Sony and Honda Planning a 2025 EV That Could Have Gaming Built In
Honda and Sony, under the joint venture Sony Honda Mobility, are planning to go into the electric-vehicle business together.Sony Honda Mobility president Izumi Kawanishi made it clear in an interview with the U.K. business paper Financial Times that it is looking to use the Sony entertainment element to fight Tesla in the EV marketplace.Sony’s catalog of content, services and tech will become part of a future EV that’s planned for a 2025 launch, leaving the door open for a PS5-capable car in only a few years.
It feels like just two weeks ago that Car and Driver’s Ezra Dyer was suggesting that car companies spice up their electric-car offerings and make things a bit weirder. After all, power and acceleration are easy to come by in the world of EVs, leaving key personality traits as a tempting growth area. Now, Sony Honda Mobility, the joint-venture agreement between the auto manufacturer and tech giant, is talking about opportunities to include Sony’s tech into the company’s vehicles.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Sony Honda Mobility president Izumi Kawanishi said: “Sony has content, services and entertainment technologies that move people. We are adapting these assets to mobility, and this is our strength against Tesla.” He also said the company plans to adjust the way the upcoming EV is build and will “develop a car as hardware that will cater to the entertainment and network we would like to offer.” So, no PS5 console on the dashboard, but perhaps PS5 capability, which Kawanishi said is “technologically possible.”
Kawanishi took a mild swipe at Tesla, telling the Financial Times that the EV maker “is not providing any content services” when it comes to entertainment.
Sony is known for producing a wide range of technology, including speakers and displays, making us hopeful for a top-notch infotainment system in future products from the new brand. At the CES technology show in January 2022, Sony showed off its Vision-S 02 concept. The Vision-S 02 is a seven-passenger crossover, sized similarly to the Tesla Model Y, and it allows rear-seat passengers to play PlayStation games through a remote connection with a console at home. If a version of that concept makes it to production as Sony Honda Mobility’s first production car, based on the CEO’s statements it’s certainly possible the company will keep the feature, giving rear passengers access to PS5 games on the road.
This wouldn’t be the first time a company has made video games available in its cars. Tesla and Mercedes-Benz have already done that, with both companies eventually choosing to remove the functionality from vehicles while they’re in motion.
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