, including the company’s Level 2+ driver assist and an AI-powered personal assistant. Pre-orders start today, and interested buyers can plunk down a refundable $200 deposit to get in line to buy one.

The pre-order details aren’t all we’re getting from Sony Honda Mobility this week. Tomorrow, the company will hold another press conference to outline the customer experience of shopping for and owning an Afeela.
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I think the car's introduction in GT7 has been somewhat botched, which - for me at least - throws a negative light on it. It is available for free in the game, so there is no worth as such and you cannot sell it. You also can't remove it from your garage - once you have it, you're stuck with it. It doesn't drive that well and you can change virtually nothing other than the tire compound, so you cannot improve handling, styling or aerodynamics. And GT7 has no specific races for EV cars, so there are no events for which the car qualifies in particular.

So how exactly was putting the Afeela in GT7 (as-is at least) promotion for it?

EDIT: Isn't 90k USD a bit steep for what you're getting? The Afeela doesn't appear to have any qualities to make it stand out above other EVs, especially for that price. And I understand the chin rubbing about the "media bar". It would mostly been distracting for other drivers trying to read it, and thus a safety risk, no? And how long before they put ads on it? Well, it seems the car is botched IRL too, so at least it's a consistent experience.
 
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what gets me is how they advertise the "3-year complimentary subscription" to the ADAS and infotainment...

So after that you have to either pay up, or have your cars' features locked away? Sure, I'd love to pay 90k to be extorted by a bland EV.

The absolute state of the car industry. I know others do it already, but framing it as if the customer should be grateful for the subscription being free initially is so shameless. Sure, THAT justifies the 90k pricepoint, good job they put it on the presentation!
 
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They should add option to make it sound like a vacuum cleaner as a joke.

Sony Honda Mobility Joins Forces with Polyphony Digital to Develop e-Motor Sound for AFEELA: https://www.shm-afeela.com/en/news/2025-01-06/

Think they will struggle to sell at that price given the range from that battery size. It will be very dated by 2026 and even more so in 2027, it is already miles behind cars released years ago as it is.
 
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Rocket Racer
what gets me is how they advertise the "3-year complimentary subscription" to the ADAS and infotainment...

So after that you have to either pay up, or have your cars' features locked away? Sure, I'd love to pay 90k to be extorted by a bland EV.

The absolute state of the car industry. I know others do it already, but framing it as if the customer should be grateful for the subscription being free initially is so shameless. Sure, THAT justifies the 90k pricepoint, good job they put it on the presentation!
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3 years is about the length of the average lease, so for most owners the subscription is going to be someone else's problem. It's also basically guaranteeing that these things will be dead weight once they hit the used lots, because the cost of reactivating those features is going to be rolled into the resale cost as nobody wants to buy a half-bricked car, and that'll probably push their price up into the range where you could probably just get a nicely optioned new Corolla or equivalent for the same money.
 
Hlavco
Let's see... it's available in grey, grey, and, uh... grey. Sounds like a good time.
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Well, black, white and grey. But it does average out to grey.

If you want the base model, it's black only and curiously not actually shown in any press shots...

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And I don't know if it's just me or not, but:

1736296982354.png
 
Actually yeah, despite the hefty price this does have fleet car vibes all over it. The screens filling up the dashboard and front grille area would be perfect for displaying ads while slowly trundling around a congested city, to say nothing about putting a wrap over that mostly featureless body.

I do have to wonder if the Nissan merger is going to have any effect on this though, given it will be fully finalized in 2026. Kinda wouldn't surprise me if they only fill existing orders and then we never hear about it again after that.
 
From the promotion and the fact that US pre-sales start in california, it makes me feel that they want to sell the car for people that want a alternative to Tesla

but there is a bit BUT on this... the BASIC level of Afreela 1, is 1500 USD MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THE PREMIUM TESLA S MODEL AND HALF OF TESLA 3 MODEL

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Also i still wonder how this will affect GranTurismo, honda (obivusly) is the only automaker that is fine with all it but will other car brands be that much willing to give up their cars to sony scan them from now on?
 
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Or why not a 2025 Porsche Taycan for 108k$? Granted, it's 5k$ more expensive than the Afeela Signature and probably equipped worse at this price point ... but its a Porsche.

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the Interceptor
why not a 2025 Porsche Taycan for 108k$
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we are talking about avg consumer here, not enthusiasts
is the same mistake as people were doing with jaguar, is think that this is focused for us that like cars, this is made for people that only think that cars are just a tool to go from point a to point b, this why this car, since day 1, had a HUGE focus in automation and in-car infotertainment instead of stuffs that enthusiasts care about

its time to accept, specially nowadays, that not everything on car market will be focused for people that like driving or people that see cars as more than just a tool of many tools they have nowadays. like their smartphones, their smart tvs, their aleixas...
 
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My argument is that if you would have the money to buy and run an EV for more than 100,000 USD, would anyone actually choose to buy a Sony/Honda Afeela 1 Signature (102,900 USD) over a Porsche Taycan (107,905 USD)? For the average consumer, both are irrelevant because of their price point. However, people who can afford the Afeela Signature surely can save up the 5,005 USD more and buy a Porsche instead of a Sony/Honda.
 
meganinja
we are talking about avg consumer here, not enthusiasts
is the same mistake as people were doing with jaguar, is think that this is focused for us that like cars, this is made for people that only think that cars are just a tool to go from point a to point b, this why this car, since day 1, had a HUGE focus in automation and in-car infotertainment instead of stuffs that enthusiasts care about

its time to accept, specially nowadays, that not everything on car market will be focused for people that like driving or people that see cars as more than just a tool of many tools they have nowadays. like their smartphones, their smart tvs, their aleixas...
Click to expand...
Well yeah, that's been the ultimate goal of the auto industry for the last 25 years or so, for their products to be seen as disposable appliances you replace every couple years. The world is so oversaturated with vehicles now that it's the only way they're going to convince anyone to buy a new car anymore, and also why they're experimenting with locking things behind subscriptions.

But a car can still be interesting while staying entirely utilitarian, and this doesn't even try that. It's very boring and anonymously styled, in-car entertainment is hardly a new thing and the external screen is more of a novelty than a useful feature, and its price point pushes it far out of the range of the average consumer who might be interested in it and into the realm of luxury cars, a field which has many other offerings which are much nicer in design and more prestigious in name.

Outside of early adopters who always want the newest shiny and probably some private transport companies who see the potential in making these rolling billboards, I'm not entirely sure what the target market is supposed to be, especially in 2027 when we're halfway through whatever economic chaos is coming up soon.
 

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