CES 2026: This Year, Sony’s Presentation Was Dedicated to Electric Vehicles.
At last year’s CES, Sony showcased products from across its entire portfolio at a press conference, including a first look at the second season of The Last of Us . This year, all eyes were on the Afeela , an electric vehicle Sony is developing in collaboration with Honda and has been teasing for years, but is finally getting ready for release.
Sony has big plans for Afeela. Early previews focused less on technical specs like fuel economy or speed and more on the company’s plans to change the way we think about cars. This previously included demos of integration with other Sony services like Crunchyroll and car interior themes aligned with Sony brands. Just a month ago, the company confirmed support for PlayStation Remote Play in Afeela after unveiling it at CES 2024. And when I first saw Afeela at CES, it was being wheeled on stage using a PS5 controller.
Now Sony is ready to talk not only about aesthetics and attractive integrations, but also about its unique style. The main theme of the presentation was the company’s promise to work on a technology called Afeela Intelligent Drive. Currently, it’s at Level 2+ for driver assistance, meaning it can handle tasks like lane changes, but Sony plans to upgrade it to Level 4+ “in the future,” meaning it will enable fully autonomous driving in certain areas. It likely won’t be ready for launch right away, but it shows the company is taking user experience seriously.
In this regard, concepts of the future were also shown, where Afeela users would simply relax while the car drove itself. Such promises are not uncommon at CES, but Sony specifically highlighted its line of entertainment products as something passengers could do while traveling. Combined with the news about Intelligent Drive, this was presumably the goal of all these cross-promotional campaigns within the ecosystem.
But until that future arrives, Sony isn’t afraid to use Afeela to promote its products, though it’s not stopping there. The company invited PlayStation on stage to quickly confirm that Remote Play would be integrated into Afeela (and also revealed the astonishing statistic that apparently half of all PlayStation Remote Play sessions now take place on the PlayStation Portal portable console ). It was also announced that Afeela would feature touchscreen themes based on Sony titles like Astro Bot and Gran Turismo . This isn’t too far off from what the company has shown previously, but the idea of turning your car into a media ecosystem doesn’t end there. Sony also announced the Afeela co-creation program, which will allow developers and content creators to create their own apps or media content for the car.
This includes, among other things, themes and even dedicated Android apps, but drivers can apparently customize the Afeela’s engine sound and display visual effects on a small “media panel” at the front of the car. As an example, Sony invited Japanese music producer Tomoko Ida, who demonstrated an engine sound she created that sounds more like a THX commercial than anything else.
Frankly, this is a pretty smart move for a car that has so far focused more on the ecosystem than on technical specifications. But there’s one oddity that perhaps reflects how long it took to announce. Apparently, developers of the Co-Creation program will be able to be paid in cryptocurrency, which Sony says will “accelerate open co-creation,” though the company also states that the Co-Creation program will be “open to other automakers and service providers.” I’m not sure whether Toyota will want to be paid in blockchain, but that’s beside the point.
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Drivers will be able to access utilities and apps designed for their Afeela using a dedicated app, but that raises the question: when will it finally be possible to control the device?
The Afeela was teased back at CES 2023, but Sony has finally announced that the car has entered production and will begin shipping to customers in California this year. In fact, all the Afeela photos you’ve seen in this article were taken using an actual pre-production model of the first Afeela model, now called the Afeela 1.
This is a huge success for Afeela, but there’s a catch. Shipping to the rest of the country may take some time. Sony says Arizona is next, but sales there won’t begin until 2027. Shipments to Japan are also scheduled for 2027, but living in New York, I’ll have to continue pretending this device doesn’t exist.
This is a rather unpleasant blow for a car that, from the very beginning of its press conference, promised a new future for driving, as even after its road debut, it will likely be even longer before this becomes a reality. However, Sony says it will allow people already registered to purchase the car to begin test drives before deliveries begin.
Frankly, I don’t often write about cars, and the fact that Sony’s press conference this year was dedicated specifically to it perhaps indicates that the brand has had a rather quiet year overall. Still, for those who enjoy driving, I understand the appeal of the Afeela. It’s definitely more of a gadget than a gas guzzler, and I wonder what an Apple Car would look like if it ever came out.
Probably not—despite the impressive mockups, I sat inside an Afeela last year, and it was both impressive and familiar. But Afeela doesn’t stop there. Sony concluded its presentation by bringing the “Afeela 2026 Prototype” onto the stage. It didn’t look much different from the outside, but the company claims it will offer “greater spatial flexibility and accessibility.” To me, this marks a step toward a future where the car essentially becomes a lounge area that transports you while you play PlayStation, but only time will tell. See you when I actually get behind the wheel of one of these cars, probably sometime in 2040.