Sony’s Afela 1 feels like a PlayStation 4 in the PS5 era

While there are many car news you can visit Cost of CES 2025away, the story of the show is Ephesians 1. Again. For five years now, Sony has been showing some updates on the same title, the first one like Vision-S in 2020, that is Vision-S 02before it took the unfortunate rebranding to They will fail in 2023and this year finally in Ephesians 1.

Along the way, the car has lost the funky styling it once had while following the trend that was so popular five years ago. Everything just sounds a little, not less than its base price: $89,900.

I got a chance to stand nearby and got into the car, the demo started with a re-examination of the meaning of Afeela. It is a kind of extended portmanteau of the words independent, complement, and conjunction.

This year’s Afela 1 has been slightly modified from last year’s limited edition car. The only significant change is found in the sensor pod protruding from the front of the roof. The LiDAR module now takes pride of place, along with several cameras on each side, looking in different directions like a chameleon.

Although the look of the bug isn’t exactly pretty, it’s the only part that looks good otherwise. The only other external speaker is the display on the edge of the hood. This “media bar” is another thing that seemed new and exciting a few years ago on the concept car.

It should welcome you to the car or deliver messages to those around you. But it’s hard to read from a distance, and up close you can see the unfortunate seam in the middle where two panels were badly joined together to make the thing.

To open the driver’s door, you can click the button in the app or click the small button included in the details. There are no pull door handles, not even a fin like a pacho Ford Mustang Mach-E. I didn’t care to ask you what you do if you stop the storm and the door is closed. I wasn’t given many answers.

The doors open to a space that’s almost nothing like the outside except for one thing: the dashboard display. It looks and feels great and about the only thing that reminded me that this is a Sony product. Well, it’s a DualSense controller that you can pair with a car and turn on PS Remote Play while charging.

And you need something to do because the Afeela 1’s maximum power is 150 kW for its 91 kWh battery, which provides about 300 miles of range. Compare this with the cheap price of Lucid Air, which can charge twice as fast and cover more than 400 kilometers per charge and you begin to see the real problem with this product.

The display as well as the ambient lighting inside the cars are all customizable, with similar themes available on the PS5. I tried an example of Ghost of Tsushima and Fortnite headers, each of which appeared within the appropriate range, adding a vanilla color profile.

The main display is the talking point, but look down a little and you’ll see the world’s largest console between the seats. It’s bigger than the iDrive knob on most modern BMWs, but it only controls the 28-speaker Dolby Atmos audio output.

The software interface, meanwhile, looks unfinished, no more than two rows of large boxes representing software, settings and vehicle controls. Considering the size of the display, the necessary controls can be extended beyond the driver, leaving you to drag the whole panel to the left to find what you want.

After years of seeing what Sony’s first car looked like, I couldn’t help but be disappointed when I stepped down. But don’t get as frustrated as I was when I looked at the paper again.

There are two versions of the Afeela 1, the $89,900 Afeela 1 Origin and the $102,900 Signature. The latter has larger wheels (21-inch vs. 19), rear entertainment system (head-up display and HDMI input) and additional cameras. The Origin, meanwhile, is available in black.

Seriously.

Why Sony would decide to launch a $90,000 car that is only available in black is beyond me. Spend $13,000 more on the Signature model, and you only get three forgettable shades: white, gray and black again.

In Origin we have a car that costs $20,000 more than a Lucid Air Pure but it has less color and slower speed. Step up to the $102,900 Afela 1 Signature trim, and you’re now spending a lot more. Porsche Taycanwhich obviously has few colors but looks very good and will be very interesting.

Five years ago, Sony’s automotive ambitions created an odd but fascinating project. Now, everything just looks wrong. What will it feel like in another 12 months when the first cars start rolling out of Honda’s Ohio factory? That’s anyone’s guess, but I can’t imagine tomorrow’s market will look kindly on this car’s interest.