Yes, you read that right. Sony, the Japanese tech giant, is considering a commercial launch of electric vehicles.
A new subsidiary company, Sony Mobility Inc, will examine strategies to establish themselves in the EV market.
Sony showed off two concept models at this year’s CES event for their Vision-S series. Check them out in the video below.
The Vision-S 01 and the Vision-S 02 will have a 400kW dual-motor and all-wheel drive. They can go from 0-100km/h in 4.8 seconds, with a top speed of 240km/h.
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Given their success in the entertainment industry, we expect Sony to implement access to music, movies, and games in the car’s infotainment system. They could even utilize their media device technology, such as 3D sound through individual seat speakers.
Additionally, the concept car has forty sensors from front to back, including cameras, radar, ultrasonic, and lidar for autonomous driving and parking tasks. These features will undoubtedly become more prominent with self-driving vehicles, should they get off the ground.
“With our imaging and sensing, cloud, 5G and entertainment technologies combined with our contents mastery, we believe Sony is well positioned as a creative entertainment company to redefine mobility.”
-Kenichiro Yoshida, Sony chairmen and president
Interestingly, Sony generally referred to “mobility” rather than specifically to electric vehicles. That means they could expand into other electric modes of transportation, such as micro-mobility or ride-share vehicles.
There is still no word on when these could launch or how much they will be. Neither do we know what size the battery will be. However, Sony is working on a lithium-sulphur battery with 40% higher energy density and lower production costs than today’s lithium-ion batteries.