**Tesla's Dominance in the EV Market**

For the last decade, Tesla has had a firm grasp on the EV market, offering vehicles with giant screens, semi-autonomous driving, and a 300 plus mile range.

**Competition Rises**

Several companies have begun to fight back with EV offerings of their own. This includes legacy brands like Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Ford. Even brand new companies like Rivian and Lucid have joined the battle to give Tesla a run for their money.

**A Surprise Player Enters the Fray**

There is a surprise brand that recently announced they're beginning to develop electric cars. We're not talking about Apple. The company I'm talking about is Sony. Yes, the same company that builds PlayStation 5s and TVs wants to make electric cars.

**How Sony Plans to Separate Themselves from the Competition**

Today, we're gonna talk about how Sony is planning to separate themselves from the competition, what kind of infrastructure they have in place for their plan to work, and most importantly, we're gonna see if they're in over their heads. This video's not for Xbox fans. If you modeled your entire personality after Daxter when you were 11 years old, this video's for you.

**Sony's History with the Car Industry**

Everyone knows Sony as the massive technology company that produces a wide range of consumer and professional electronics. While they've been involved in the car industry for years, offering sound systems and screens, both in new cars as well as in the aftermarket, they are not one of the first brands you think of when you talk about cars.

**The Vision-S 01 Concept**

So it was understandable that everyone raised their eyebrows when Sony said they wanted to make an electric car. Could you imagine the reaction if JBL or Bang & Olufsen out and said they wanted to make an EV? Probably not. However, Sony has taken a few steps in the right direction in hopes that the industry will take them more seriously.

Back in 2020, Sony unveiled the Vision-S 01 concept at CES (the Consumer Electronic Show). It was a small electric car with a similar profile to a Tesla Model 3. At the time, journalists and EV enthusiasts were doubtful about Sony legitimately making the leap manufacturing EVs for the consumer.

**What the Industry Said**

Electrek, a news site with a focus on EVs said, "quote, 'the Vision-S 01 was more of an experiment than a production-ready car, and it's not clear if Sony has any concrete plans to put this into production' unquote."

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- For the last decade,Tesla has had a firmgrasp on the EV market,offering vehicles with giant screens,semi-autonomous driving,and a 300 plus mile range.Several companies have begun to fight backwith EV offerings of their own.This includes legacy brands,like Porsche, Mercedes-Benz,and Ford.Even brand new companies,like Rivian and Lucidhave joined the battle to giveTesla a run for their money.However, there is a surprise brandthat recently announcedthey're beginning to developelectric cars.We're not talking about Apple.The company I'm talking about is Sony.Yes, the same company thatbuilds PlayStation 5s and TVswants to make electric cars.Today, we're gonna talkabout how Sony is planningto separate themselvesfrom the competition,what kind of infrastructure do they havein place for their plan to work,and most importantly,we're gonna see if they'rein over their heads.This video's not for Xbox fans.If you modeled your entirepersonality after Daxterwhen you were 11 yearsold, this video's for you.Everyone knows Sony as themassive technology companythat produces a wide range of consumerand professional electronics.While they've been involvedin the car industry for years,offering sound systems andscreens, both in new carsas well as in the aftermarket,they are not one of thefirst brands you think ofwhen you talk about cars.So it was understandablethat everyone raised their eyebrowswhen Sony said they wantedto make an electric car.Could you imagine the reactionif JBL or Bang & Olufsen out and saidthey wanted to make an EV?Probably not.However, Sony has taken a fewsteps in the right directionin hopes that the industrywill take them more seriously.Back in 2020, Sony unveiledthe Vision-S 01 concept at CESor the Consumer Electronic Show.It was a small electric carwith a similar profile to a Tesla Model 3At the time, journalists andEV enthusiasts were doubtfulabout Sony legitimately makingthe leap manufacturing EVsfor the consumer.Electrek, a news site witha focus on EVs said, quote,"We've seen our fair share ofEV concepts over the years.Some of them seem seriousand some of them didn't.This one may lean a bittowards the latter category."To be fair, Sony made it clearthat the Vision-S 01 conceptwas merely a case study,and they didn't plan onentering the automotive space.Electrek's take waspretty spot on in 2020.At CES 2022,Sony was back,and this time they unveiledthe Vision-S 02 concept.It's a small crossover SUVthat looked similar to the Tesla Model Y.And what was even more surprisingis that it looked closeto production-ready.Sony emphasized safetyas their top priorityas they developed mobility technology.With over 40 sensors inside and out,the Vision-S 02 conceptcould monitor safety,as well as achieve up to level2 self-driving operation.Level 2 is a form of hands-off drivingwhere the driver keepstheir hands on the wheel,but only really intervenes inthe case of a system failure.While there are many cars on the roadcurrently with level 2 driving capability,this is still quite a leapfor a company like Sony,which has never built a car before.They're moving much fasterthan most people would expect.Sony believes in their products,and it seems others are excited to seewhat they're capable of.According to CEO,Kenichiro Yoshida, quote,"The excitement we receivedreally encouraged usto further consider howwe could bring creativityand technology to change the experienceof moving from one place to another."With the CES announcement,Sony created a branch calledSony Mobility Incorporated,which will be fully establishedin the spring of this year.Sony Mobility was createdwith the hopes to continue developingand manufacturing electric carsthat consumers caneventually buy and drive.This is Sony sayingthat they're more than justthinking about making cars,they're doing work and researchingwhether it's actually possible.One of the bigger questionsthat needs answering ishow would Sony build acar in the first place?Manufacturing cars is avery expensive process.The cost of factoriesthemselves is enormous.Back in 2015,Toyota spent a billion dollarsto build a factory in Mexicofor the Corolla sedan.In November of 2021, Teslaannounced their Gigafactoryin Austin, Texas costat least 1.06 billion.Even after you spend abillion on a factory,you need to hire staff to run it,which will cost even more.When you're the two biggestauto makers in the world,that kind of spending is reasonable.But for a company like Sony,it can be hard to justifyan investment like that.A more cost-effective solution for Sonyis to outsource themanufacturing to another company.Enter Magna International.Magna International is a Canadianmobility technology companyand is North America'sleading parts supplier.With 154,000 employees, 347manufacturing operations,and 90 product development, engineering,and sales centers in 28 countries,they might be one of the biggest companiesmost people don't know about.With a long history producingparts for companies,like GM, Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota,Tesla, and Tata Motors,their products can befound on most vehicleson the roads today.To put it quite simply,Sony knew that Magna wereveterans of the auto industrywhen they partnered withthem to begin developmenton the Vision-S back in 2018.More specifically, Sonyworked with Magna Steyr,a contract manufacturer in Austria.Magna Steyr is already producingcars for Toyota and BMW,like the Supra and the Z4.During the development process,Magna and Sony learneda lot about each other,since engineers fromtwo different industrieswere finally working together.Magna had to reevaluate how explain thingsto non-automotive people, whatare the relevant processes,and how to make the best documentation.At the end of the process,they found a lot of common groundsince both see themselves asmobility technology companiescommitted to acceleratingthe future of transportation.This partnership could be key for Sonyto be a legitimate playerin the automotive industry,because many other companiesdon't have as smooth of a processSony is currently experiencing.Whenever the production ofSony's EV actually starts,Magna will most certainly build the cars,while Sony develops the electronics,allowing both companies toplay to their strengths.Sony knows they're thenewcomer to the industry.They know what it's liketo break into a spacethat they have no foothold in before,but we'll get to that in a little bit.Over the years, therehave been many companiesthat have tried and failedto enter the EV market.Best known for its vacuums,Dyson had invested $2.7billion into their EV projectand had plans to builda factory in Singapore,before terminating the venture.Fisker produced and sold the Fisker Karma,a luxury plug-in hybrid.Shortly after launch, however,two major battery recallswere issued for the cardue to a fire risk.Eventually, they filedfor bankruptcy in 2013.They're back thoughunder a different name.The top Chinese EV company, NIOinitially looked like it wasgonna gain some traction,but began to take losses in 2019,causing them to shut downtheir San Francisco officeand recall one of their vehicles.Apple, who have beendeveloping their iCar,for what feels like forever,met up with several automakers,including Hyundai, Nissan,and even Ferrari to help manufacture it.However, Apple wanted to challengethe current processes of how a car's made,like how the seats and the body were made.Unfortunately, thetraditional manufacturerswere not a fan of Apple's ideasand the talks ended as a result.Last year, they turnedtowards LG and Magnafor manufacturing support.Whether Apple finally makes any progresswith its new partners won'tbe known until around 2024or 2025.While Sony has made two conceptsand has reported having 16billion dollars cash on hand,we can see that moneyis not the only factornecessary to successfullyget an EV off the ground.Currently, Sony has asuccessful partnershipwith an industry titanlike Magna International,and this might be thedifferentiating factorthat separates them fromother failed startups.Since they're only in theinitial stages of the process,Sony knows they'reunderdogs in the EV space.However, Sony knows thisis not the first timethey've been in this position before.(upbeat rock music)Back in the early nineties,the industry leaders ingaming consoles were Nintendoand Sega.Sony was keen on entering the market,and approached Nintendo tohelp create a new console.As a CD rom add-on to the Super Nintendo,it was going to be calledthe Nintendo PlayStation.However, even after over200 prototypes were built,the system was never releasedand Nintendo backedout of the partnership.However, Nintendo didn't justback out of the deal with Sonybut negotiated a side dealwith Sony's lead competitor, Philips.Obviously upset by the betrayal,Sony took the technology they developedfor a CD-based video game consoleand announced that they weredeveloping the PlayStationat the 1991 CES.Then, in CES 1995,Olaf Olafsson of SonyElectronic Publishingexplained the featuresof the new PlayStation,and at the end of the speech,saying that it would cost $299.This undercut the Sega Saturn'sprice by a hundred dollarsand caught Sega with their pants down.(upbeat rock music)After the PlayStation wasreleased in the United Statesin 1995, it sold more consoles in two daysthan the Saturn did inthe previous five months.the Saturn was shunned andseveral stores pulled the consolefrom their shelves due to thefact it was more difficultto sell the more expensive console.This was a devastating loss to Sega,since they invested heavilyinto the Saturn's success.Even Nintendo,who released the Nintendo64, was overshadowedwhen Sony introduced theFinal Fantasy franchiseto PlayStation, which furtherdrove PlayStation sales.This weakened Nintendo's market shareand pushed Sega evenfurther out of the market.It wasn't too long before the console warsbetween Nintendo and Sega ended,when they both realizedthey were facing a new rivalin Sony.And as of 2021,Sony is the biggest consolemanufacturer in the world.Doubters can say whatever they want,but the reality is,is Sony not only hasexperience being an underdogin a brand new industry,but knows what it takesto come out on top.Granted, cars are a littlemore complicated than consoles.Presently, they've alreadybuilt two concept carsand have a manufacturinginfrastructure in place.While it is not impossiblefor Sony to have the samefate as a company like Nikolaor the companies we mentioned earlier,they have taken the proper stepsto have a chance at success.With 16 billion of cash on hand,and what looks like a strong partnershipwith Magna International,they have the potentialto take over the EV spacethe same way they tookover the gaming industryso many years ago.Only time will tell how far they can go.- Hey, you.Do you wanna get buff this year?Well, listen up, pasta arms.Donut just released theultimate gym attire,and I'm here to show youhow to get it workout-ready,so pay attention.Step one.Buy this beautifully designedshirt for just 29.98.- That's way less than $30.- Step two.Get some scissors out of the drawer,the one that we all have in our kitchen.Step three.Carefully cut off the sleeves, like so.You'll notice with each snipthat this shirt is madefrom high-quality cotton.Now, doing this will help airflowas well as highlight yoursoon to be sculpted arms.So go to donutmedia.comand get all sweaty in thisnew Buff Horses shirt today.- Thank you very muchfor watching this episode of Wheelhouse.If you wanna learn moreabout the Dyson car,and the Apple car, andother tech company cars,we actually did a videoon that back in 2020.I'll put a link down in the description.For the record, I am biased.I am a PlayStation guy.Big shout out to Ratchet& Clank, Jak and Dexter,and Sly Cooper and the gang.Best games ever, dude.Sony should make aRatchet & Clank-themed EV.I feel like that would work really well.If they make like an off-roader,maybe they can style itafter some of the carsfrom Jak X: Combat Racing.Oh my God, Crash Team Racing.Sony, just make some RC cartswith all the Crash characters.I would buy that.All right, I'm gonna go play,I'm gonna go play Sly Cooper now, see ya.