Tokyo: From a personal music player to the game console, Sony Group often gambled to become a pioneer, but a leap to electric cars can risk to a new level for Japanese consumer technology giants.
While investors were shocked when Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida said that the Las Vegas Tech Fair company was preparing Sony’s mobility, the shares fell 7% on Thursday because they reflected the challenges that truly provided sensors, consumer electronic deals and entertainment.
The main purpose of Sony branded cars, analysts said, was to create autonomously connected vehicles for services such as sharing cars and rising, which in the end can exceed the sale of cars.
Markets MarketsParket estimates that the market “mobility as a service” can be a balloon to $ 40 billion in 2030 from around $ 3 billion last year.
But analysts show that Sony is likely to have invested a lot in factories and equipment to bring Vision-S EV prototypes, first launched in Las Vegas two years ago, to market sufficiently to compete effectively.
“This will be a difficult business to succeed,” Takaki Nakanishi, automotive analyst at Nakanishi Research Institute in Tokyo, said Kenichiro’s announcement.
The Tesla Inc.
industry leader, who delivered his first electric vehicle in 2008, has hijacked billions of dollars to revolutionize the car industry, relying on investor support when navigating loss years.
Now the acceleration shift to EVS, when countries try to cut carbon emissions by removing the use of gasoline and driven diesel cars, it is likely to help technology companies because they are simpler to be built than the internal combustion engine vehicle.
Sony will join a strong list of major technology companies that explore automotive opportunities, including Apple Inc.
iPhone makers, South Korea LG Electronics and Taiwan Foxconn, added Nakanishi.
But for their vehicles it is considered a decent road they must also comply with tighter safety regulations than applied to consumer electronics.
And the component must also hold the hard road and outdoors.
“Sony will not be able to do what Tesla does, the obstacle is too high,” said Nakanishi, adding that the road is easier for Japanese companies to outsource vehicle manufacturing to people like Foxconn.
Sony hasn’t said if or how it will build a branded car, but has recruited established car makers to produce EV prototypes, partnering with factories in Austria owned by Canadian Magna International AutoParts makers, which build cars for companies including BMW.
, Mercedes Benz and Toyota.
Other members of European-based projects include the maker of German AutoParts Bosch, French automotive technology company Valeo SE and Hungarian autonomous vehicles began aimotive.
Old vs.
new EV makers, EV markets are still small, sales growth goes beyond that fossil fuel and Tesla fuel benefits mostly in terms of investors giving up.
Tesla’s market capitalization is now about four times the Toyota Motor Corp, even though the vehicle output by the company A.S.
Only one tenth of the largest car manufacturer in the world.
Heritage car makers such as Toyota, General Motors Co., Volkslagen and Chrysler owner began fighting by plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars, which will add competition to Sony.
For several technology companies, the Iming-Iming EVS has fallen, exceeding the risk.
Inventor vacuum cleaner without James Dyson canceled the planned electric car in 2018 because the complexity put the vehicle on the road.
And Panasonic Corp., Sony Japanese consumer competitors, have also avoided the mass market EV, despite automotive components, including batteries made for Tesla cars, now the main sales driver.
“Panasonic does not consider the production of Panasonic branded EVs,” said a spokesman.