Carmel Valley, Calif., August 16, 2024 – Karma Automotive, California’s pioneering ultra-luxury automaker, made a significant statement at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering, with the global premieres of two groundbreaking vehicles: the Karma Ivara “GT-UV” design study and the Karma Kaveya super coupe boasting a production-ready interior. These reveals signal a bold trajectory for the brand, emphasizing innovation and a return to the pinnacle of American automotive luxury.
Adding to the excitement, Karma Automotive announced a strategic collaboration with Intel Automotive. The Karma Kaveya is slated to be the first production vehicle born from this partnership. Expected in 2026, this electric powerhouse, featuring striking butterfly doors and up to 1,000HP, aims to be the world’s first production vehicle built upon a Software-Defined Vehicle Architecture (SDVA). This architecture, co-developed with Intel Automotive, will become the foundation for all future Karma Cars, starting with the Kaveya. Beyond its model range, Karma Automotive and Intel intend to champion open standards for SDVA, contributing to the broader automotive industry’s technological evolution.
“Our inspiration draws from automotive legends like Auburn, Duesenberg, and Packard,” stated Marques McCammon, President of Karma Automotive. “We are echoing an era where American ultra-luxury vehicles set global benchmarks. The value proposition was clear: beauty, speed, and unparalleled engineering. Karma cars are poised to recapture that essence, leading with intelligence and delivering unique, engaging vehicles that redefine value in the ultra-luxury segment, something that’s been missing for almost a century.”
Before the arrival of the Kaveya, Karma Automotive is set to re-enter the market in the fourth quarter of 2024 with the 3rd Generation Karma Revero. This initial run will feature 150 exclusive examples, priced starting below $150,000 USD. The Revero, recognized as the world’s first luxury plug-in hybrid, utilizes Karma’s E-REV (Energy-Range Extended Vehicle) powertrain. This powertrain strategy provides a flexible solution amidst fluctuating market demands for pure electric vehicles.
“While the Karma Kaveya is designed as a pure EV, the Karma Ivara is being developed with powertrain versatility, offering both pure EV and E-REV options,” McCammon explained. “This adaptability allows Karma Automotive to swiftly respond to evolving client preferences and market dynamics, ensuring the brand’s sustained success and relevance.”
Karma Ivara “GT-UV” Design Study: Redefining Vehicle Segments
The Karma Ivara Design Study introduces a novel vehicle category: the “GT-UV,” or Grand Touring Utility Vehicle. This concept presents a dramatic four-seater that defies conventional ultra-luxury segment norms, offering a multi-terrain capability previously unseen in this class.
The Ivara showcases Karma Automotive’s signature Comet Line, a design element that emphasizes exotic proportions. It stretches across the vehicle’s width, accentuating the sharply raked windshield, flowing around the cabin, and extending through the widest point of the rear fenders. A secondary Comet Line further defines the design, separating the all-black upper cabin, complete with a panoramic roof, from the lower body. This design creates a visual dynamism, evocative of a drawn arrow ready for release, symbolizing the Karma car’s forward-thinking approach. The front fascia of the Ivara signals a new design identity for Karma Automotive. Eschewing a traditional grille, it features concealed headlamps and a low-slung nose, projecting a supercar-like stance. The fastback rear glass further reinforces its driver-centric design ethos.
Practicality is integral to the Ivara’s design, evidenced by its protective matte undertray. Finished with self-healing paint technology, this feature provides resilience against minor impacts, ensuring the vehicle maintains its pristine appearance even in varied driving conditions.
Karma Kaveya: Production-Ready Interior of the Super Coupe
Currently undergoing rigorous development testing and slated for a 2026 launch, the Karma Kaveya is a carbon fiber masterpiece with striking butterfly doors. This all-electric super coupe promises up to 1,000HP and is expected to be priced starting from $300,000 (USD). At Monterey Car Week, the Kaveya revealed its production-ready interior, showcasing Karma Automotive’s meticulous attention to detail and exceptional personalization capabilities.
The Comet Line design language takes center stage on the Kaveya, originating from its nose, flowing across the bonnet, enveloping the cockpit, and culminating through the butterfly doors. This design element evokes the sleekness of a stealth jet, underscoring the advanced and sophisticated nature of this Karma car. The interior, inspired by spaceflight, is designed to be fully customizable, catering to each client’s unique preferences in collaboration with Karma Design. Elevating the auditory experience, the Kaveya will feature the first-ever in-car audio system from renowned luxury audio brand, Master & Dynamic.
The Karma Kaveya’s interior, as presented at its global premiere, draws inspiration from alchemy. It explores the interplay of surfaces and textural contrasts, blending gloss black, suede, and leather, accented by metallic elements that subtly shimmer in orange and blue, reminiscent of kiln-fired artistry. Midnight blue leather, sourced from Bridge of Weir, evokes the vastness of space, harmonizing with the Kaveya’s exterior Comet Line and “Interstellar Silver” paintwork. Adopting a “reductionary” design philosophy, non-essential displays remain concealed until activated, ensuring the driver’s focus remains on the pure driving experience.
Intel Automotive Collaboration: Pioneering Software-Defined Vehicle Architecture (SDVA)
Karma Automotive’s collaboration with Intel Automotive marks a pivotal move towards co-developing Software Defined Vehicle Architecture (SDVA). This initiative addresses the increasing complexity of modern vehicle systems.
Since the inception of the automobile in 1888, core vehicle architecture has seen incremental changes. While advancements have been made in powertrains and safety, the fundamental structure has remained largely static. The integration of numerous features over time, from fuel injection to advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), has led to vehicles with over 100 Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and miles of copper wiring. This layered approach is reaching its limits in supporting future automotive innovations. Drawing parallels with the IT industry’s shift from single-function devices to centralized, high-performance computing systems, SDVA offers a transformative solution. SDVA envisions vehicle systems as an integrated whole, enabling seamless workload distribution between software-defined central and zonal compute systems. This approach maximizes flexibility, optimizes cost and performance, and significantly enhances energy efficiency.
Consider the example of electric vehicles that maintain security monitoring via external cameras even when “off.” Traditionally, this function resides on the in-cabin compute subsystem, leading to unnecessary battery drain. SDVA allows for the migration of such workloads to lower-power zonal controllers, such as Intel’s, waking the central compute system only when necessary. This dynamic workload management, leveraging data center application orchestration, conserves energy, boosts efficiency, and reduces ECU count by consolidating functions onto software-defined zonal controllers. This represents a fundamental shift in how karma cars and future vehicles will be designed and operated.
About Karma Automotive
Karma Automotive stands as California’s first and only ultra-luxury automaker, manufacturing both electric vehicles and E-REV vehicles at its Moreno Valley, CA, production facility. Its executive and design headquarters are located in Irvine, CA. The Karma portfolio embodies California’s spirit of innovation and entrepreneurial drive, reflected in the signature Comet Line that defines Karma’s new design language. The 3rd Generation Karma Revero sport sedan, the world’s first luxury plug-in hybrid, is slated for release in Q4 2024, promising uncompromised luxury and environmental consciousness. The Gyesera four-seater is anticipated in 2025, followed by the Karma Kaveya super coupe in 2026, boasting up to 1,000HP and iconic butterfly doors. Karma Automotive’s collaboration with Intel Automotive to develop SDVA, announced in August 2024, underscores its commitment to technological advancement, starting with the Karma Kaveya. Furthermore, Karma Automotive extends its SDVA solutions to Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs through business-to-business offerings, building upon the success of Karma Connect, its proprietary Vehicle Data Management and Over the Air services platform, currently serving the world’s second-largest OEM. Karma Automotive’s expanding dealer network spans North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East, bringing the vision of the karma car to a global audience.
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, Intel continuously advances semiconductor design and manufacturing to address customers’ most significant challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge, and every type of computing device, Intel unlocks the potential of data to transform business and society for the better. For more information about Intel’s innovations, please visit newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Media Contact:
Joe Richardson, (917) 716-6617
[email protected]
SOURCE Karma Automotive
