Introduction to Coda Automotive

 In a discussion about companies that have come from relative obscurity into the spotlight in a ridiculously short amount of time, Coda Automotive would definitely have to be at the top of that list.  You might find this hard to believe, but Coda Automotive was actually founded in the year 2009.  According to the press coverage they receive in the current limelight one would think that fact impossible, but it is most definitely the truth of the matter.

 This is perhaps less surprising when you consider that the founder of Coda Automotive is Miles Rubin.  Miles Rubin is a name that might not be known to that many people in the mainstream, but he is definitely will known in the electric vehicle circles.  This is primarily because of the fact that Rubin was responsible for the founding of Miles Electric Vehicles, a brand name that has been responsible for the delivery of reliable low-speed electric vehicles since 2004. The company is based in Santa Monica, California within the United States.  They are a privately held company at the moment and are hoping to be able to expand in other markets nationally across the United States from the current holdings within the state of California that they possess.  In the words of many though, that time is well off.  At the moment, people are waiting to see how their first release in 2010 does and how their subsequent increase of manufacturing in 2011 goes.  If both of those are successful, the idea of a run to the top of the national stage is something that could very well be entertained.

 Coda Automotive Electric Projects

 Coda Automotive is actually a company that has embraced the art of being flexible when it comes to the manufacturing of automobiles.  There are many automobiles around that are inflexible and therefore cost their parent companies lots of money to change.  The Coda Automotive manufacturing process is not like this at all and for that reason they have been able to save a lot of money in manufacturing costs that a number of other automobile makers have had to shell out over the years.

 Another advantage of the electric projects that Coda Automotive is involved with is that they get to actually do a lot of joint ventures.  More so than that however, they get to do a lot of international joint ventures with different companies that might be interested in their chassis and able to provide some of the other support for it.

 For example, one of the big joint ventures going on right now with Coda Automotive is with a Chinese company known as Lishen.  They are easily the best rechargeable lithium ion battery manufacturer in the country, meaning that this joint venture will allow them to get some of the best batteries in the world for their automobiles.  At the same time, Coda Automotive has a joint venture going with Yardney Technical Products, a company based in Connecticut in the United States.  Yardney will provide the overall battery system to go with Lishen’s battery, with the whole thing eventually going into an automobile manufactured by Coda.

 Coda Sedan

 At the current moment in time, Coda Automotive does not actually have a product out on the market.  Their first product is going to be the Coda Sedan, a car that is fully powered by electricity.  This car is going to hit the market in California in 2010 and is expected to have about 3000 models available around that time.  Depending on how those models sell within the state, Coda claims that they have the ability to come up with an increase of around sevenfold for 2011 should the demand be there.  Only time will tell whether this is true or not, but it is certainly an interesting prospect either way.

 There are some statistics about this car that make it seem almost too good to be true.  For starters, the outside of the Coda Sedan makes it look just like any other normal sedan that you would expect to purchase.  It actually looks like a normal gasoline-powered car until you open up the hood and find the electric battery inside.  This is true for a lot of the high-end products that you can purchase, but this is probably one of the first affordable mainstream products that do not look completely different from the norm.

 That is not the unbelieveable part, even though it is surprising.  This next bit of information is not the unbelievable part either.  In most of its statistics, the Coda Sedan is not really that different from the norm.  It has four doors and five seats, making it a typical family sedan.  In addition to that however, it is expected to have a range of around 100 miles and a top cruising speed of 80 mph in order to make the performance as good as it can get.  Those are all expected elements however and certainly do not seem unbelievable.

 The unbelievable part is what it is going to cost you in order to refill this beauty.  When you go back and plug the Coda Sedan into your standard outlet, it will naturally begin drawing power to the battery.  What makes this ridiculous however is that the average cost of refuelling at the current moment in time is the fact that current electricity rates mean that you can completely refuel your Coda Sedan for $0.03/mile.  Yes, you read that right.  You can recharge it for three cents a mile. 

 The average car nowadays has a fuel efficiency of around 20 mpg which in turn translates to a minimum cost of $0.15/mile.  That is being extremely generous to the fuel efficiency of the automobile and the cost of gasoline and even then it is still 5 times more expensive than recharging your Coda Sedan.  That is part of what makes this seem a little too good to be true.  If it can deliver on all of these statistics however, it will be a huge boost to the electric car industry.