Sony’s Afeela 1 looks like a PS5-era PlayStation 4

While there’s a lot of car news coming out at CES 2025, the talk of the show is the Afeela 1. Once again. For five years now, Sony has been offering some variations on this same theme, first as In 2020, then before adopting the unfortunate rebranding to and this year finally to Afeela 1.

Along the way, the car has lost a bit of the interesting design it had while sticking to some specifications that looked good five years ago. It all seems a bit off, not least its starting price: .

I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the car, a demonstration that began with another explanation of what Avila means. It is a kind of exaggerated transposition of the words autonomy, increase, and proximity.

This year’s Afeela 1 hasn’t changed much from last year’s countless show car. The only significant visual update is found in the sensor pod protruding from the leading edge of the roof. The LiDAR unit now stands proud, along with two cameras on either end, staring in opposite directions, chameleon-style.

Although the bug-eye look isn’t particularly charming, it’s the only part of the character visible in the cute design. The only other external talking point is the display built into the front edge of the lid. This “media bar” is another thing that looked new and fun a few years ago in a concept car.

It is meant to welcome you into the car or provide messages to those around you. But it’s hard to read from afar, and up close you can see the unfortunate seam down the middle where two panels were joined together rather crudely to form the thing.

To open the driver’s door, simply tap a button in the app or press a small button integrated into the column. There are no door handles to pull, not even a token flipper as in . I can’t help but ask what you do if you park your car in a snowstorm and the door is locked. I didn’t get much of an answer.

These doors open into a space that’s as simple as the exterior except for one thing: the display screen extending onto the dashboard. It’s vibrant and clear and is the only thing here that reminded me that this is a Sony product. Well, that’s in addition to a DualSense controller that you can pair to the car and then turn on PS Remote Play while it charges.

And you’ll need to do something because the Afeela 1’s maximum charging rate is 150 kilowatts for its 91 kilowatt-hour battery, which provides an estimated range of 300 miles. Compare that to the cheaper Lucid Air, which can charge twice as fast and covers over 400 miles on a charge, and you’ll start to see the real problem with this thing.

This screen, as well as the ambient lighting inside the car, can be customized extensively, with the same types of themes available on the PS5. I took samples Ghost of Tsushima and fortnite Themes, each of which pepper the interior with a matching series of colours, adding a touch of personality to the vanilla surfaces.

That big screen is the main talking point, but look a little lower and you’ll notice the world’s largest volume knob located between the seats. It’s larger than the iDrive knob found in most modern BMWs, but it only controls the output of the 28-speaker Dolby Atmos-enabled sound system.

Meanwhile, the software interface looked largely incomplete, little more than a grid of two rows of oversized boxes representing apps, settings, and vehicle controls. Due to the width of the screen, vital controls can easily extend beyond the driver’s reach, allowing you to pull the entire array back to the left to get what you need.

After many years of seeing what Sony’s first car actually looked like, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when I climbed up. But it wasn’t as frustrating as when I looked at the spec sheet again.

There are two models of the Afeela 1, the Afeela 1 Origin priced at $89,900 and the Signature priced at $102,900. The latter has larger wheels (21 inches versus 19), a rear-seat entertainment system (screens built into the headrests plus an HDMI input) and additional cameras. Meanwhile, the Origin is only available in black.

seriously.

Why would Sony consider launching a $90,000 car available only in black? Spend an extra $13,000 on the Signature model, and you’ll still only get three forgettable colors: white, gray, and again black.

At Origin we have a car that costs $20,000 more than a car But it has a much lower range and slower charging speed. Choose the $102,900 Afeela 1 Signature Edition, and you’re now spending more than… which admittedly has less range but sounds much better and would certainly be the more attractive engine.

Five years ago, Sony’s automotive aspirations led to a strange but interesting project. Now, the whole thing seems misguided. What will it feel like in another 12 months when the first cars start rolling out of Honda’s Ohio plant? This is anyone’s guess, but I can’t imagine that tomorrow’s market will look more kindly on this vehicular curiosity.