Sony Honda Mobility, to be based in Tokyo, will combine Honda’s expertise in engineering and manufacturing vehicles, along with its proficiency in providing after-sales service, with Sony’s strengths in imaging, sensing, telecommunications and entertainment, the companies said.
The agreement formalizes a memorandum of understanding that Honda and Sony announced in March. The new company is expected to sell its vehicles in the U.S., Japan and Europe.
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe has said the initial enterprise is expected to be small, but that it is an important step in trying out new business models for an industry under siege by change.
“At the new company, we will strive to create new value through the fusion brought about by the combination of our different industries,” Mibe said in the joint statement.
Honda, in the midst of a radical corporate makeover, said in April it will invest 5 trillion yen ($37.16 billion) over the next 10 years in electrification as it rolls out 30 full EVs globally and builds production capacity for 2 million EVs annually by 2030.
In detailing the strategy, Honda said it will also shift its business away from non-recurring hardware sales toward recurring sales of services that combine hardware and software.
It is part of new software-defined EV platform, dubbed e:Architecture, that the company will launch in 2026 to underpin the next generation of large-sized battery electric cars from Honda.
Honda expects to be ready to supply 800,000 EVs to North America by 2030.