Vision-S: What Sony Can Bring to Electric Vehicles

Sony Takes Advantage of CES 2022 to Showcase a Second Vision-S Concept and Clarify Its Electric Vehicle Ambitions. It’s Coming to Life!

For the third consecutive year, Sony wrapped up its CES conference, the international tech show, with a segment on electric vehicles. Immediately after unveiling the PlayStation VR2 virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 5, Sony President Kenichiro Yoshida introduced a new car concept and announced the creation of a dedicated division, Sony Mobility, set to debut in spring 2022.

Sony caused a surprise at CES 2020 by unveiling its first electric car concept, the Vision-S. The following year, it announced that road testing had begun. This year at CES 2022, it announced “exploring the commercial launch of a Sony electric car.”

The company was probably initially questioning whether to become a supplier for other automakers or to offer its own vehicle. It seems that the positive public and market reception is leaning it toward the latter.

Also read: Aito M5: How Does Huawei’s Electric Car Measure Up?

What Do Tech Companies Bring to the Automotive Industry?

But what can an electronics specialist like Sony contribute to the automotive market? To start, software already accounts for more than half of the value of some vehicles, according to Laurent Petizon, General Manager for France at consulting firm AlixPartners, interviewed by Le Monde, who predicts that 50% will be the industry average within ten years. As such, tech companies like Sony, Huawei, Google, and Apple could become future pillars of the automotive industry.

Sony has introduced a second concept, the Vision-S 02, a family SUV derived from the sedan, which has been renamed Vision-S 01 for this occasion. These two prototypes demonstrate Sony’s relevance, leveraging expertise across several key domains.

The interior notably showcases Sony’s displayed expertise in screens, sound, interfaces, and entertainment: it features… 9 screens! Two side screens for digital mirrors, a digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel, a central screen for the driver’s infotainment system, three screens for passenger entertainment (movies and online gaming), and two additional screens for climate control front and rear. Sony also integrates its 360 Reality Audio technology into the vehicle by installing numerous speakers at all four corners of the cabin and in the headrests, delivering multi-channel sound akin to a cinema experience.

Sony also proposes to combine its audio and video recording expertise in a novel way by imagining a voice assistant capable of lip reading to improve voice recognition accuracy.

As the global leader in photo and video sensors, holding roughly 45% of the market share, Sony has equipped its Vision-S concepts with a suite of 40 sensors (cameras, radars, lidar, and ultrasonic sensors). These support various driver assistance features, including a promising Level 2 autonomous driving function. Demonstration animations suggest that Sony’s vehicle can even overtake in construction zones where white and yellow lines overlap. It can also park between a car and a motorcycle—a feat no existing system can yet accomplish.

Unaddressed Automotive Features

Automotive capabilities are still secondary at this stage, but Sony has partnered with Magna Steyr and Bosch on this front. Both concepts are built on a bespoke platform with two 200 kW (272 hp) motors. The sedan promises a 0-100 km/h acceleration in 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 240 km/h. Battery capacity remains unknown, but illustrations show an estimated range of 333 km with about 90% charge, and a consumption of 27 kWh/100 km—comparable to contemporary electric vehicles.

At this development stage, the Vision-S models are far from the record efficiency of Mercedes’ EQXX concept.

Also read: Vision EQXX: How Mercedes Aims to Democratize Long-Range Electric Vehicles