Sony To Establish Joint Venture With Honda To Make Electric Vehicles: What You Should Know

Japan’s Sony Group Corp SONY and Honda Motor Co HMC on Friday announced plans to establish a joint venture to make high-value battery electric vehicles that would go on sale in 2025.

What Happened: The consumer electronics giant and the legacy automaker said they would launch a new company this year.

“The new company is expected to plan, design, develop, and sell the EVs, but not own and operate manufacturing facilities, so Honda is expected to be responsible for manufacturing the first EV model at its vehicle manufacturing plant,” Sony said.

The maker of the PlayStation gaming consoles will develop a mobility service platform for the new venture.

See Also: Sony To Establish Separate Company Focused On Manufacturing Electric Vehicles: What You Need To Know

Why It Matters: Sony in January said it will launch a mobility company in spring this year as it looks to foray into the electric vehicle space.

The Tokyo-based multinational conglomerate that is best known for making video-game consoles and other electronic products had said it would name the new company Sony Mobility Inc.

Sony at the time shared glimpses of an electric prototype sports utility vehicle (SUV), the VISION-S 02.

Honda last year said it aims to increase the ratio of electric vehicles to 40% of overall sales by 2030, to 80% by 2035, and to 100% by 2040. 

The automaker in January signed a joint venture agreement with the U.S.-based battery research startup SES Holdings to launch higher density and low-cost lithium-metal batteries for electric vehicles.

The electric vehicle market is led by Tesla Inc. TSLA and traditional automakers like Ford Motor Company F are also investing billions to ramp up their electric-vehicle forays.

Price Action: Sony shares closed 1.4% lower at $100.23 a share on Thursday.