The $89,900 Sony Honda Afeela 1 Electric Car Makes No Sense

Sony and Honda used the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to show off the Afeela 1 EV, which is the jointly-developed Sony Honda Mobility vehicle meant to compete with highly connected cars from China and Tesla. Instead, the company showed us an expensive sedan with performance specs you wouldn’t accept on a Hyundai that costs half as much. What’s going on here?

There’s no denying that this Japanese-developed sedan expected to be built in Ohio is tech-rich. It comes with a suite of 40 different sensors for advanced driver assistance system operation, spatial audio, a panoramic screen in the dashboard, and power-operated doors.

Here’s how the company describes some of the features:

The cabin of AFEELA 1 is designed with the concept of “Mobility as a Creative Entertainment Space.” Each occupant can enjoy a variety of apps and content provided by entertainment partners through an optimized, unique sound system and displays by seat. Sony Honda Mobility’s proprietary noise-canceling technology and expertise provides an overwhelming sense of quietness. The optimally placed speakers featuring Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Technologies offer an high-quality audio experience with immersive sound. SHM is working on creating unique entertainment experiences using driving and vehicle data through collaborations with external creators and developers.

Also, it has an Unreal game engine so you can, I guess, play Gran Tursimo when you don’t feel like driving.

That all sounds moderately impressive, but the Afeela 1 is a car first and foremost, and it seems to be coming up short on fundamentals.

Under the floorpan of the Afeela 1, you’ll find a 91 kWh battery pack, a 241-horsepower front motor, and a 241-horsepower rear motor. Combine that with the low-slung silhouette of a sedan, and you end up with an estimated 300 miles of range. Alright, why so little? When a cheaper and more powerful Lucid Air Touring offers 406 miles of range, and many competitors offer more than 300 miles of range, an even 300 miles of range feels disappointing. Oh, and that’s only the start.

Okay, so the range might be disappointing, but at least the Afeela 1 charges slowly. A peak DC fast charging rate of 150 kW is, well, swell for a $40,000 EV, but almost everything in this price bracket charges faster. Even the onboard Level 2 AC charger only clocks in at 11 kW, and that’s just not cutting edge.

So, for $89,900, you must be okay with black paint and a black interior, but it’s okay because this thing has an auto-dimming rearview mirror. If you want a shade other than black, along with stuff like rear seat entertainment, you’d need to step up to the Afeela 1 Signature, which stickers for a whopping $102,990. Yeah, six figures for a car with the powertrain specs of a $45,000 car.

Comparing the Afeela 1 to rivals, it doesn’t fare so well on price.

A Lucid Air Touring specced up with the 32-sensor DreamDrive Pro advanced driver assistance system suite, the glass roof, and the 21-speaker Dolby Atmos audio system costs just $1,400 more than the base Afeela 1, but it sports an extra 106 miles of range, boasts 620 horsepower, can dash from zero-to-60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and can hit peak DC fast charging speeds of more than 300 kW. Don’t need all that power? A similarly optioned Lucid Air Pure stickers for $77,800, some $12,100 less than the Afeela 1.

In the mood for something Korean? The Genesis G80 Electrified is fantastic, and a loaded example stickers for $79,775. Sure, a range of 282 miles is even less than that of the Afeela 1, but the G80 Electrified looks expensive, and it can DC fast charge at up to 233 kW, so it should get you back on the road faster when range runs out.

What’s more, the top trim level is in spitting distance of the BMW i7 eDrive50, and while you will need to spend some more bones to get the theater screen and other toys in the i7, it’s a Nimitz-class monolith for accelerationist plutocrats. It’s platinum-dipped sumptuous, and upholstered like a sex dungeon, and it causes people who can’t spend six figures on a luxury sedan to recoil in fear as it drives past.

Meanwhile, the Afeela 1 looks like what would happen if you asked Dall-e to conjure up the illegitimate child of a broom closet affair between a Lucid Air and a 1987 Mercury Sable. People shopping in this segment want presence, and the Afeela 1 just doesn’t have the presence of a BMW i7.

So, who is the Afeela 1 for? My colleague Matt Hardigree kindly pointed out that this is the four-wheeled equivalent of one of those $900 Walkmans. Walkmen? Potato, potato. The thing is, you don’t have to crash test a Walkman, nor do you need to do EPA range testing. Compared to, I don’t know, a car, a Walkman doesn’t carry nearly the same development and homologation costs, so that model probably doesn’t translate to luxury sedans.

Anyway, reservations are open. I’m sure this’ll make current Acura RLX Sport Hybrid owners happy. All seven of them.

Photos: SHM unless otherwise noted