The Honda and Sony joint venture that had planned the Afeela electric-vehicle brand will “scale down its operations” as its corporate members instead aim toward collaboration on advanced driver-assistance technology.

Honda, Sony and their JV, Sony Honda Mobility, announced the pivot Tuesday after ceasing work to launch the first two Afeela models last month.

Employees of the venture will in the meantime be reassigned to their parent company members of the venture, the companies said.

The decision follows more than three years of development of the Afeela brand, which drew a lawsuit by auto dealers in California who accused the venture of planning to cut dealers out of the car-buying process with its direct-to-consumer model.

Honda said in March that it had reassessed its model electrification strategy due to recent EV market conditions. In the U.S, the Trump administration spearheaded the end of EV tax credits and other adoption incentives.

The three venture member companies said they now plan to bring “new value to the user experience through software in anticipation of an era where advanced driver assistance systems become mainstream.”

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