Sony Honda Mobility Brings The Afella Concept Again At CES 2024, Carrying Many Changes

Design of the concept of Afeela. (Doc. shmAfeela)

JAKARTA - As in the previous year, Sony Honda Mobility again enlivened the CES 2024 event by introducing the Afeela prototype. However, there have been a number of significant changes to the concept model they brought the previous year, showing that this vehicle is getting closer to the production stage.

It is known that Sony Honda Mobility is a joint venture founded by Sony Group Corporation and Honda Motor Company in 2022 aimed at producing battery electric vehicles.

Launching ArenaEV, Wednesday, January 10, this sleek electric sedan has undergone some striking changes, providing an interesting picture of what can be expected when the car officially launches in 2025.

Visually, Afeela showed off an more elegant design, starting from changes to the front. Her front bumper is now equipped with a sporty black strip at the bottom, a glowing badge, a wide front light, and a round front light. In addition, the use of conventional rear-view mirrors and a slightly thicker top pillar provides a modern touch, as well as a glossy touch of black finish. On the back, Afeela features a larger bumper and an active rear spoiler, while the design of the trunk cap remains attractive. The entire aesthetic of this car looks inspired by Lucid Air and Toyota Crown.

Not only on the exterior, but Afeela is also experiencing a significant update on the interior. Some features of the original prototype are maintained, such as a yoke-style steering and a wide dashboard screen, but the latest version introduces a larger mid-cone with dual wireless charging pads.

Interestingly, this vehicle will use artificial intelligence (AI) for its driver assistance systems, in collaboration with several undisclosed sensors. Sony Honda Mobility plans to implement Vision Transformer, an in-depth learning model devoted to image recognition, for path planning, with a redundancy system that guarantees safety. The system will be powered by Qualcomm chipsets.

In terms of entertainment, Sony Honda Mobility has teamed up with Epic Games to create immersive experiences, able to simulate external environmental conditions such as pedestrians, weather, and other vehicles. Through the use of the Unreal Engine 5.3 gaming machine, this partnership has the potential to open up opportunities for exclusive gaming experiences in cars, exceeding what is currently available on the market.

For additional information, Afeela is equipped with a permanent magnetic sync motor on the front and rear doubles, each producing 241 cellphones, with a total output of 482 cellphones. Although details regarding the vehicle's reach have not been disclosed by Sony Honda Mobility, this car can be charged up to 150 kW on DC chargers.