Afeela, the electric car brand set up by Sony and Honda, will follow up its debut saloon model with a new SUV in 2028.
The company revealed a prototype for its Lucid Gravity rival at CES in Las Vegas last night (6 January) and said it's planned for launch in the US in 2028.
The SUV is said to "build on the core concept of Afeela 1" - the sleek EV saloon that has just entered production at Honda's Ohio factory – but offer "greater spatial flexibility and accessibility" in a bid to widen the brand's target market.
Afeela confirmed plans for an SUV model at CES three years ago, when it revealed the Vision S 02 concept - and while the new prototype is clearly conceptually similar, it marks a significant departure in terms of its design.
The latest evolution of the SUV is effectively a raised version of the saloon, with the same distinctive wraparound light bars, clean surfacing and minimalist styling - even retaining the raked, fastback-style rear roofline.
Details remain thin on the ground, but it appears to have a very similar footprint to the saloon, so expect it to measure just under five metres long and have a wheelbase of a little over three metres - lining it up as a natural rival to the BMW iX and Volvo EX90 and – importantly in the US – the Lucid Gravity and Rivian R1S.
The SUV is likely to share the saloon's fundamental, Honda-engineered underpinnings, too, so a 91kWh lithium ion battery will give up to 300 miles of range and charge at 150kW, sending its reserves to a pair of motors that combine for 482bhp.
While Honda handles the bulk of the engineering and manufacturing of Afeela cars, Sony provides the technology and UX - and the SUV will match the saloon in this regard, featuring an advanced robotics-based posture control suite to optimise ride comfort; level-two-plus autonomous driving capability; a highly customisable infotainment interface; and a novel exterior 'media bar' on its nose.
While the SUV is planned to enter production in around two years' time, it's unlikely to reach showrooms outside of the US much before 2030, given the saloon has yet to begin deliveries in its launch market of California, ahead of a planned roll-out to neighbouring Arizona and Honda's Japanese home market next year.
There are as yet no public plans to bring either Afeela model to Europe.
The saloon on show at CES was described as a "pre-production" model taken from the Ohio production line, where trial build runs recently took place ahead of the car going into full-scale build later this year.
Prices for the saloon start at around $90,000 (£66k), so expect the SUV to start at just north of $100k (£74k) - lining it up against higher-spec versions of its compatriot Lucid and Rivian rivals.
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I'd forgotten all about this madness.
Sony and Honda both have made great, innovative products in their histories, but a few missteps as well.
I fear this is the latter.
300 mile range suggested is by absolute no means staggering considering 91Kw battery capacity -- CLA currently achieves 400 miles + from 85 Kw. If new EV brand is launched, it absolutely must be competitive - this seems obsolete already.