A car from Nokia actually sounds like a reasonable idea now in this age of Xiaomi and Sony EVs.
A little while ago, appearing in the Automacha inbox was a picture (seen above) of a sleek sedan with the word Nokia on its door. And while there is no actual indication that what was once the biggest is going into the business of building cars (though they do instead offer industrial-grade private wireless network for manufacturing facilities), what this image did prompt was the thought on whether anyone would consider buying a car made by a tech company?
And the answer to that is actually to be a very simple yes, as the Xiaomi SU7 is a thing that exists after all!
With modern cars now turning into iPads on wheels, automakers these days have since basically become tech companies that just happen to have a ‘ride and handling’ team on staff. And this sentiment is couldn’t be true in this current all-electric era, where it could really be said that an EV actually shares more mechanical kinship with a high-end washing machine than an actual car with an engine in it.
What more is that as Xiaomi has since demonstrated too with its SU7 all-electric sedan, it is really possible for a maker of consumer electronics to successfully transition into churning out cars that could even wow the big boss of the Blue Oval. So really, is shouldn’t be all that far fetched to actually consider an EV from the Finnish tech company.
In fact, it would actually be quite funny if Nokia actually embraces the meme about how legendarily tough its iconic 3310 phone is and go ahead to make what would be the toughest EV around. Something along the lines of Tesla’s Cybertruck perhaps, but without the Cyberstuck elements of unreliability and fragility to it.
Though on that note of tough vehicles from consumer electronics companies, Samsung may have already Nokia beat on this front. Such is as this South Korean maker of smartphones had once also been in the business of making actual tanks, in the form of the K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer.
Now in getting back to the topic of cars from consumer electronic brands here, it would be remissed not to mention that Sony has also dipped its toes into the car manufacturing business with its Afeela prototype. Built in partnership with Honda and born from the company’s stunning Vision-S concept previously showcased in 2020, this all-electric sedan is set to make its production debut sometime in 2026.
Sony’s partnership with Epic Games will supposedly see this upcoming EV feature game-like features (including monster mode and an ocean theme) in its immersive full-width display that dominates its dashboard, with there to be a Tesla-esque U-shaped yoke-style steering wheel too. It however remains to be seen if the production Afeela could really be driven from a PS5 controller, as per what was previously showcased when the prototype rocked up to this year’s CES.
