According to Nikkei Asia, Sony Group held a regular shareholders’ meeting in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Chairman and President Kenichiro Yoshida said, ” In order to launch a pure electric vehicle in 2025, it will be foolproof”. One shareholder said, “Mobility is different from mobile games, and safety is very important. Since you want to get involved in this field, you must be mentally prepared.” To come forward and take responsibility?”. Yoshida stated that “the main body of the introduction of pure electric vehicles is a company jointly funded by Sony and Honda. The company is mainly responsible for and sufficient measures must be taken in terms of safety.
Read Also: Russian electric vehicles turn to Chinese charging standards
Sony has had an unwritten rule since its inception, that it “does not deal in products related to human life”. In recent years, the company has ventured into areas such as the medical business and pure electric vehicles, where attitudes are changing. “Sony now deals in medical devices, including endoscopes (co-developed with Olympus) and cell analyzers,” Yoshida said. “In terms of medical care, we also ensure safety.”
Sony sees mobile tools as a growth area. In 2022, it will jointly invest with Honda to establish the “Sony Honda Mobility” company. According to the official schedule, the first car will hit the market in 2025. If all goes according to plan, the company will have pure electric vehicles and other services in three years.
Safety concerns remain amid the world’s rapid transition from internal-combustion locomotives to pure electric vehicles. Since the end of 2021, even Tesla, the world’s largest pure electric vehicle company, has implemented a large-scale recall (recycling and free repair) in the United States and China.
Gizchina News of the week
Car market will collapse if electric vehicles prices are not cut – Stellantis warns
The latest report regarding electric vehicles is a warning coming from the fourth-largest carmaker Stellantis. According to the Italian-American conglomerate, when Europe fully switches to electric vehicles, the current electric vehicles are still too expensive. Thus, unless the price significantly reduces, it will bring the entire auto industry into a huge crisis.
Stellantis’ chief manufacturing officer, Arnaud Deboeuf, said Wednesday that the company aims to reduce the cost of making electric vehicles by 40 per cent by 2030. In addition, the group plans to manufacture some parts in-house and force suppliers to lower the prices of their products. In addition, Stellantis is developing five large battery factories in North America and Europe, with a capacity of 400-gigawatt/ hours by 2030.
Market will collapse
Deboeuf said in an interview that the market will collapse if electric cars don’t drop in price. This is a huge challenge. Today, the price of EVs is rising at a rapid rate. Tesla has substantially raised prices on all-electric vehicle products in the U.S. market; Rivian and Ford have made similar price increases.
Stellantis plans to launch more than 75 all-electric models within a decade and revamp at least some of its French car factories to produce electric vehicles. This month, the Stellantis Group invested 33 million euros in two of its global vehicle testing centres to build first-class electric vehicle performance and master the highest level of autonomous vehicle technology. However, the company has pledged to rely on software and services. It will also rely on additional revenue from some premium cars, to maintain strong revenue and profits.
Most manufacturers are likely to have to switch to producing electric vehicles within a decade or so as the EU aggressively pushes the auto industry to move away from fossil fuels. Nevertheless, Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said: “It seems that policymakers in the EU don’t care whether automakers have enough raw materials to support the transition”. Tavares adds that the company would not rule out buying mines to secure supplies.
