California startup, which had said we’d see cars by the end of this year, then pushed it back to the first quarter of 2011. Interim CEO Steve “Mac” Heller, who replaced Kevin Czinger earlier this month, said the added time is needed to ensure production goes smoothly. Deliveries to fleets — Enterprise has signed on for 100 cars — will begin next summer. Consumers will start getting their cars before the end of 2011.

“As we’ve looked at the production process, we’ve decided it would be wise to add some buffer time,” Heller said without elaborating. “There’s nothing specific. We just want to ensure we have adequate time.”

The car is being assembled in China under a partnership with Hafei Automotive. It is being built to Coda’s specs and Coda engineers are managing the line. The cars will be shipped to California, where Coda will install the electric drivetrain. There are no particular problems, Heller said; the company simply wants more time to fine-tune the process to ensure it delivers the best car possible.

Putting aside any reasons for the delay, time is the one thing this company does not have. Every delay threatens to push Coda Automotive further into irrelevancy.

As an upstart, Coda always faced an uphill fight against the likes of Nissan and other automakers frantically developing cars with cords. The Coda sedan is, on paper, anyway, a solid car and the prototype we checked out impressed us. It isn’t particularly sexy — think Japanese econobox — but Coda never intended to build anything more than a practical EV with excellent range.

By that measure, the company appears to have succeeded. We still haven’t driven one — we’ve been asking for months — but the Coda sedan promises a range of up to 120 miles. Recharging the 33.8-kilowatt-hour battery (developed and built by Coda) takes 5.5 to 6 hours.

Trouble is, the car will cost you $44,900. Add in the federal EV tax credit and the California zero-emissions-vehicle rebate (the Coda will be available only in California to start), and you’re looking at $32,400. That’s roughly $12,000 more than you’d pay for a Nissan Leaf in California when it becomes available next month.

As if competing against the Nissan Leaf isn’t a big enough challenge, we won’t see the Coda sedan until late next year — by which time it also will be competing with the Ford Focus Electric, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Think City. Still more EVs are coming in 2012 from the likes of Honda, Fiat and Toyota. As a startup no one outside the EV community has heard of, Coda Automotive will have a tough time competing. Still, Heller remains confident.

“Our car is a better car,” he said. “It has better range, a better battery and more practicality.”

In some ways, he’s right. The lithium-iron phosphate pack is huge, and the 120-mile range is measured on the more stringent US06 cycle, not the LA4 most automakers use in citing their targets of 100 miles. (To be fair, the LA4 is the standard adopted by the California Air Resources Board, so of course automakers would use it.) It has a 6.6-kilowatt onboard charger where others use a 3.3-kilowatt unit, so it recharges faster. And Coda likes to note that it builds only electric vehicles, unlike the major automakers, and so is absolutely committed to EVs.

These are relatively arcane points, and a lot of consumers will look only at the bottom line and/or brand identity. But Heller is convinced “there will be substantial” demand for the Coda in California. The company is negotiating deals with corporate and municipal fleets. He wouldn’t offer any specifics but said there would be an announcement soon.

“Between fleets and consumers, we expect a lot of demand,” Heller said. “We’ve gotten strong interest.”

Time will tell how strong that interest remains as other cars come to market.

Photos: Coda Automotive

See Also:

• To Maximize Your EV’s Range, Think of Eggs
• Another Shakeup at EV-Maker Coda Automotive
• EV Days Are Here Again
• 11 Trailblazing Electric Vehicles
• At This Price, Coda’s EV Faces a Tough Climb
• Coda Automotive Enters the Battery Business

Authors: Chuck Squatriglia

to know more click here