AUTONEWS

Sony may produce electrified cars in partnership with Honda

For two years, Sony took the Vision S electric car concept to various exhibitions, and only this one decided to admit that it was ready to launch electric vehicle production by 2025 as part of a joint venture with Honda Motor. Now, representatives of the first of the companies say that the joint venture can raise additional resources on the stock exchange or through the participation of a strategic investor among other companies.

Sony chairman and chairman Kenichiro Yoshida, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, admitted in an interview with this Japanese publication that he and Honda Motor intend to make a joint venture to produce electric vehicles quite independently of both companies. The partners do not want to integrate this type of business into the structure of Sony or Honda. By the way, the latter doesn't really need that, because she's going to cooperate with General Motors in the production of electric vehicles, so she'll have enough profile problems without Sony.

Sony's boss admits to the idea not only of a joint venture with Honda for an IPO, but also of selling part of its assets to one of the third-party partners. It is recalled that the existing business model implies the start of series production of electric vehicles by the joint venture created until 2025. Honda Motor's role will be limited to the production and maintenance of cars, and Sony will develop a software ecosystem for them. . In the future, the company would like to see the same steady revenue from sales of software and services in the automotive segment as it currently does in the segment of game consoles or digital content subscriptions. However, as Yoshida adds, Sony and Honda have yet to form a definitive business model for the joint venture.

“Mobility is increasingly turning into a service,” explained the Sony boss. If Apple also enters the passenger car market, even if there is competition, Sony will find different opportunities for cooperation with it. The Japanese corporation has a long-term goal of attracting one billion users to its services. In the past fiscal year, Sony's revenue was 51% driven by network services, movies and music, breaking the 50% barrier for the first time. In the vehicle segment, Sony will try its luck with a similar approach.

Image source: Sony