Sony and Honda become first Japanese EV makers to bow to Tesla’s charging standard

Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), the electric vehicle (EV) joint venture eponymously formed by two Japanese multinational giants in 2022 have announced they will adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its Afeela brand of EVs due to begin sales in 2025.

Even as SHM’s Afeela prototype has been making pop-up appearances at Westfield shopping centres across the United States, there hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to a new EV that is expected to go on sale next year, with deliveries expected in the United States and Japan in 2026.

As such, little actual technical detail is known about the SHM Afeela brand’s first EVs, as the company has only presented prototypes to the public and hyped up its efforts to explore “new relationships between people and mobility.”

The company is obviously edging closer to reality, however, after SHM announced on Friday that it had signed an agreement with Tesla to adopt its North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its Afeela EVs.

SHM will become the first Japanese automaker to adopt the NACS standard for cars sold in Japan, even though other Japanese automakers have adopted the standard for cars sold in North America.

Afeela EVs will therefore have access to Tesla V3 and V4 Superchargers.

“Tesla Superchargers represent the largest global network, with 60,000 Superchargers and growing,” said Max de Zegher, director of charging at Tesla.

“In Japan, 90% of 150kW+ chargers are Superchargers. True to Tesla’s mission, we also want to be helpful to companies going electric, and improve charging experiences for all EV drivers. That’s why we’re excited to see the North American Charging Standard (NACS) gaining traction in Japan, and we welcome Sony Honda Mobility as the first automaker to join the movement.”

The announcement follows a handful of other minor partnerships signed by SHM, including a decision to integrate live audio platform TuneIn as an in-car service for its Afeela EVs, as well as a left-field partnership to include anime streaming service Crunchyroll as an in-vehicle entertainment service.

“Sony Honda Mobility is committed to pursuing value creation centered around people for driving pleasure and an entertaining in-car experience,” said Yasuhide Mizuno, representative director, chairman, and CEO of Sony Honda Mobility.

“We prioritize customer convenience even in charging and have decided to adopt NACS. We sincerely thank Tesla for providing us the opportunity to adopt NACS as well as their latest and advanced technology-equipped V3 and V4 Superchargers for AFEELA”