Sony, Honda and Sony Honda Mobility agreed to scale down the venture's operations, with employees expected to be reassigned to its parent companies in principle

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, from public records. Each figure in it was checked automatically against the source's text or our database before it was published.

On Apr 21, 2026, Sony Group, Honda Motor and their joint venture Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) announced that they had reached an agreement on SHM's future business direction and positioning. Sony Group disclosed it on a Form 6-K, the report that a foreign private issuer files with the Securities and Exchange Commission.1^,2^,3^,4

The companies decided to review SHM's current structure for the time being and to scale down its operations. SHM employees were expected, in principle, to be reassigned to the parent companies and related entities, with their individual preferences taken into account. The companies had concluded that, under the existing framework, it would be difficult to bring products and services aligned with SHM's founding purpose to market in the short to medium term.5^,6

The decision followed Honda's reassessment of its automobile electrification strategy, announced on Mar 12, 2026, and the announcement on Mar 25, 2026 that SHM would discontinue the development and launch of its first model, AFEELA 1, and a second model. Since SHM was established in September 2022, Sony and Honda said, they had brought together and integrated their technologies, expertise and development capabilities with the aim of creating new value in mobility.7^,8

Looking ahead, Sony, Honda and SHM said they expected to continue discussions on the best form of collaboration between them, aiming to bring new value to the user experience through software in anticipation of an era in which advanced driver assistance systems become mainstream. Sony said it was still evaluating the effect of the discontinuation of the launch of SHM's electric vehicle models on its consolidated financial results.9^,10

Sony Group is also the parent of Sony Interactive Entertainment, which publishes titles including God of War Ragnarök and Helldivers 2.11^,12