Honda’s bombshell announcement that it is pulling the plug on its planned North American EV lineup has sent shockwaves through the auto industry, and there’s a particular piece of collateral damage that hits close to home for Gran Turismo fans: the Afeela 1.
The Afeela, of course, is the electric sedan born from Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), a joint venture between Sony and Honda. For GT enthusiasts, The car has always carried a significance that goes beyond the typical EV announcement.
The partnership between SHM and Polyphony Digital, announced at CES 2024 with the aim of fusing simulation technology with real-world vehicle development, made the Afeela a uniquely Gran Turismo story from the start. That collaboration led to Polyphony developing the Afeela’s e-Motor Sound, the synthesized audio designed to give drivers a sense of acceleration, deceleration, and cornering in what would otherwise be a silent electric car. SHM’s COO Izumi Kawanishi even drove the prototype onto the CES stage with a DualSense controller.
The Afeela 1 was added to Gran Turismo 7 last August, and the production car even features native PS Remote Play, letting owners connect a DualSense controller and play PS5 games on the infotainment display. It is as much of a “PlayStation car” as you’ll ever see, all of which makes this week’s news sting.
Honda announced Wednesday that it is canceling the 0 Series Sedan, 0 Series SUV, and Acura RSX, citing tariff concerns and the shifting commercial and regulatory landscape around electric vehicles. The Afeela 1 was not mentioned in that announcement, but the sedan shares its underlying platform with the 0 Series and was slated for production at Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant, right next door to where the now-canceled Honda EVs would have been built.
So what happens to the Afeela? Right now, nobody seems to know — including the people building it.
In a statement obtained by The Drive, SHM’s PR director Akiko Itoga said the company is “aware of Honda Motor’s decision to pause its EV business in North America” and that Sony and Honda “will hold discussions on how this affects SHM.” Beyond that, the company says it has no further information to share at this time.
SHM is technically its own entity, separate from Honda, and the Afeela 1 is further along in its development than the Honda and Acura EVs that were axed. This is a car priced from $89,900 that is already taking reservations. Trial production runs were completed at the Ohio plant earlier this year, SHM has been opening retail locations in California, and the company’s website still lists deliveries as beginning before the end of 2026. Just months ago at CES, SHM even showed off an SUV prototype.
But being further along doesn’t make the car immune to the forces that killed the 0 Series. If Honda is stepping away from EV manufacturing in North America, the factory infrastructure and supply chain that SHM was counting on could be in jeopardy.
The timing of all this is almost comically bad for Gran Turismo players.
As of this writing, the “AFEELA Cup 2026 presented by Sony Honda Mobility” time trial is actively running in GT7, with players racing the Afeela 1 around Trial Mountain through March 15. There’s even a social media contest attached to it, with PlayStation Store gift cards on the line. It’s a promotional event for a car whose real-world existence is now suddenly an open question.
It was only last year that SHM ran a livery design competition in GT7, with the winning design set to feature in Afeela promotional material, and possibly even on the real car. Whether that real car will exist to wear it is now anyone’s guess.
Sony first showed off the Vision-S back in 2020 and started down this road of making a real car six years ago. Polyphony Digital brought its sound engineering and simulation expertise to the project. The car made it into Gran Turismo. SHM opened showrooms. Trial cars rolled off the line. After all of that, it would be a bitter outcome if the Afeela 1 never reaches the hands of actual customers.
For now, the only place you can be sure to drive one is in Gran Turismo 7.
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