{"id":134948,"date":"2026-03-25T11:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/901670050\/DXivAxyQZG_CmwQ3"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:34:22","slug":"sony-and-honda-pull-plug-on-afeela-as-ev-market-cools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/sony-and-honda-pull-plug-on-afeela-as-ev-market-cools\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony and Honda pull plug on Afeela as EV market cools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sony Honda Mobility, the joint venture between Japanese electronics giant Sony and carmaker Honda, said on Wednesday it would discontinue the development of the Afeela electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

Given Honda\u2019s overhaul of its EV business announced earlier this month, Sony Honda \u201cdoes not have a viable path forward to bring the (EV) models to market as originally planned\u201d, the joint venture said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Sony Honda will issue full refunds to those who have made reservations for what was to be its first model, the Afeela 1, in California, it added.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month Honda announced it would register its first annual loss in almost 70 years as a listed company, hit by up to $15.7bn in restructuring costs at its EV business, as weaker-than-expected demand for the technology hammers carmakers.<\/p>\n

Under President Donald Trump, Washington has ended government support for EVs, forcing the likes of Ford and Stellantis to rethink their strategies and book hefty write-downs of their own.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s second-largest carmaker said it expects a hit of up to 2.5 trillion yen as it cancels three EV models planned for production in the US.<\/p>\n

CEO Toshihiro Mibe told a press conference that EV demand had fallen sharply, making it \u201cvery difficult\u201d to sustain profitability.<\/p>\n

Honda is also writing down the value of its China business, where it has struggled to compete with the advanced, software-driven cars of rivals such as BYD.<\/p>\n

Several global automakers have booked painful write-downs as they scaled back their EV ambitions in recent months.<\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s charge brings the industry tally to about $67bn. General Motors has warned of a $7.6bn hit, while Stellantis has flagged $25bn and Ford $19bn.<\/p>\n

In addition to its main markets of Japan and the US, Honda said it will strengthen its model line-up and cost competitiveness in India, where it sees scope to expand.<\/p>\n

Under pressure from Chinese rivals across Asia and elsewhere, Japanese automakers have increasingly focused on India, a market where \u2014 like the US \u2014 Chinese carmakers are effectively shut out.<\/p>\n

The company plans to announce a revamped mid-to-long-term business strategy in the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/b><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… expected demand for the technology hammers carmakers<\/span>. Under President Donald Trump, … such as BYD. Several global automakers<\/span> have booked painful write-downs … automakers<\/span> have increasingly focused on India, a market where \u00e2\u0080\u0094 like the US \u00e2\u0080\u0094 Chinese carmakers<\/span> …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}