How Sony and Honda Turned a 40-Year Friendship into a Car

The Legacy of Soichiro Honda and Masaru Ibuka

News sites around the world picked it up: Sony and Honda, two of Japan’s most iconic names, were launching an electric vehicle together. The headlines were clean, almost clinical, but beneath all the buzzwords, something unusual was taking place.

To most people, it looked like the kind of news we scroll past every day. Another EV. Another partnership. A sleek concept car packed with futuristic features.

It made sense. Sony is known for its sensors, displays, and entertainment systems. Entering the world of mobility alongside Honda seemed like a natural move.

The vehicle, called AFEELA, was introduced as the first product of their newly formed joint venture, Sony Honda Mobility. It promised not just electric driving, but a new kind of interaction between human and machine. A car built to think, respond, and adapt.

But for those familiar with the history of both companies, and the quiet, decades-long friendship between their founders, this one had been a long time coming.

Soichiro Honda founded Honda Motor Co. in 1948, building engines and motorcycles from scratch in postwar Japan. Masaru Ibuka co-founded Sony just two years earlier, turning a small Tokyo radio repair shop into a world leader in electronics. They shared a vision for how technology should serve people, and they remained close for over forty years. Their companies never built anything together.

Until now.