Coda Automotive Considers Three States For Its Battery Plant

Coda Automotive EV Sedan






Electric vehicle maker Coda Automotive is looking at sites in Ohio, California and North Carolina for a new battery plant that will supply its Coda electric sedan, according to The Columbus Dispatch newspaper.

Coda CEO Kevin Czinger told the Ohio newspaper that the company expects to decide on a location in the next month. Coda has been looking for a site for about four months.

“We have not yet made a decision regarding where our manufacturing plant will be and we are actively in discussions with several states,” Coda spokesman Forrest Beanum said in an e-mail Friday to Automotive News. “We do expect to make a decision in the very near future.”

Coda, of Santa Monica, Calif., plans a two-stage assembly process. The Coda sedan’s body will first be assembled in China. Then installation of the batteries and other drive components would take place in the United States, according to the Dispatch.

The battery plant initially would produce about 20,000 battery packs per year.

The company estimates it will produce 15,000 vehicles next year, primarily for corporate fleets and for use as commuter cars.

Prototypes of the Coda sedan, with a range of 120 miles per charge, will be available to test drive in California this summer. Retail sales will begin shortly afterward.

Coda has raised roughly $400 million in capital: $100 million from investors and about $300 million in credit, Czinger told the newspaper. Coda spun off from Miles Electric, a maker of low-speed vehicles, last year.

Source: Automotive News