From the TV or fridge to the car (Sony and Iso)
01/09/2020
So Sony has unveiled an electric car at the electronics trade fair in Las Vegas (CES). From Walkman or TV to car?
Wait a minute, we've been through this before!
Let's go back to the 1950s. The Iso company, which built refrigerators, among other things, first launched a cabin scooter called the Isetta and then a veritable automobile in 1957. It was exhibited in Turin and was even shown in two versions, namely as a station wagon (pictured above) and as a front-wheel-drive bus with seven seats.
The vehicle, which was certainly not super light, was to be powered by a two-cylinder boxer engine with 400 or 500 cm3.
Nothing came of it, but in the 1960s Iso came onto the market with the Iso Rivolta, a Granturismo sports car with an eight-cylinder engine.
And the parallel with Sony? Well, market observers believe that Sony certainly didn't want to build a car, but above all wanted to demonstrate its technological expertise.
Of course, there are large screens in the interior, but the car itself was primarily created with the help of suppliers. Whether the next step will be an electric sports car, to stay with the iso-parallel, remains to be seen ...
