• Honda and Sony axed the Afeela, a tech-heavy electric sedan that was slated for sale in 2026.
• The decision leaves Sony Honda Mobility, their joint venture company, in limbo.
• Analysts say they aren't surprised by the cancellation — but were surprised by how late it came.

The Afeela is dead.

The car — a PlayStation-linked EV developed through Honda's joint venture with Sony — had been positioned as a tech-forward flagship, featuring multiple screens (including on the hood), autonomous driving capabilities, and even a spot to hold a PS5 controller.

Plans to build the $90,000 electric sedan and a future SUV sibling were scrapped on Wednesday.

It's the latest shift in Honda's approach to building EVs in America. Earlier this month, the automaker said it would take a $15.7 billion write-down while canceling several coming EVs, including the Honda 0 Saloon, Honda 0 SUV, and Acura RSX. Honda had already exited a separate EV partnership with General Motors in 2023 and discontinued the Acura ZDX last year.

The decisions leave Honda with one EV in the US market: the Prologue.

Afeela's cancellation stands apart.

Honda and Sony formed an entirely separate company, Sony Honda Mobility, to develop the car. SHM told Business Insider on Wednesday it's continuing "to discuss the path forward with its parent companies on the future of SHM."

The model's cancellation didn't shock industry analysts.

"This aligns with Honda rethinking its EV plans, especially in the US market," Seth Goldstein, a senior equity strategist and EV industry specialist at Morningstar, told Business Insider.

He said Honda is likely shifting toward a more hybrid-heavy lineup while reassessing how to build profitable EVs without relying on government incentives.

While the cancellation itself wasn't surprising, the timing was.

Sony Honda Mobility recently showcased Afeela at CES, heavily promoted it on social media, and added the vehicle to the PlayStation car racing game Gran Turismo 7 in a 2025 update. Moderators for the r/GranTurismo7 subreddit confirmed to Business Insider that the car is still available to drive in the game.

SHM had said it expected to launch the physical car in California by the end of the year.

Pulling the plug on a vehicle so close to launch is "definitely not the industry norm," Adam Bernard, a former director of competitive intelligence at General Motors, told Business Insider.

"A last-minute pull is very unusual," he said.

More broadly, Honda's shift highlights a growing divide in how automakers are approaching the US EV market.

Toyota — long seen as a laggard in fully electric vehicles — has recently accelerated its EV plans, underscoring how differently the longtime rivals are navigating the transition.

Goldstein said Toyota's experience with hybrid systems and battery development may make it easier to adapt its lineup, while Honda now faces a more fundamental reset.

Still, analysts don't see this as the end of Honda's EV ambitions altogether.

"My guess is that they may revisit their plans and perhaps produce something lower in cost toward the end of the decade," Sam Abuelsamid, an auto industry analyst at Telemetry, told Business Insider.

He added that while Afeela was slated for production in Ohio, Honda is likely to repurpose that capacity for other vehicles rather than leave it idle.

What remains unclear is where Sony Honda Mobility fits into Honda's next phase. A Honda spokesperson said the company had "no insight into the announcement," referring questions to the joint venture.

"This decision follows discussions between our parent companies, after taking into account the significant impact of Honda's EV strategy change," SHM told Business Insider.

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• Packsize founder Hanko Kiessner became a proponent of electric vehicles after developing asthma.
• He installed chargers in his company's parking lot several years ago to help reduce air pollution.
• Kiessner says they're a low-cost perk that can help attract and retain talent, especially when gas prices soar.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hanko Kiessner, founder and vice chairman of Packsize, a Salt Lake City-based packaging company. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

We just had a spike in gas prices, and everyone is complaining. I see an affordable solution for employers — one that could also grow worker loyalty: adding EV charging stations to their parking lots.

This is something I discovered after moving in 2002 from Germany, where I grew up, to Salt Lake City and starting Packsize. I didn't know about the air pollution problem here, and after a few years. I developed asthma.

I'd never had this problem before. I'm very active. I run marathons. So I did research to find out what was causing my asthma and concluded that air pollution was to blame. I also learned that air pollution largely comes from vehicles and can cause inflammation in the lungs, which can lead to cancer.

Around this time, electric cars were becoming popular. I learned so much about this disruptive technology that I started a nonprofit called Leaders for Clean Air with several other local entrepreneurs. Our mission is to raise money to buy EV charging stations and have them installed in as many places as possible. We see this as a business matter. We need to attract talent from other markets to grow, and air pollution hinders that.

I also wanted to motivate more people than just me to drive an electric car, so I asked my employees: What prevents you from buying one? And the answer was that charging stations are not ubiquitous. One of the biggest fears for people with EVs is driving to work and not finding a plug. That is scary because now you might not be able to make it home.

We initially set up just three charging stations at our Utah headquarters, where we have about 100 employees. Then all of a sudden, people got EVs, so we added more. Today, we have 53 stations and are close to a 30% EV adoption rate among staff, which means there are some extra plugs for visitors and employees at neighboring businesses. We learned that the infrastructure has to come first. Most employees switched after the charging stations were installed.

These stations are probably one of the cheapest benefits an employer can offer their staff. The cost of electricity at a corporate rate is low — for us, it's about $3 a day per charging station. In today's post-COVID world, it's also a way to get people back to the office.

Here's the really cool thing: I'm now attracting employees who drive EVs, and they're very desirable. They typically care about the environment and understand that EV driving is cheaper than gasoline driving. They also tend to be tech-savvy.

Now that gas prices are so high, more people may consider buying EVs. Oil supply chains are fragile, and we have an abundance of cheap electricity. For employers, helping workers make that switch can be as simple as putting charging stations in their parking lots.