KARMA AUTOMOTIVE ACQUIRES ASSETS AND KEY PERSONNEL FROM CONNECTED VEHICLE PIONEER AIRBIQUITY
Ultra-Luxury EV Manufacturer Secures Automotive Telematics and Cloud Services IP to Align with Internal Resources and Increase Focus on Software-Defined Vehicles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeff Green jgreen@karmaautomotive.com (310) 291-1977
IRVINE, CALIF. (Feb. 28, 2024) – Karma Automotive, a Southern California ultra-luxury vehicle manufacturer, has acquired the technology assets and intellectual property of Airbiquity, a Seattle, Wash., automotive commercial software company with investors that include Toyota Motor Company and Denso. Karma has also hired key technical employees and assumed the software company’s significant OEM contracts.
The acquisition provides Karma with Airbiquity’s software product portfolio that has evolved over more than two decades to deliver connected vehicle solutions spanning over-the-air (OTA) updates, software development tools, data management and analytics.
“We are wrapping Airbiquity’s software into Karma Cloud Services and embedded vehicle technology to create a new platform that is greater than the sum of its parts,” says Karma President Marques McCammon. “Their commercial software meets the needs of a diverse base of transportation industry customers.
“Airbiquity has mitigated system challenges we wouldn’t necessarily target when designing solely for our own vehicles. Their team and their software have been deployed in more than 60 countries in passenger cars and motorcycles and have serviced the largest OEMs in those sectors. Their design maturity will help codify our strategies for software-defined and continuously connected vehicles.”
The Karma-Airbiquity transaction was completed Wednesday. Employees who transition with the deal will immediately start merging the solutions from the two companies.
Karma recently introduced its re-branded business model and vehicle lineup that ranges from a hybrid (the Revero) to a super coupe EV (Kaveya) featuring an all-wheel drive version that goes 0-60 in under three seconds.
“We are a technology company that manufactures ultra-luxury vehicles,” says McCammon. “By adding Airbiquity assets to our Karma Connected Cloud Services, which is already a core strength, our entire fleet will be fully connected and fully OTA capable.
“Other manufacturers are playing catch-up. We are simply producing better technology for our customers.”
Terms of the agreement are subject to closing conditions and financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
About Karma Automotive
Karma Automotive (www.karmaautomotive.com) is an ultra-luxury vehicle company that engineers, designs and manufactures its electric and range extended electric vehicles in Southern California. Headquartered in Irvine, with a production facility up the road in Moreno Valley, Karma’s dealer network includes North America, Europe, South America and the Middle East.
2024 will mark Karma’s 10th anniversary – a yearlong celebration that features the world debut of several vehicles, a renewed focus on the company’s mission to be an inspiration for a cleaner global future as well as the introduction of Karma’s new brand campaign.