Sony has confirmed it will not exhibit at CES 2027 in Las Vegas, ending a run that goes back to the very first show in 1967. A company spokesperson told Bloomberg that neither Sony nor any of its affiliates plan to exhibit at the January event. Sony did not have its own booth at CES 2026 either, but its Sony Honda Mobility joint venture still showed off an Afeela EV prototype at that show. That EV project was apparently the last big reason for Sony to keep showing up. Sony Honda Mobility canceled the Afeela 1 and a planned SUV in March, after Honda reassessed its electrification strategy, and the two companies said they would review the future of the joint venture.

Sony has also been pulling back from consumer hardware elsewhere, with TCL taking a 51% stake in a new joint venture that will assume its home entertainment business, including Bravia TVs. Sony's own statement says it "continuously and strategically" evaluates how it approaches events, and that its focus keeps shifting toward entertainment, intellectual property, and technology that supports creators. For gamers, it looks like PlayStation won't be using a CES stage next year either, although that was somewhat predictable. CES had slowly stopped being a Sony show already, but a 60-year streak ending is still strange to see.

China electric vehicle maker XPENG Motors has announced its new G6 coupe SUV—featuring an NVIDIA-powered intelligent advanced driver assistance system—is now available to the China market. The G6 is XPENG's first model featuring the company's proprietary Smart Electric Platform Architecture (SEPA) 2.0, which aims to reduce development and manufacturing costs and shorten R&D cycles since the modular architecture will be compatible with future models.

The electric SUV also features the XPENG Navigation Guided Pilot (XNGP), a full scenario-based intelligent assisted driving system. It's powered by the cutting-edge NVIDIA DRIVE Orin compute and XPENG's full-stack software developed in-house. The XNGP system first made its debut in the EV maker's flagship G9 SUV, touting a safe, reliable, advanced driving experience behind the wheel.

The BBC has conducted an exclusive interview with Young Liu, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Foxconn. The discussion focused mostly on the Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer having to navigate choppy waters—it is adapting to cooling international relations with China. Foxconn has many production plants in the region—most notably more than half of Apple products (iPhones and iMacs) are made in these facilities, but Liu's firm has already shifted production bases to other countries and continues to do so. Foxconn has done very well for itself from a traditional strategy of manufacturing US-designed products in China—other lucrative contracts have resulted from partnerships with Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Dell. Liu acknowledges that some of his Western clients have requested that their products be manufactured outside of China due to political pressures: "They get the push from their government about de-risking, and then they will let us know."

The subject matter changes to Foxconn's ambition in the world of electic vehicles—Liu is less guarded about his company's targeted growth in this market. He cites wanting to gain 5% of the global EV market within the next few years, and is reported to confident about his firm's prospects. He demonstrated a prototype SUV model to the BBC reporter, with emphasis on the car's dashboard: "Look at this - this is a big iPhone, so we're very familiar with this." Foxconn had a small number of EV models on display, but it hopes to target middle-class buyers with eventual product launches. Liu explained that his company's expertise in electronics is a great advantage as they delve into a new market segment: "The reason why we think this is a great opportunity for us is that with the traditional gas engine, you have engines which are mostly mechanical. But with EVs, it's batteries and motors." Foxconn has plans for a global set of car manufacturing facilities—Thailand, Indonesia, India and the USA are mentioned. Liu proposes that his firm's future success will hinge on this diversified location model: "It doesn't make sense for you to make [EVs] in one place, so regionalized production for cars is very natural."