Kia sets up Purple M to create mobility concepts

SEOUL: Purple M is a new joint venture created in partnership between Kia Motors and CODE42.ai, a Korean technology firm pioneering the transition to autonomous Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS).

Through this new start-up, Kia and CODE42.ai plan to create new concepts for mobility services and realise a shared goal of leading innovation in future mobility.

The ‘M’ in ‘Purple M’ stands for ‘mobility’; the purple in the start-up’s name symbolises its desire to challenge convention and reimagine transportation for the future.

In order to respond flexibly to the rapidly reorganising mobility service industry, ‘Purple M’ will benefit from a true start-up culture.

The company places rapid decision-making, a culture of horizontal communication, and challenging the status quo among its key operational values.

The new start-up is expected to provide a model for collaboration between larger, well-established firms and smaller, younger companies in Korea, as the country seeks to establish a new start-up ecosystem to encourage technological innovation.

The combination of Kia's global footprint and mobility expertise with CODE42.ai's IT technology is expected to create a range of synergies for developing new TaaS services for customers.

‘Purple M’ will use CODE42.ai’s proprietary Urban Mobility Operating System (UMOS), a comprehensive mobility platform which integrates autonomous vehicle and air transportation services including e-hailing, fleet management, demand-responsive shuttle and smart logistics.

"With the newly established ‘Purple M’, Kia will be reborn as a leader for the era of e-mobility," said Ho Sung Song, CEO and President of Kia. “CODE42.ai is a leading Korean company in the field of future innovation technology, and is the best partner for successfully promoting a differentiated e-mobility service business."

Also, ‘Purple M’ aims to establish a comprehensive and flexible e-mobility service platform, and lead the development of a sustainable EV ecosystem by deploying EVs.

‘Purple M’ will establish collaborative partnerships with specialist providers to develop a flexible e-mobility infrastructure and offer a wide range of services to a broad customer base.

In particular, ‘Purple M’ aims to contribute to the revitalisation of Korea’s domestic mobility industry by cooperating with various mobility market players, while presenting new standards for mobility business models in the post-coronavirus era.