Yasuhide Mizuno, the chairman and CEO of Sony Honda Mobility Inc., speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Oct. 13, 2022.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Sony-Honda joint venture focused on electric vehicles plans to begin deliveries to the United States and Japan in 2026.
Sony Honda Mobility, as it’s known, aims to start taking pre-orders for its vehicle in the first half of 2025, and hopes to start sales before the end of that year. “For sales, SHM plans to focus on online sales,” a statement released Thursday said.
U.S. deliveries are slated to start in the spring of 2026, with deliveries to the Japanese market happening in the latter half of the same year.
SHM said it was aiming to develop a “Level 3 automated drive under limited conditions and to enable Level 2+ driver assistance in even more situations such as urban driving.”
Five levels of driving automation have been defined by SAE International, an association made up of technical experts and engineers. On its website, the SAE refers to Level 2 as providing “Partial Driving Automation.”
If asked to do so, drivers must take control of Level 3 vehicles. The SAE says one example of Level 3 driving would be a “traffic jam chauffer.”
SHM said it would also look to explore “new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse.”
Thursday’s announcement, which confirmed that SHM had now been established, did not contain information related to the vehicle’s range or cost, but did state it would be built at a Honda factory in North America.
Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro
This week’s news builds on previous communications about the joint venture.
In March 2022, the two firms signed a memorandum of understanding centered around a “strategic alliance” in the field of mobility. In June, a joint venture agreement to set up Sony Honda Mobility was signed.
In April, Honda said it planned to roll out 30 electric vehicle models worldwide by 2030. The automotive powerhouse said it would be allocating roughly 5 trillion Japanese yen (around $33.9 billion) to electrification and what it called “software technologies.”
Honda’s electric vehicle plans put it in competition with firms such as Elon Musk’s Tesla as well as companies like Volkswagen, Ford and Stellantis. In 2020, Sony showcased a prototype electric car at a press event during CES 2020 in Las Vegas.
Swedish multinational Sandvik says it’s successfully deployed a pair of fully autonomous Toro LH518iB battery-electric underground loaders at the New Gold Inc. ($NGD) New Afton mine in British Columbia, Canada.
The heavy mining equipment experts at Sandvik say that the revolutionary new 18 ton loaders have been in service since mid-November, working in a designated test area of the mine’s “Lift 1” footwall. The mine’s operators are preparing to move the automated machines to the mine’s “C-Zone” any time now, putting them into regular service by the first of the new year.
“This is a significant milestone for Canadian mining, as these are North America’s first fully automated battery-electric loaders,” Sandvik said in a LinkedIn post. “(The Toro LH518iB’s) introduction highlights the potential of automation and electrification in mining.”
The company says the addition of the new heavy loaders will enable New Afton’s operations to “enhance cycle times and reduce heat, noise and greenhouse gas emissions” at the block cave mine – the only such operation (currently) in Canada.
Electrek’s Take
From drilling and rigging to heavy haul solutions, companies like Sandvik are proving that electric equipment is more than up to the task of moving dirt and pulling stuff out of the ground. At the same time, rising demand for nickel, lithium, and phosphates combined with the natural benefits of electrification are driving the adoption of electric mining machines while a persistent operator shortage is boosting demand for autonomous tech in those machines.
European logistics firm Contargo is adding twenty of Mercedes’ new, 600 km-capable eActros battery electric semi trucks to its trimodal delivery fleet, bringing zero-emission shipping to Germany’s hinterland.
With the addition of the twenty new Mercedes, Contargo’s electric truck fleet has grown to 60 BEVs, with plans to increase that total to 90. And, according to Mercedes, Contargo is just the first.
Contargo’s 20 eActros 600 trucks were funded in part by the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport as part of a broader plan to replace a total of 86 diesel-engined commercial vehicles with more climate-friendly alternatives. The funding directive is coordinated by NOW GmbH, and the applications were approved by the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility.
Data centers powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing are pushing energy demand and production to new limits. Global electricity use could rise as much as 75% by 2050, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, with the tech industry’s AI ambitions driving much of the surge.
As leaders in the AI race push for further technological advancements and deployment, many are finding their energy needs increasingly at odds with their sustainability goals.
“A new data center that needs the same amount of electricity as say, Chicago, cannot just build its way out of the problem unless they understand their power needs,” said Mark Nelson, managing director of Radiant Energy Group. “Those power needs. Steady, straight through, 100% power, 24 hours a day, 365,” he added.
After years of focusing on renewables, major tech companies are now turning to nuclear power for its ability to provide massive energy in a more efficient and sustainable fashion.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are among the most recognizable names exploring or investing in nuclear power projects. Driven by the energy demands of their data centers and AI models, their announcements mark the beginning of an industrywide trend.
“What we’re seeing is nuclear power has a lot of benefits,” said Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate at Google. “It’s a carbon-free source of electricity. It’s a source of electricity that can be always on and run all the time. And it provides tremendous economic impact.”
Watch the video above to learn why Big Tech is investing in nuclear power, the opposition they face and when their nuclear ambitions could actually become a reality.