A new electric vehicle, the Coda Sedan, is set to hit the streets stateside, starting in California in 2010 and expanding sales to Hawaii in 2011. In the U.S. the Coda Sedan is priced to compete with the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf at $44,900 before federal and state discounts or incentives.
Reports by Car And Driver revealed that the Coda Sedan is a four-door, five-seat, totally electric vehicle with a body and chassis licensed from Mitsubishi. The body and chassis will be modified and assembled in China then shipped to California for the installation of electrical systems.
The Coda Sedan’s lithium-iron phosphate battery and electric motor allow a top speed of 80 miles per hour. The battery should endure 2,000 recharges. The company plans to manufacture the batteries in Ohio, through Lio Energy Systems, a Coda Automotive exclusive joint venture with China’s Lishen Power Battery.
The New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman reported this week:
…14,000 [Coda vehicles] will be on the road in California over the next year. [The car] can travel 100 miles on one overnight charge, is a combination of Chinese-made batteries and complex American-system electronics — all final-assembled in Oakland.
Kevin Czinger, the president and chief executive of Coda Automotive recently paraded it around Washington D.C., hoping to win the U.S. General Services Administration as a customer. In early September, the GSA announced its plans to: “reduce fleet petroleum consumption by 30 percent…and emissions from employee commuting and business travel by 25 percent” by the year 2020.
Coda Automotive has raised about $125 million in venture capital since 2007, and is raising more with the intention to go public next year.