Coda sticking with late 2011 launch of electric Sedan

Coda Sedan – Click above for high-res image gallery

While speaking at the 2011 Automotive News China Conference back in April, Phil Murtaugh, chief executive officer of Coda Automotive, announced that Coda's electric Sedan would launch in the U.S. in the "late fourth quarter" of 2011. Of course, "late fourth quarter" deliveries represented another delay – last November, Coda's interim chief executive officer, Steven "Mac" Heller, told GigaOM that the battery-powered Sedan would launch in the third quarter of 2011... and the last time we checked, the third quarter came before the fourth quarter. Moving on.

Sean Blankenship, Coda's vice president of automotive marketing, says there will be no more delays. According to Blankenship, Coda is confident that it will meet it latest deadline of launching the $44,9000 electric Sedan by the end of 2011. Blankenship told Plugin Cars that Coda will open its first dealership "multi-channel store" in Los Angeles in August and will have half a dozen electric Sedans there for the public to drive. Following the opening in LA, Coda says that the next store will pop up in San Francisco.

Coda is sticking with its 2012 sales estimate of 14,000 units, but only time will tell if buyers are truly willing to fork over $44,900 for a battery-powered vehicle from a relatively unknown automaker.



Source: Autoblog Green