CES 2026: Sony’s AFEELA 1 EV is back and road ready

Sony Honda Mobility again showcased the AFEELA 1 electric vehicle at CES this year. If, like me, you watched it last year, the experience will feel very familiar. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The AFEELA 1 still looks polished, still emphasizes its identity as a rolling entertainment hub, and still feels more like a Sony product than a traditional car. What’s different is that this year is less about flashy new features and more about refinements.

Sony Honda Mobility used its CES keynote to reiterate its vision of “mobility as a creative entertainment space”, positioning the AFELA 1 as a car built around time spent inside it, not just to get from point A to point B. Sitting inside the EV again, that philosophy is clear. The panoramic dashboard display remains the centerpiece, spanning the entire cabin and serving as the primary interface for navigation, media and apps.

Along with the AFEELA 1, Sony Honda Mobility also showed an SUV-style prototype, codenamed AFEELA Prototype 2026. Despite its name, the company says this prototype will reach production in 2028 at the earliest. It appears to be basically the same as the AFEELA 1, only in SUV form, although Sony Honda Mobility is keeping mum on further details at this stage. As it gets closer to production, we’ll have to wait to learn more about the AFEELA 1’s younger sibling.

In the meantime, AFEELA 1 has plenty to keep us entertained – literally. One of my personal favorite features of the AFEELA 1 is its PlayStation Remote Play. If you already have a PS5, you can stream games to the rear seat display using the DualSense controller. I got a chance to test it for the first time after it was teased last year, and the connection wasn’t too bad. Obviously, it was unable to stream in 4K, but there was no noticeable input lag and it remained reliable even in a crowded demo environment. This is still very much a “you already need to buy into the PlayStation ecosystem” feature, but it works more consistently now than before.

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The AI ​​assistant, AFEELA, is also back, and is described as still capable but unremarkable. Sony Honda Mobility has designed it as a “personal agent” powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, which aims to support natural interactions and personalization over time. In practice, it behaves like a standard in-car assistant. It can open apps, set destinations, adjust settings and respond to basic contextual prompts. It complemented my shirt by using the cameras in the car, so that was cool.

Where the AFEELA 1 improves is in the basics. The interior runs more smoothly overall, with faster screen responses and fewer hiccups when switching between apps. The cabin feels quieter and more settled, and it’s clear that Sony Honda Mobility is prioritizing comfort and stability over experimental features.

This sense of polish also applies to how Sony Honda Mobility is positioning the AFEELA 1 as a productivity space. Beyond entertainment, the car supports apps like Zoom, which lets you take video calls from inside the cabin. The camera angle is a little wonky, so be aware that you may not look your best when it’s on. They demoed it for us, and the camera was wide enough to capture the entire car instead of just framing you like a laptop webcam does.

All this refinement comes at a premium. Pricing for the AFEELA 1 starts at $89,900, with the higher trims exceeding $100,000, placing it firmly in luxury EV territory. At that price, one should expect it to be able to function properly. However, this year’s demo shows that Sony Honda Mobility is focusing on getting the basics right before it hits California roads later this year.

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ces electric vehicles