Sony and Honda's love child, the AFEELA EV concept, hit the stage at CES 2024, and it did so in style. PlayStation 5 style, to be more precise, because the team "drove" the car on stage using nothing but a PlayStation Dualsense controller. Gimmicky or not, it caught the eye of the world, and it makes for great publicity for Sony's PS5.
Since the first Consumer Electronics Show or CES in 1967, the stage has been used for all sorts of ahead-of-their-time gizmos and technologies. This year, we got a ton of exciting stuff, especially for gamers.
Sony, however, didn't focus so much on their PlayStation gaming branch but showed the upcoming AFEELA electric ride. The EV is powered by two electric motors, which makes it AWD, and together, they generate 483 horsepower (489 ps). It also carries a 91 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.
Software-wise, aside from some new navigation features, cameras for scanning the environment, and whatnot, another exciting reveal was that it uses the latest Unreal Engine 5.3.
During the presentation, the car was full of screens with the Fortnite logo and the latest Spider-Man animated movies. While it doesn't feature a PS5 inside, you can use the infotainment system as a PS Portal and stream games from your home PS5. Somehow, I don't see this working very well in a moving car.
The AFEELA apparently can run ads, which would indicate that you might earn money while driving through town? Nobody knows yet, but it does raise some interesting theories about personal digital advertising directly from your car.
You can be an Uber driver while also making something on the side... of your car, literally. Or the feature might get scrapped and it could turn out that it was all more PlayStation publicity.
Photo: Sony Honda Mobility
No matter what the future holds, at least we'll be able to see it and drive it in all its digital glory in 2024. Provided you have a PlayStation 5 and Gran Turismo 7. Sony Honda Mobility partnered with PlayStation 1st party studio Polyphony Digital, and will introduce the EV in GT7 later this year as an update. The best part is that if you have PSVR 2, you can actually see it in full 3D.
As for the real world, the AFEELA will be manufactured at Honda's plant in Ohio. If you're planning on getting one, you can preorder it exclusively online in North America sometime during the first half of 2025.
Other significant markets around the world are joining the mix as well. There's no official price at the moment, but the word on the street is that it might be in the $45k ballpark.
While we're still on Sony, the industry is buzzing with rumors of a PlayStation 5 Pro coming this fall. The sources aren't ironclad, but this comes from the best in the insider business. If you are planning to get a PS5 this year, maybe wait until an August or September announcement.
However, do take this with a grain of salt. Even if these plans are 100% accurate, things can still shift inside Sony, and a delay could always arise out of seemingly nowhere.
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
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