Project Canceled, Reservations Refunded
The PlayStation-in-the-backseat car just hit a dead end. Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) has canceled the Afeela 1 and a second Afeela model that had been in development, and will refund reservation fees to anyone who registered interest.
In a statement, the joint venture said it had "decided to discontinue the development and launch of its first model, Afeela 1, and its second model of Afeela vehicles that had been under development" after internal discussions. The decision comes less than two years after SHM pitched Afeela as a showcase for Sony tech inside a Honda-built EV, with passenger screens and the promise of backseat PlayStation gaming.
How many cars the companies expected to sell was always a question mark. The proposition hinged on entertainment and software rather than performance specs or a disruptive price, and early reaction to the December reveal focused more on the novelty of in-car PS5 streaming than the vehicle itself.
What SHM Says Changed
SHM traced the reversal to Honda’s updated electrification plans. "As a result of Honda's reassessment of its automobile electrification strategy announced on March 12, 2026, SHM will not be able to utilize certain technologies and assets that were originally planned to be provided by Honda at the time of SHM’s initial business planning," the statement reads. "In light of this change, SHM has determined that it does not have a viable path forward to bring the models to market as originally planned."
That’s a surprising twist for a project that was already fully electric. SHM originally framed its mission as combining the "technologies, expertise, and development capabilities of Sony and Honda" to ship "high value-added mobility products" alongside related services. Pull those Honda-provided assets and the math, apparently, no longer works.