Attendees look over exhibits in the Sony booth during CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
(Corrects paragraph 5 to show the year as 2026, not 2025)
Jan 5 (Reuters) - Sony Honda Mobility unveiled its new prototype electric vehicle at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday, even as most U.S. automakers hit the brakes on EVs.
Sony Honda CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said the company, an electric vehicle joint venture between Sony Group and Honda Motor, aims to deliver a new model based on the Afeela prototype to U.S. customers as early as 2028.
The company expects deliveries of the Afeela 1 to customers in California to begin late this year, Mizuno said.
Afeela 1, the company's first EV, which was introduced last year, is priced from $89,900.
The unveiling was a rare sight at CES 2026, an annual consumer electronics trade show, with many automakers dealing with weakening EV demand and tariffs on auto and auto parts imports, having cancelled plans for new EVs and paused or stopped production.
The Trump administration has pulled back EV-friendly policies, including removing a $7,500 tax credit, that have hurt consumer interest in such vehicles.
The joint venture was formed in 2022, combining Honda's engineering and vehicle-building experience with Sony's software and gaming expertise to compete with EV rivals.
(Reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in Las Vegas; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
