The Latest on the New Sony Honda Mobility EV
The Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) Afeela is an all-electric luxury sedan set to go on sale sometime in 2026. The company invited members of the automotive media to its studio at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles to hear about the development, progress and raison d’être for undertaking such a massive endeavor to create not only an all-new car (the Afeela), but also an all-new car company.
This is not the first time Clean Fleet Report has written about the Afeela. We included it in our CES recap stories from 2024 and 2025. We didn’t get the opportunity to drive the Afeela, and there are no indications anyone other than the company’s test drivers and engineers have done so, but we did get an hour with the marketing, product and communications team that brought us up-to-speed on what they have accomplished since being on the Las Vegas stage for CES.
What is the Afeela?
“Afeela” is a confluence of the words Augmentation, Autonomy and Affinity with the intent for people to “feel” something when inside the car. More on that later, but here is what Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) says about the 50:50 joint venture:
“AFEELA,” which embodies the concept of “FEEL” represents an interactive relationship where people “feel” mobility as an intelligent entity, and mobility “feels” people and society using advanced technologies such as sensing and networking.” Moving on.
The performance numbers are vague, if not speculative, at this point. This means anyone plopping down a fully refundable $200 deposit can change their mind once the final specifications are released.
The Afeela consists of two trims and this is what we know.
Signature – Base price $102,900, estimated mid-2026 delivery
Origin – Base price $89,900, available sometime in 2027
- 5-passenger sedan
- All-wheel drive
- Twin 180 kW motors, one on each axle
- Horsepower estimate: 241 each motor for a potential of more than 400 total system hp
- Torque: TBD
- 0-60 and Top Speed: TBD
- All-electric driving range: 300-mile estimate
- Battery: 91 kWh
- Charging Speed: Up to 150 kW
- Charging Type: Tesla NACS
- Dimensionally, the Afeela is within inches of the Tesla Model S and Lucid Air.
Curb weight was not released, based on the design and air springs, the Afeela will be tuned for comfort and not performance driving. The advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have 40 sensors: 12 ultrasonics, 9 radar, 1 lidar and 18 cameras scattered in and on the car. The “on” part includes three sensors (including the lidar) jutting from the roof just above the top of the windshield.
While not as externally obtrusive as a Waymo, the Afeela has more protrusions than any other sedan on the road. The Afeela team said their placement on the roof was because the car sits so low they needed to be raised to see over an SUV or truck blocking the forward view.
With Level 2+ driving and the ADAS, SHM says you “can set it to give a seamless end-to-end journey,” which they call Intelligent Drive, that continuously monitors road conditions.
The steering will be with a yoke which hopefully is an electronic steer-by-wire system. The product team didn’t delve into the steering technology so we can only wait. Charging at up to a 150 kW rate is nowhere near state-of-the-art indicating this is a 400-volt system. It will charge “fast,” but not among the fastest EVs on the market.
The “Feel” in Afeela
When these two industrial giants (Honda and Sony) decided to get together, the best result would be by bringing their individual strengths. For Honda that is designing and building cars, in this case at its Marysville, Ohio, manufacturing facility, where the initial Afeelas will join the former Acura NSX assembly line. For Sony, its an expertise in consumer electronics, where entertainment is the core driver.
The entertainment aspect of an Afeela begins on the smooth rounded nose, where the media bar can be customized with moving graphics, a company logo, a favorite sports team or personal greetings. It can even give the battery level when charging.
Climbing inside, the dominant feature is the panoramic screen that measures a total of 42.5-inches. The driver cluster is 12.3 inches, the center main screen is 16.2 inches, and the digital image side mirror camera screens are seven inches each. The ceiling-mounted rearview mirror, with Homelink, offers a digital option for a wider field of vision.
The panoramic screen has a passenger section that allows videos to be played when the car is in motion, but has safety technology so the screen’s content can’t be seen by the driver.
The rear passengers have screens on the back of the front seats where they can watch television, listen to music and stream movies. PlayStation 4 remote play can be set-up as well as other (hopefully) Sony games.
Tech is everywhere. Enter the car and press on the brake pedal, and the doors soft close. A friendly female voice (an AI personal agent) welcomes you, asks how things are going and what she can do for you. This includes providing directions, finding points of interest, changing radio stations or entertainment options, including changing the moods on the screen, which also change faux motor sounds. This last one comes from the video-game developer Epic Games’ Unreal Engine graphics technology.
The 3D sound system and displays for every seat utilize audio settings, including a 360 Spatial Sound Experience through Dolby Atmos. A noise canceling feature can play audio only in the front part of the cabin, “allowing occupants to focus on in-car entertainment.”
Observations: 2026 Sony Honda Mobility: Afeela
We appreciate how much work and money go into the major undertaking of starting a completely new car company. What SHM has shown so far about the Afeela isn’t unique or ground breaking. Everything we have learned about the technology, performance, charging and entertainment is common on almost all the high-end electric cars reviewed by Clean Fleet Report.
So, the question is: “Why do it?” What did Mr. Sony and Mr. Honda have in mind with they first thought the world needed another car company? What was the Afeela differentiator from existing all-electric sedans?
The cost in personnel and money to design, develop, build prototypes, test and meet the automotive standards and compliance before beginning production, let alone to sell in the U.S., is a massive undertaking. For a car that is only being sold initially in California with a starting price in excess of $100,000, it seems the return on investment and the path to profitability will be steep.
Additionally, the Afeela is a sedan EV, not an SUV (which remains the hot vehicle type in the country). There are other all-electric sedans on the market, which will be direct competitors based on price and size: Mercedes-Benz EQS, BMW i5, i4 and i7, Lucid Air, and the Tesla Model S. And more are due on the market.
SHM will have a narrow slice of the automotive market by starting with only one sedan EV model costing over one hundred grand and coming from a company no one has ever heard of. Will SHM leverage the quality reputation of Honda? Will this be an Acura contender? Will an entertainment company like Sony resonate with automotive buyers? Or are the two companies completely separate?
There is so much to know that will not be learned until production begins in early 2026. Clean Fleet Report will be reporting on the Afeela progress and are eagerly awaiting when we can drive what should be a very nice all-electric sedan.
Make sure to opt-in to the Clean Fleet Report newsletter (top right of page) to be notified of all new stories and vehicle reviews.
Story by John Faulkner. Photos by John Faulkner and Sony Honda Mobility.
[See image gallery at cleanfleetreport.com]The post News: 2026 SHM Afeela first appeared on Clean Fleet Report.