Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela Prototype 2026 places an SUV spin on its too-familiar sedan at CES

Final yr in Las Vegas at CES 2025, Sony Honda Mobility displayed yet one more revision of its now-familiar but still-unreleased Afeela 1 sedan. With a beginning value of $89,900 and a most vary of 300 miles, it did not seem to be an important worth proposition. 12 months later, the maths nonetheless hasn’t modified, however would-be patrons now have a barely taller choice to contemplate.

Meet the Afeela Prototype 2026, a model of the Afeela 1 sedan that is been up-scaled to raised go well with American SUV proclivities. It affords a carbon copy of the smaller Afeela’s understated styling, together with the exterior, nose-mounted LCD, and is due “as early as 2028.”

That is code for “2029 might be extra seemingly” and is, sadly, all we all know concerning the factor for now.

And what concerning the Afeela 1? Shugo Yamaguchi, president and CEO of Sony Honda Mobility of America, confirmed that it is nonetheless on monitor for a launch this yr, nonetheless priced at $90,000 to begin, and nonetheless set to be constructed at Honda’s Ohio manufacturing unit. That final bit is especially excellent news, as the worldwide tariff scenario has been slightly fluid since we noticed the sedan final yr.

Sadly, the remainder of the Afeela 1’s core attributes have not aged so properly, notably given it is meant to enchantment to an more and more skeptical American market, a scenario that has pushed Honda to dial down its personal US EV aspirations. 300 miles of vary is an more and more middling determine, particularly for a machine priced inside spitting distance of a Porsche Taycan.

To make the Afeela 1 compelling, Sony Honda Mobility is leaning into the tech play, launching with a complicated hands-off, eyes-on driver help system (a la GM’s Tremendous Cruise). Because of the fantastic thing about over-the-air updates, the Afeela 1 will finally provide Stage 4 autonomy, leaning on a bevy of built-in sensors, together with a roof-mounted LIDAR pod. That will theoretically imply you possibly can drive in Gran Turismo 7 whereas your automobile drove you to work.

At launch, although, the motive force will solely be capable to play GT and different PlayStation video games whereas the automobile is parked, because of built-in Distant Play performance. Past gaming, Sony is constructing out a complete set of APIs that may allow third-party builders to create immersive in-cabin experiences, together with customized gauge clusters and infotainment skins. All that can be run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis, with sufficient energy to deal with each the evolving lively security and infotainment duties.

That each one sounds enjoyable, however the dangerous information is that would-be patrons are going to have to attend a little bit longer to begin customising their rides. Manufacturing on the Afeela 1 has slipped, and it’ll not ship to the primary clients till the very finish of 2026. These clients must be in California, as that is the one state the place the sedan can be on the market. Arizona will come subsequent, someday in 2027, however no person at Sony Honda Mobility will say which state will get the subsequent chunk of this apple, or when.

Will or not it’s definitely worth the wait? We’ll circle again later with extra detailed impressions from inside this yr’s iteration of the Afeela 1.