No groundbreaking innovations in Las Vegas

The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES for short, is the world's largest trade fair for consumer electronics. It has actually been taking place since 1967 and originated in New York, where tube televisions, wall telephones and similar technical innovations were presented to the amazed public. Since the digital revolution, the fair has been held in Las Vegas, and the themes of the fair have also changed: Today, in addition to the latest trends in consumer electronics, it is also about artificial intelligence, algorithms or cyber security.

The automotive industry now also has a firm place at CES - after all, modern cars are high-performance computers on wheels that are increasingly merging with the digital world. However, at this year's event, which took place from January 7 to 10, a very small number of car manufacturers were still represented; more space was taken up by various suppliers and start-ups. Western manufacturers were mainly conspicuous by their absence - only BMW made a proper presentation in Las Vegas, albeit without delivering a real highlight. The Munich-based company focused its trade fair appearance on the innovative head-up display, which will be introduced in the next generation of e-models, the so-called New Class.

The Asians dominated

The Asian brands were much more present. Honda had announced the first production version of the new 0-Series, the Japanese manufacturer's next generation of electric Atos, for CES 2025. There was probably not enough time for this, but the Japanese did present two studies that are intended to be very close to series production. The "SUV" and the very flat "Saloon", as the models are currently still called, are based on a new platform on which Honda intends to launch a total of seven new e-models - the SUV shown is the first and is due to be launched in the USA in the first half of 2026 and then in Germany towards the end of the year. The very futuristic sedan will follow around six months later.

The 0-Series models are to be very directly networked with the driver via the new operating system called Asimo OS. It should interact with the driver, know their preferences precisely, cheer them up with their favorite music and atmospheric interior lighting, for example, or suggest a nice place for a stopover on the way. This is combined with automated driving at level 3, where the driver can not only take their hands off the wheel but also take their eyes off the road.

The "Sony car" is here

Automated driving was also a topic for other manufacturers at CES 2025. Suzuki used its first appearance at the trade fair in Las Vegas to present an autonomous driving platform that was developed together with the Australian company Applied EV. Various superstructures can be bolted onto the electrically powered platform, from a kind of snowplough-Roomba to a driverless last-mile parcel carrier. The "Blanc Robot" is said to be able to carry one ton, travel at speeds of up to 80 km/h and is already ready for series production.

Another product from Japan has attracted attention at CES 2025: The "Sony car", which has been announced for years, is now ready for series production and was presented in Las Vegas. The Afeela 1, as the model is correctly called, is the result of a collaboration between Honda and the tech group Sony. The technical data of the 4.9 meter long, streamlined electric saloon are not very impressive: 360 kW/490 hp, a range of 480 kilometers and 150 kW charging power no longer knock anyone's socks off. Instead, the Afeela 1 aims to stand out with its digital experience, including on-board gaming via Sony Playstation. Whether the "Sony car" will ever make it to Europe is still completely unclear.

The dream of flying

Hyundai was represented by its in-house supplier Mobis. The latter presented an innovative, holographic windshield display that projects augmented reality information across the entire width of the windshield into the driver's and front passenger's field of vision. The "M.Brain" system goes one step further: the interior lighting system measures the driver's brainwaves, recognizes the driver's state of mind and adapts accordingly. The system is designed to recognize tired drivers and wake them up again, make a distracted driver more focused or a stressed driver more relaxed. The system is still a dream of the future, like so much at CES.

Just as futuristic is the age-old idea of the flying car - concepts for which have been presented at CES for years. This year, the spotlight was on the "Land Aircraft Carrier", a product from AeroHT, a spin-off of the Chinese car manufacturer Xpeng. Strictly speaking, this is not a flying car, but a car with a passenger drone stowed in the rear. The drone folds out of the cargo area automatically when required and is designed to enable sightseeing flights at a height of up to 300 meters. The transporter, which is suspiciously reminiscent of the Tesla Cybertruck, is no longer a study, but is due to go on sale at the end of next year. The Chinese emphasize that 3,000 customers have already signed up - even though the "Land Aircraft Carrier" will cost at least 300,000 Swiss francs.