2012 Coda Sedan Electric Car Price Slashed to $25,000

Coda Automotive, the startup maker that builds the 2012 Coda Sedan electric car, is going through some very tough times.

But it looks like one of its three dealers is trying to figure out the right price point for the all-electriccompact sedan--which was originally priced at$38,145, including a destination charge of $895.

Several days ago, Coda Silicon Valley advertised five brand-new Coda Sedans for $24,995 the price of after a "dealer discount" of $14,744 (buyers still likely have to add the $895).

That offer actually expired on Sunday, and we were unable to reach Silicon Valley Coda at any of the numbers listed on its website.

But it looks like this fire-sale price may be the dealer's way of getting rid of the few Coda Sedans it has in stock.

The company has been, at best, in retrenchment mode over the last few months, after rumors spread that it had sold fewer than 100 of its cars after it put the car into production last March.

In early December, Coda laid off 15 percent of its staff.

The day after Christmas, the company said it hadclosed its Coda Experience Center in the Westfield Mall in Century City, California.

Ten days later, Coda laid off another 15 percent of its staff.

And the company has never released any sales figures.

The competition will only get tougher now that the 2013 Nissan Leaf, a high-volume electric car from a known global automaker, carries a list price for the new Leaf S base model of just $28,800.

Indeed, commentator and analyst Brad Berman wrote in December that he expects Coda to turn its energies toward "Coda Energy, its spin-off focusing on stationary grid storage [battery] systems."

Meanwhile, if you have better luck than we do in contacting Coda Silicon Valley--or if you bought one of those five Coda Sedans listed on the website--let us know!

Source: Green Car Reports