Japan’s automotive giants Sony and Honda Motor agreed on Thursday to form a joint venture that will begin selling electric cars in 2025
The companies, whose partnership was first announced in March and named Sony Honda Mobility, are teaming up by investing 5 billion yen ($37.52 million) each in the venture in which Honda brings in its building and selling cars expertise and Sony has the software and technology experience.
The senior Honda executive Yasuhide Mizuno will serve as the JV’s CEO and chairman, while the executive vice president at Sony, Izumi Kawanishi, will be the JV’s president and chief operating officer.
Both companies have announced novelties involving electric vehicles this year with Sony planning to get into the industry for green mobility and Honda and General Motors announced expanding their EVs partnership to begin building two electric SUVs for Honda starting in 2024.
Ahead of the CES 2022, the consumer trade show in Las Vegas in January, the Japanese electronics giant Sony announced its new electric SUV Vision – S 02, while Honda and General Motors informed in April about their plans to use their new joint platform to develop a series of lower-priced EVs.
Trailing Toyota’s move into EVs, Honda, maker of popular models such as Accord and Civic, plans to roll out 30 EV models and make some 2 million EVs annually by 2030.
The company said last year it would exclusively sell battery-electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2040, kicking off in the US market with the 2024 Honda Prologue, an all-electric SUV that’s expected to debut in 2023.
As costs of raw materials have surged and a global chip crunch is hurting production, Honda and other Japanese automakers are dealing with crimped margins and their shares were down between 3% and 5% on Friday amid fears that central banks’ sharp interest rate increases would tip economies into recession.
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