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Exclusive: The Afeela 1 is the first car from Sony Honda Mobility and our Electric Vehicles Editor Steve Fowler had a demo at the opening of its new Beverly Hills showroom
Friday 28 November 2025 18:20 GMTComments
open image in galleryThe Sony Honda Afeela 1 will go on sale in the US in 2026 (Steve Fowler)SPONSORED BY E.ON NEXTThe Independent's Electric Vehicle Channel is sponsored by E.ON Next.
As automotive partnerships go, Sony and Honda coming together... well, it just seems right. These two Japanese giants both have engineering at their heart, although from a product point of view, neither are at the heights that perhaps they once were.
These days, Sony is as much in the content game as it is hardware, with games, movies and music playing an increasingly important role in its business. And that explains one of the reasons Sony has jumped into the automotive world, as I’ll explain.
Sony is a serious player in Hollywood, so it seemed fitting that I got my first experience of the Afeela 1 – the debut car from Sony Honda Mobility – just down the road from Tinseltown in Beverly Hills. My visit coincided with the opening of the latest Sony Honda Mobility retailer in the heart of LA, on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Canon Drive – literally a stone’s throw from the famous Beverly Hills sign.
Sony’s relationship with the local authorities may help explain why they’ve been given permission to put an Afeela mural across the wall outside the retail unit, running alongside Santa Monica Boulevard – the finishing touches were being expertly applied during my visit.
Inside, it’s a car showroom like any other – with one Afeela 1 sitting proudly on display, wrapped in the colours of The Trojans, the University of Southern California’s American Football team.
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Also there was Aidee Ramirez, purchase experience manager at Sony Honda Beverly Hills, who introduced me to Afeela 1, starting at the back of the car.
“As you can see, there are cameras and sensors all throughout the vehicle,” said Aidee. “This is going to have the ‘kick’ option so the trunk can open and close with the wave of your foot. We've got a rear active spoiler here that activates at 40 miles an hour and if you notice the car is constructed on an oval design that centres on safety, but also the best experience when it comes to audio and video playback.”
The look of the car is pretty generic – it’s a slippery shape to help efficiency and at 4,915mm long and 1,778mm wide it’s around the same size as a Tesla Model S.
However, the rest of the numbers so far don’t exactly wow. The Afeela website claims an estimated range of ‘up to 300 miles’ from a 91kWh battery, which is hardly a standout figure these days. Nor is the charging speed at a maximum of 150kW.
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open image in galleryThe Afeela 1 features a crystal clear screen that runs right across the width of the car (Steve Fowler)The Afeela 1 is as much about the tech, though, and that’s what Aidee’s walkaround proves. “There are no door handles,” she says. “We do have buttons on the doors and the doors have sensors. So, if I press this button, the door’s going to only open to capacity where it doesn't hit anything next to it. And you also can utilise the app to open and close the doors – you don't need a key. It's your phone.”
Aidee showed me the side mirrors, also festooned with cameras, that provide a digital feed to screens inside the car or that can be used in the traditional sense – something that is unique in the market. And at the front there’s a media bar, which Aidee explained.
“The media bar is customizable. As you can see here, we have ‘fight on’ as part of our collaboration with USC for this car. And you can put a specialised message of your choice; so ‘happy birthday’ or your company name. It could be a banner and rotate, and it also has functionality so it can display the weather or the percentage of your charge. It's fully customisable except for a few things: you can't make it look like it's an emergency vehicle, for example.”
“Hello. Welcome to Afeela by Sony Honda Mobility. I'm your personal agent. Are you having a good day so far?”
Including the cameras on the mirrors, there are 40 cameras and sensors on the car, including the lidar ‘hat’ that sits at the top of the windscreen with a couple of discrete ‘horns’ sitting at each corner, too.
“The level of autonomy is going to be two-plus,” said Aida. “It’s hands off of the steering wheel; we're still working around the parameters of what type of attention the driver will have to use. But the way that this is going to work is the car's going to be able to scan and know what's on the road before you even see it. So, if you've got a very rainy or a dark environment, it's going to be able to see if there's any obstruction.”
Then it’s time to get behind the steering wheel, itself an unusual shape looking like a squared-off wheel with the top taken off – not unlike the Tesla Model S ‘yoke’. And the steering wheel, like the rest of the car, is beautifully finished and feels very much at home in the high-class interior.
Aidee asks me to hit the brake pedal, which automatically closes the door, while a button does the same on the passenger side. That also wakes the car up – and it starts talking to me…
“Hello. Welcome to Afeela by Sony Honda Mobility. I'm your personal agent. Are you having a good day so far?”
Being playful, I pretend that the day has been a little testing, which my ‘personal agent’ picks up on, saying, “I'm glad you're here with me, even if the day's been a bit rough. Want to talk about what's got you down or should we focus on something fun like the best coffee spots or a killer rock playlist?”
open image in galleryWe dropped in to see the Sony Honda Mobility Afeela 1 at the new showroom in Beverly Hills (Sony Honda Mobility)Rather than get into a very British conversation about the weather or the state of politics, Aidee interrupts and suggests that the car tells me about its cool features.
“I bring immersive entertainment, a panoramic screen, an intelligent drive system, and a spatial sound experience with 28 speakers. Which one sounds like it would brighten up your day?” asks my new PA.
The Afeela 1 packs support for Dolby Atmos sound, as well as noise cancelling which is instantly activated when the doors shut. Aidee fires up Ghostbusters and I sit back and enjoy a very loud clip of the movie – not quite like being in a movie theatre, but not far off and the seats are definitely more comfortable.
The panoramic display across the full width of the car is a work of art – crystal clear and with clearly defined sections that can be moved around with a simple swipe. There are different wallpapers, themes and ambient lighting choices to suit your mood, while you can also choose different sounds for the e-motors inside the car.
I swiped Ghostbusters from the centre of the screen over to the passenger side, where it would be invisible to me on the move, although I’d still be hearing the soundtrack.
“Technically yes. If I'm watching a movie in the front seat, you are listening to me listening to a movie,” said Aidee. “There are speakers in the seats, in the headrest and in the back as well. So, the person in this seat, in that seat and us in front, we could all be watching our own independent movie or listening to music independently of each other in the same space.
“Think of it as being in the living room with someone when they're watching the TV, but you're on your cell phone watching something on TikTok and you hear a bit of their audio, they might hear a bit of your audio, but everyone is immersed in their own experience.”
Top-spec Signature cars come first next year for $102,900 (£77,750) with bigger wheels, more colour choices and more tech, including rear screens. Origin models at $89,900 (£67,950) come in 2027.
Of course, the system is Sony-tuned and sounds impressive with excellent clarity, good separation and plenty of punch whether you’re listening to music (I had the Trojans’ theme Fight On played to me), watching a movie or playing a game – all with leanings to Sony content.
The Afeela is also geared up to become a mobile office with Zoom one of the many apps on the home screen, plus HDMI sockets to connect your laptop to the car’s screens.
My personal agent is also able to hold a basic conversation thanks to an AI programme, likely to be Microsoft-provided.
“With the Afeela agent it's going to be very easy to ask questions that can be work related just to help you troubleshoot. As you communicate with this agent it starts to get to know you and starts to even suggest maybe types of foods that you like, places you want to go. And even in terms of professional dialogue, you can actually have a conversation.”
As I got out of the car, my agents reminds me to “have a nice day” – this is California after all – and I get a chance to check out the space in the back (there’s lots) and the room in the boot (again, plenty of room back there behind the hatchback door).
open image in galleryThe Sony Honda Mobility Afeela 1 is a hatchback about the size of a Tesla Model S (Steve Fowler)Back to figures and, importantly, prices. This is a premium product – it looks and feels it, and the price reflects that. You can currently put down a $200 (£151) refundable deposit on either of the two Afeela 1 models.
Top-spec Signature cars come first next year for $102,900 (£77,750) with bigger wheels, more colour choices and more tech, including screens for rear seat passengers. Origin models starting at $89,900 (£67,950) come in 2027.
The cars are built in a special facility at Honda’s plant in Ohio, but what about Afeelas in the UK or Europe? “More to that in the future,” said Aidee. “We haven't said anything exactly yet.”
In fact, the Afeela won’t be going on sale across the whole of the US yet. It’s being rolled out in California first, then other – best described as tech-savvy – states later.
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So, how will Afeela fair in an increasingly competitive EV marketplace? Sony Honda Mobility doesn’t have the Chinese brands to compete with, but there are newcomers like Lucid and Rivian based in the US, while the likes of Cadillac – as I experienced in my World Car Awards judging duties while in the US – have upped their EV game, too.
What most of these newcomers struggle with is a point of difference. As a car, the Afeela doesn’t really offer anything new – the main stats on range, charging and price are, if anything, a bit disappointing.
But that’s not the reason Sony and Honda have teamed up. For Sony, this is a PlayStation on four wheels – another opportunity to get its growing amount of content to consumers. And where better than to do that in a car that the company also has a stake in.
On tech and quality – two areas that both Sony and Honda have traditionally been strong – the Afeela 1 impresses. And that might be enough to make it stand out in a crowded market.
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