A new year is upon us and that means the countdown to CES 2026 has begun. CES is the most important time of the year for technology news – and that includes automotive technology. As automakers sought to act more like technology companies and integrate more software-based features into their vehicles, CES competed with auto shows as a venue for big announcements.
We expect this to be the case again this year, but with a focus on commercialization alongside the eye-catching announcements. That means updates on the production launch of new electric vehicles and the advancement of buzzword-generating technologies like robotics and autonomous driving. The key word here, however, is “development,” as companies are now working on the less exciting task of turning their headline-generating announcements from previous years into real products.
Sony Honda Mobility
This joint venture between electronics giant Sony and automaker Honda has confirmed that it will show a “pre-production version” of its Afeela 1 EV and “an all-new concept model.” At CES 2025, Sony Honda Mobility already showed off a version of the Afeela 1 that was close enough to production specifications to offer demos of its infotainment system. The new car brand also announced pricing and began accepting reservations for the sedan, which is scheduled to begin sales in California sometime in 2026.
It’s unclear what will be different from the version of the Afeela 1 shown at CES 2025 (pictured here). The exterior of this car already looked production ready, with integrated sensors to support driver assistance systems, and none of the usual concept car cues like missing mirrors and oversized wheels. Sony Honda Mobility representatives also stated that the interior layout, which focuses on a door-to-door screen, is not a rough draft.
As for the new concept car, there could be a preview of a second production model. Before collaborating with Honda, Sony showed two concept versions of its own electric vehicle – the Vision S sedan and the Vision S-02 SUV. Perhaps Sony Honda Mobility plans to push the latter. But with Honda, which supplies the underlying platform and actually builds the cars, scaling back its EV plans, it may be best to focus on the successful launch of the Afeela 1 before moving on to a second EV.
BMW
BMW is on the CES 2026 exhibitor list, but had not announced what it will be showing at press time. The Bavarian automaker just had a big year, starting with the unveiling of its Panoramic Vision display at CES 2025 and culminating with the unveiling of the iX3 electric SUV at IAA Mobility 2025. The iX3 is the first electric vehicle of the next generation of BMW’s “New Class”. The name, which appropriately means “new class” in German, heralds a special EV architecture and component set. It’s a big change from BMW’s current strategy of basing electric vehicles on internal combustion engine architectures.
The plan is for the New Class to span a family of models, and CES is as good a venue as any to unveil the successor to the iX3. BMW briefly showed off a camouflaged electric sedan at the global unveiling of the iX3, reviving the i3 name previously used for a quirky electric hatchback. Under the camouflage you can expect a production-ready version of the Vision Neue Klasse concept, which BMW first showed in 2023. At CES we were able to see the new i3 in undisguised form.
Hyundai
Hyundai’s CES appearance will reportedly focus not on cars, but on the robots that help build them. Korean auto blog reported in August that CES will mark the public debut of Atlas, a humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai. If it proves commercially viable, Hyundai says Atlas could work with people in factories and other industrial settings. For now, it also offers Hyundai an opportunity to capitalize on Tesla’s current interest in humanoid robots.
Robots have been working in car factories for decades, albeit in a stationary form, completing simple and repetitive tasks without human intervention. Boston Dynamics is slowly changing that with its well-known Spot robots, which perform quality inspections at Hyundai’s “Metaplant” in Georgia, and Stretch, which assists warehouse workers. The automaker needs to find more of these use cases to justify its investment in Boston Dynamics. Therefore, Hyundai’s presentation at CES 2026 may give Atlas a more specific job title than “cool looking robot.”
What else to expect
CES is the Consumer Electronics Show, not the Consumer Auto Show. In recent years, the show has seen more consumer-focused news, but it has always been far less than in the electronics space, where CES represents one of the few opportunities for companies to make a big splash. For this purpose, car manufacturers organize stand-alone presentations and, to a lesser extent, car shows.
The expected news listed here is just the tip of the iceberg. For every automaker at CES, there are five suppliers looking to sell chips, sensors and other components that will go into future cars. But these suppliers primarily want to capture the attention of their automaker customers, not the general public. There will also be self-driving technology companies like Waymo and Zoox that may not have any real news, but still need to remind the public and investors that they exist and are developing their technology.
This could be a year in which the reality of CES as a trade show for deals between automakers and suppliers catches up with its perception as a place for consumer-related automotive news. If that happens, it’s because automakers’ tech companies need to focus more on making the things they previously announced a reality before promising more. Because just talking about the future is not enough.
