Image Credit: Afeela.
I've been right again. It's a heavy burden, being this clever, but someone's got to do it. Sony and Honda - the giants in their own right - have finally admitted what every sane person with a functioning frontal lobe knew from day one. Their little "Afeela" brand is dead. It's gone. It's popped its clogs, kicked the bucket, and been sent to that great scrapyard in the sky where bad ideas go to rot alongside flavored toothpaste and the Sinclair C5.
The whole venture was called Sony Honda Mobility, or SHM, which I assume stands for "Surely He's Mucking-about" - that's the nicest thing I came up with. The two companies had this grand plan to build a luxury EV right here in Ohio. The pre-production sedan was ready to go and an SUV was not far behind. But now? The whole project has been scrapped. Deleted quicker than that naughty photo of your ex. Apparently, Honda and Sony realized that combining a Walkman with a Civic doesn't result in a world-beating vehicle. Who could have possibly seen that coming? That would be me. I saw it from miles away.
Image Credit: Afeela.
The Afeela 1 electric sedan was to be the star of the show. This tech-heavy wonder was supposed to roll out of the East Liberty Auto Plant. There was even talk of a four-door SUV joining the party by 2028. But the suits in the boardroom have pulled the plug, blaming "changes to the EV market." What they really meant to say was "we realized nobody wants to pay a fortune for a car that has the personality of a damp tea towel." It's pure dead brilliant, watching them try to explain away a billion-dollar oopsie.
The Afeela was being built on Honda's new "bespoke architecture." But then Honda looked at their own lineup - the Acura RSX, the Honda 0 Series SUV, and that wacky Saloon - and decided to bin the lot. Without those bones, the Afeela had nothing to stand on. Once Honda walked away from their own platform, the Afeela was left floating in the breeze like a lost balloon at a weekend fair.
Image Credit: Afeela.
The specs were properly mental. The Afeela was supposed to cost upwards of $90,000. For that, you got about 300 miles of range. You can get a decent EV for half that price these days - asking 90 grand for 300 miles is like asking a hundred bucks for a grilled cheese sandwich. It doesn't matter how fancy the cheese is. It's still just toast and dairy, you absolute eejits! You could buy a fleet of used hatchbacks for that price and still have money left for a very nice hat.
Afeela boasted about having 40 sensors - 18 cameras, LiDAR, nine radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors. It had more eyes than a bag of old potatoes. They promised "hands-off, eyes-off" driving, which sounds lovely if you want to take a nap while hurtling down the highway at 70 miles per hour. But while it had all those gadgets, the charging input was capped at 150 kilowatts. It was a supercomputer powered by a couple of hamsters on a wheel. It was pathetic.
Image Credit: Afeela.
It's a weird time in the car world. Ford has ditched the F-150 Lightning, Ram binned their electric truck, and Tesla is putting the Model S and Model X out to pasture. Even the Chevy BrightDrop van has been retired. It's a massacre out there. Yet, somehow, brands like Rivian with the R2, BMW with the i3, and Volvo with the EX60 and EX30 are still pushing ahead. It's almost as if the cars that are actually good and sensible are the ones that survive. What a shocking revelation!
The thing is, the auto industry is in a bit of a tizzy. They spend billions on these projects that have no right to succeed, and then they act surprised when the public doesn't want to buy a computer on wheels that costs as much as a small house. They blame the electric cars, but the cars aren't the problem. The problem is a lack of common sense. You can't just slap a Sony badge on a car and expect people to ignore the fact that it's overpriced and underpowered.
Image Credit: Afeela.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: these companies need a Common Sense Consultant. They spend all this money on "visionary" tech, then wonder why the bank account is empty. Just give me five minutes with your CEO. I'll look at your "next big thing" and tell you if you've got a winner or a wiener. It's a small difference in spelling, but a massive difference when you're trying to sell a sedan that nobody asked for.
Anyway, it's time to pour a glass of something strong and toast to the Afeela. It was a silly name, a silly price, and a silly idea. We won't be seeing it in Ohio, or anywhere else for that matter. And honestly? We're all probably better off for it.
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