Sony and Honda's new electric car brand revealed!

Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) has revealed its new electric car brand called Afeela, as well as its first prototype for the brand, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The Afeela concept, an electric car which is a precursor to a production model set to begin sales in 2025, is the first tangible product from the partnership, which was officially formalised this year.

The Afeela bears partial resemblance to a previous concept created by Sony, the Vision-S concept which was revealed at CES at the beginning of 2020.

SHM said the Afeela concept, which according to the brand is slated to become a highly digitally-augmented car available to its first customers in 2026, has been on display for a few days at CES and has already attracted plenty of attention.

SHM said onlookers have been particularly interested in the protoype’s wide ‘media bar’, which is a screen-like light bar across the front of the car that can display ‘communications’ from the car to onlookers, or more useful information such as charging progress.

“Afeela expresses an interactive relationship where people 'feel' mobility as an intelligent entity, and mobility 'feels' people and society using sensing and network IT technologies,” SHM said in a statement explaining the new brand’s name.

The Dee draws from classic design and uses some 1960s and ‘70s BMW elements.

The Afeela brand wasn’t the only left-of-centre concept to come out of CES, however, as BMW finally revealed the concept it had been mysteriously teasing over the Christmas break - the BMW i Vision Dee.

The Dee is a concept that, like the Afeela, aims to express the brand’s interest in creating a closer connection between cars and people through AI and AI-like technology.

The ‘Dee’ name stands for ‘Digital Emotional Experience’, and through December, BMW had been anthropomorphising the concept in its social media campaign, much to the confusion of some followers.

Inside, a new heads up display element called the ‘BMW Mixed Reality Slider’ allows drivers to decide how much information they want to see displayed HUD-style on the windshield, while the exterior is supposedly able to change colour at the owner’s whim in real time, thanks to BMW’s use of ‘E Ink’.

“With the BMW i Vision Dee, we are showcasing what is possible when hardware and software merge,” said BMW chair Oliver Zipse.

The exterior of the Dee is supposedly able to change colour at the owner’s whim in real time, thanks to BMW’s use of ‘E Ink’.

“In this way, we are able to exploit the full potential of digitalisation to transform the car into an intelligent companion. That is the future for automotive manufacturers – and, also, for BMW.”

The Dee, like many recent electric car concepts, also draws from classic design and uses some 1960s and ‘70s BMW elements in strength, doing away with the large grilles of recent models, and even emphasising more subtle design elements like the side window’s ‘Hoffmeister Kink’.

Also at CES, Mercedes-Benz announced a plan to build a “global branded high-power charging network” to begin in North America, before Europe and China see the rollout begin next.

The brand says it aims to have “a total of more than 400 hubs with more than 2500 high-power chargers” across America by 2027.

The brand says anyone will be able to access the chargers, “but Mercedes-Benz customers will enjoy special benefits, such as the ability to reserve a charging spot".