Sony explores a leap into the red-hot EV business

Sony Group plans to launch a company this spring to examine entering the electric vehicle market, looking to harness its strengths in entertainment and sensors to play a bigger role in next-generation mobility.

The new company, Sony Mobility, comes as the Japanese tech giant is "exploring a commercial launch" of electric vehicles, Sony chairman and president Kenichiro Yoshida said at the company’s CES 2022 keynote event on Tuesday.

"With our imaging and sensing, cloud, 5G and entertainment technologies combined with our contents mastery, we believe Sony is well positioned as a creative entertainment company to redefine mobility," he said.

Although its once-dominant position in consumer electronics has been eroded by Asian rivals such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Sony still has an arsenal of sophisticated technology in areas such as sensors critical to autonomous driving.

Sony's sensors for autonomous and self-aware vehicles are a growing segment of its imaging business that spans most of the world's smartphones and digital cameras.

The Japanese firm also remains one of the world's biggest entertainment companies, home to prominent video game and movie franchises. Audio and entertainment systems are increasingly a focus for next-generation vehicles.

Yoshida unveiled a prototype crossover, the VISION-S 02, using the same electric vehicle platform as the previously announced VISION-S 01 coupe that began testing on public roads in Europe in December 2020.

No details on pricing or release date were made available.

Yoshida said the company saw mobility as an "entertainment space" where passengers could chose individual entertainment options and use 5G internet connection.

Wall Street is betting heavily on electric cars and the global auto industry has been upended by Tesla now the world's most valuable automaker. Many investors also expect Apple to launch its own vehicle within the next few years.

Tech companies from China’s Xiaomi Corp. to Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group have ventured into EVs to diversify beyond mobile phones and PCs. Apple Inc.’s own ambitions for an electric car have been among the most scrutinized, with Bloomberg News reporting in November that the world’s No. 1 tech firm is accelerating development in the sector.

Dyson, the consumer vacuum cleaner giant, also spent years developing an EV, but pulled the plug on the project in 2019.

Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report