Sony and Honda combine forces in challenge to Tesla
Companies envision electric cars without human interaction, freeing up drivers to game, view other content
In early 2020, Sony Group Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — the tech industry's main annual event — and announced a once-in-a-decade pivot: The Japanese electronics maker was joining the electric vehicle race.
With Yoshida's pronouncement, the 76-year-old Japanese company joined a growing roster of technology giants plotting their foray into the automobile industry. As vehicles become electric, autonomous, gadget-stocked and web-connected, the movement is luring a wide array of new players — most notoriously Apple with its secretive Apple Car — all betting they have the technologies necessary to disrupt the $3 trillion market.
While Big Tech's jostling has largely been downplayed by many incumbent carmakers, the push by Yoshida, 62, gained him an unlikely fan back in Japan: Toshihiro Mibe, who at the time was running research and development at Honda Motor Co.
Of all Japan's carmakers, Honda had thrown itself most aggressively into electric vehickles, targeting a full phaseout of combustion-engine vehicle sales by 2040. From early on, Honda saw potential for collaboration with Sony with its consumer electronics, autonomous driving sensors and software as a way to differentiate new models and add value to the low-margin business of making cars.
“Companies from completely different industries have different cultures and sources of value,” Mibe said, speaking about Honda's partnership with Sony in an interview in April. “There was this idea that we could create a chemical reaction together. This was a fascinating concept, and I met with President Yoshida and said, `Let's do this.' ”
For Honda, Mibe's approach makes sense. Over the past few years, Tesla, with its autonomous driving features and ability to improve car performance via over-the-air updates much like an iPhone, has highlighted the knowledge gap when it comes to the software powering the next generation of cars.
Sony envisions the cars will be connected to the cloud and equipped with in-house sensors that will eventually enable levelfour autonomous driving. At that stage, cars don't require human interaction in most circumstances, thereby freeing up drivers to game, potentially, or view Sony content.
Honda confirmed these technologies are under consideration for future joint-venture models, the first of which are due for release in 2025.
For Sony, partnering with Honda gives it access to supply chains, production know-how and vehicle-sales expertise. Automaker operations are held to stringent safety standards and they need to be responsible for the whole lifecycle of their vehicles, from maintenance to eventual scrapping.
While the process of forming Big Tech-automaker partnerships might prove challenging, the model is “essential” to keeping pace with the rapid evolution of cars, said Olaf Sakkers, co-founder of RedBlue Capital, an early-stage investor in mobility startups.
“There's a clear target — Tesla — compared with which everyone is falling behind,” Sakkers said. Sony and Honda's alliance shows that “companies are having to realize what their core competencies are and where they need technology and partners,” he said. Not only is there likely to be more consolidation within the automotive industry itself going forward, but “the partnership model is going to be seen more and more.”
That doesn't mean it will be easy. Apple has searched far and wide for an ally to help it develop and produce its car, but talks with the likes of Hyundai Motor Co. and Ferrari NV have stalled, likely because they're wary of becoming an assembler for a product that could end up cannibalizing their business.
Most tech-auto tie-ups so far have avoided Honda and Sonystyle 50-50 partnerships.