TOKYO — Sony Group will likely add new technology partners to its electric vehicle project to help it forge a mobility business to transform cars from transportation machines to entertainment spaces, a Sony executive told Reuters.
"We see the risk of ignoring EVs as greater than the challenge they pose," Izumi Kawanishi, the senior general manager who will manage a new Sony Mobility business, said in an interview. The coming transformation of cars was in some ways similar to how information technology turned phones into smartphones, he added.
"We understand that speed is important in terms of making a decision," said Kawanishi, who joined the Japanese consumer electronics company as a software engineer in 1986 and heads the AI Robotics unit making Sony's Aibo robot pet.PARTNERS So far, Sony has built two EV"Vision" prototypes with a factory in Austria owned by Canadian auto parts maker Magna International, which also makes cars for firms including BMW, Mercedes Benz and Toyota Motor Corp.
To bring an EV to market, Sony would likely have to invest heavily in plant and equipment. Tesla Inc, which delivered its first electric vehicle in 2008, has spent billions of dollars to make its business viable.
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