Live coverage of the Coda EV including interior photos
by Sam Abuelsamid on Jun 5th 2009 at 5:14PM 
Coda sedan - click above for a high res live gallery
Unfortunately, we didn't have anyone from the ABG team available locally to attend the unveiling of the new Coda electric sedan earlier this week in Santa Monica. However, it pays to have friends in sunny places, including our pal Mike Levine. Mike took a break from his coverage of pickup trucks to go check out the new EV and came away somewhat disappointed. Overall the styling of the car is so-so. It's certainly not going entice anyone interested in a Tesla Model S with its looks. Even with a new nose, it's a pretty average compact sedan.
Mike's primary complaints about the Coda were related to the car's interior. Admittedly this is a prototype and, as such, it can't be judged as final. However, Mike has seen plenty of prototype vehicles over the years and felt this one was pretty rough even for this stage of development. The interior appeared to be the standard production setup from the base Hafei sedan on which the Coda is based, including the logo on the steering wheel airbag. Coda officials promise the production version will be much better and it will need to be if Coda expects anyone but the hardcore EV fans to shell out nearly $40K for this car.
Another issue that may be more difficult to address is rear seat room. Mike describes the trunk as ample but tells us that the volume seems to have come by pushing the back seat forward. The back seat is apparently all but unusable as a result. According to Coda officials we've talked to, the goal is an interior competitive with other cars in the mid-$20,000 range. Hopefully, they are working on it, because from what we can see in these pics, they will struggle to compete with a $10,000 Hyundai Accent or Nissan Versa, that $30,000 difference will buy an awful lot of gasoline.
Gallery: Coda EV live
Photos Copyright ©2009 Mike Levine
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tohe 5:59PM (6/05/2009)
Their main problem is the price, this car should not compete with the Model S, it is not on its league. They should work on making the car cheaper and price it accordingly, at 25,000 - 30,000USD this car will sell.
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Shaun 6:30PM (6/05/2009)
Is there a law somewhere that requires green cars to be ugly?
Seriously, other than the Tesla, Fisker, and a few hybrids based on regular production cars (Fusion, Camry, etc) all of the green cars I've seen are hideous.
And for $40k ? If I had $40k to lay out for a green car I'd save a little more for a Tesla S or I'd buy a hybrid Fusion and donate the difference to some foundation to help the mentally deficient green car designers of the world.
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Nick P. 6:56PM (6/05/2009)
Agreed. It's as if they didn't have access to a good industrial designer. It would be smarter for the small manufacturers to use Lotus' or Pininfarina (http://www.pininfarina.com/index/storiaModelli/Pininfarina-BlueCar.html) design shops. It's well worth it.
Fisker *is* a designer, so that's his angle. If things work out for him, expect other famous design shop to try their hand at building small car companies.
Design rules.
- Nick -
rjs 7:00PM (6/05/2009)
Funny, I thought this was AutoBloggreen, not 'do you know how much the difference in price would buy in gasoline! This is a total electric, no gas engine assist, no emission, maybe this is really Auto Blog Gasprice! RJS
Throwback 7:27PM (6/05/2009)
So should we just applaud and drink the kool-aid, or give our honest opinion? The car is ugly, space inefficient and over priced. BUT it is electric.
Shaun 7:48PM (6/05/2009)
@ rjs:
Oh, I get that this is ABG. But seeing as how ABG covers hybrid versions of SUVs and diesel versions of cars as well as electrics I figure there is room to criticize.
My point is that the design lacks appeal. The design might have worked a decade or two ago when people bought cars like the Ford Tempo. IMHO the only redeeming characteristic of this car is that it is in fact electric.
Personally, I think these electric upstarts would be better served buying chassis and bodies from big time manufacturers. It seems to be working for Tesla.
I have a big family and haul a lot of stuff. I would love to be able to buy an electric Expedition with a small diesel range extender but for some reason all the development attention has been to make small to mid-size cars incrementally more efficient. I guess having more than 2 kids and hauling more than a grocery bag of vegetables and granola is, by definition, not green so why would I care about being able to get a cleaner running, more efficient van or SUV... and don't forget, that is not ugly.
downtoearth 8:13PM (6/05/2009)
LOL, Shaun, you couldn't have been more right! ABG Comment of The Year.
By the way, why can't they just focus on converting ordinary Civics and Corollas to electric cars?
I just don't get. What's the point of bothering with the design of everything on a car when the only real job is to make it electic?
So much money could be saved on not doing unnecessary things.
BlackbirdHighway 10:32AM (6/06/2009)
But if they made them good looking they might become popular. That is the automakers worst nightmare.
They didn't have a problem with the California ZEV mandate in the 90's as long as it stayed in California.
When they heard that 17 other states were planning to adopt the same ZEV mandate the automakers knew they needed to do three things pronto: 1) Change their underwear. 2) Hire a bunch of high priced lawyers to sue California. 3) Throw all their weight behind hydrogen, knowing it would allow them to delay the whole movement by 2 or 3 decades.
Stan Wellaway 8:39PM (6/05/2009)
I don't think the styling is ugly. Bland, yes. Dull. But not ugly (though I hate those silly fairy lights under the front corners - they really cheapen it, like bits of Toytown tinsel). Long before now, Miles did stress that they wanted an electric car that looked normal - not something that looked quirky like so many EVs do. And if they wanted anonymous, they got it.
But from every report I've read, this just isn't doesn't look good enough - in styling or in quality - to sell at the quoted price. If they are sourcing it somewhere cheap it really ought to come in much lower - otherwise they may as well buy in a better car from Europe.
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DaveD 12:54AM (6/06/2009)
Yeah, that nose is a little hard to get used to. But as bland and ugly as it is, it looks like it's probably fairly streamlined. But how could those tiny slots for air flow actually cool that radiator? (That is a radiator I'm seeing...right?).
Is it just me, or does there seem to be a lot of complexity under that hood? I guess we have a lot of consolidation and simplification to go to get the cost down and streamline all of the electronics and power management systems.
Hey, it's ugly, it's expensive and it's got some drawbacks. But at least it's electric and they're trying. There will be better ones to come along, and hopefully they can at least improve the looks on this one a bit before the actually ship.
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DasBoese 7:31AM (6/06/2009)
The reason this car looks like it does is because they had to use an existing chassis due to cost reasons... so they went with the cheapest they could get, an unremarkable chinese compact sedan. Probably should've gone with a hatchback instead.
IMHO electric cars will not become competitive in the mainstream until designers realize that developing a purpose-built EV chassis may be more expensive up front, but ultimately will be cheaper than trying to integrate an electric drivetrain into a conventional body built for an ICE. The extremest example of this philosophy would be the Aptera, though of course it focuses entirely on effciency, less on practicality, so a mainstream EV wouldn't need to go quite all-out like they did.
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SparkItUp 2:45AM (6/08/2009)
That setup under the hood just looks plain dangerous. How about some automotive grade connectors and wiring methods?
It looks like if it's driven in rain or over a puddle the driver and passengers will be electrocuted...
It looks like a hobbyist car at this point. I wonder what happens to the current if it's in an accident... Again, are the occupants fried?
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