Coda, The New All-American Electric Car

The new American “CODA” sedan is all lined up to become one of the first all-electric vehicles on the road in the US, around the exact same time as the Nissan LEAF and Mistusbishi MiEV.

The company, a privately held American firm designs, manufactures and sells all-electric vehicles and battery systems, making them ideal electric vehicle manufacturers.
In theory this means their all-electric sedan should be cheaper than Nissan’s LEAF too right?

Sadly it isn’t. The 120 mile range Coda sedan will cost $37,400 after federal incentives are taken into consideration. The Nissan LEAF on the other hand will cost $25,280 after federal incentives.

Still, the Coda offers a larger vehicle platform and an extra 20 miles of range under optimum conditions. It’s also the only one that’s American made. Or is it?

Truth be told, most of the car is from Chinese made components- but then so is the LEAF, despite being assembled in Japan. All in all, they’re fairly similar cars when it comes down to it, so I suggest making your own choice here.

The CODA Sedan will first be sold to consumer and fleet customers in Hawaii in the third quarter of 2011 in limited numbers at first – which is one year from now.

DIY converters will be delighted to know the Coda’s battery is a 33.8 kWh Lithium-iron phosphate battery system. That’s the exact same kind of battery technology used in hundreds of home electric car conversions due to it’s cheap cost and bulletproof reliability.

Sadly, due to costs and availability, it’s still going to be around 20 long years before this kiwi gets behind the wheel of a factory built electric car. I’ll be 50 by then – and I can’t wait that long!

While I’d love a factory-made electric car, like many others, I have no choice other than to convert my own car to all-electric – for a quarter of the price. Time to roll up the sleeves.