Sony has announced plans to start an electric car maker, making it the newest electronics maker targeting the auto sector.
The Japanese technology company is “exploring a commercial rollout” of electric vehicles and will launch a new company, Sony Mobility Inc, this spring, its chairman and president, Kenichiro Yoshida, said at a press conference ahead of the US Consumer Electronics Show.
Yoshida unveiled a prototype sport utility vehicle, the Vision-S 02, on Wednesday, which uses the same electric vehicle platform as the previously announced Vision-S 01, a coupe that will be tested on public roads in Europe from December 2020.
“With our imaging and sensing, cloud, 5G and entertainment technologies combined with our mastery of content, we believe Sony, as a creative entertainment company, is well positioned to redefine mobility,” he said.
More and more consumer electronics companies have tried to target the burgeoning electric car market. U.S. electric car maker Tesla’s success has made it one of the highest rated companies in the world, spurring many potential imitators, from traditional auto companies to startups.
Tokyo-listed Sony Group shares rose 3.7% on Wednesday, outperforming flat Japanese benchmark indices.
Electric cars pose fewer barriers to entry for potential newcomers because they have fewer moving parts, while autonomous cars (which are still in development) are likely to open up a new way of selling entertainment and services to passengers.
Sony was the first to commercialize the use of the lithium-ion battery, invented by scientists at Oxford University and used in electric cars today. The technology enabled Sony to become the leader in portable consumer electronics such as camcorders, CD players and laptops.
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The technology company’s activities range from consumer electronics such as the PlayStation game console, smartphones and TVs to entertainment such as music, games and film production. It also has a semiconductor business that is already geared towards the automotive sector.
Apple, the consumer electronics company that became the first to reach $ 3 trillion this week, is aiming to produce a self-driving car by 2025, according to a November report by Bloomberg.
However, the CES has also emphasized that the traditional manufacturers will not give up their market shares anytime soon. On Monday, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a concept car that could allegedly cover 620 miles on a single charge, enough to travel from Brighton on England’s south coast to Inverness in northern Scotland without stopping.
