Official Coda Electric Car thread

[evnow]

Time to charge the car shouldn't come into it except per se in the efficiency of the EVSE and on-board charger regardless of its wattage.

EPA measures wall to wheel. Essentially they run the fully charged car - note down the miles travelled - fully charge it & note down the kWh consumed.

The 6.6 kW charger is slightly more efficient than the 3.3 kW charger (just as 3.3 is better than the L1 charging).

 

[N1ghtrider]

The first Chinese car that you buy may actually be American.

California startup automaker Coda Automotive began production of its all-electric sedan on Monday at a facility in Benicia, outside of San Francisco. The battery-powered four-door is assembled from a glider” -- basically a complete car without a drivetrain -- that’s built by Coda in China under license from local automaker ChangAn Hafei. Its 31 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack comes from Tianjin, China-based Lishen Power Battery and powers an electric motor manufactured in Colorado by UQM Technologies.

Production of the Tesla Roadster was handled in a similar fashion, and since the final assembly of the Coda takes place in the United States it qualifies as a domestic car. The Coda’s base price is $37,250 and it is eligible for a federal tax credit of $7,500 and various state tax incentives.

After several delays, the EPA recently approved the car for sale and rated it at 88 miles per charge, making it the longest-range electric car currently available in the United States, ahead of the 76 miles per charge Ford Focus Electric and 73 miles per charge Nissan Leaf. Coda says independent tests of the car found that it is capable of traveling 133 miles in city driving. Its energy efficiency rating of 73 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) compares less favorably to the Focus and Leaf, which are rated at 105 MPGe and 99 MPGe, respectively.

Coda was founded in 2009 and is a privately-funded operation. In 2010 it applied for an Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan from the Department of Energy to help build a joint-venture battery manufacturing facility in Ohio with Lishen to produce batteries for export and domestic sales, but the Energy Department has not yet made a decision on the loan. Coda says it will be a nice bonus if it ever comes through, but its business plan moving forward does not rely on its approval.

Coda currently has two dealerships, one each in Silicon Valley and San Diego, and plans to announce more near its headquarters in Los Angeles in the coming weeks. The company is focusing on sales in California before expanding to other markets a


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/03/13/coda-automotive-begins-car-production-in-california/?intcmp=features#ixzz1p0tt342h" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[derkraut]

Chinese battery, huh? Well, I sure hope it lasts longer than the Chinese batteries in those solar lights I bought for my back yard. :roll: :roll:

 

[GRA]

Chinese battery, huh? Well, I sure hope it lasts longer than the Chinese batteries in those solar lights I bought for my back yard. :roll: :roll:

Got a cell phone or a computer? There's an excellent chance that they and/or their batteries are made in China.

 

[DrInnovation]

Chinese battery, huh? Well, I sure hope it lasts longer than the Chinese batteries in those solar lights I bought for my back yard. :roll: :roll:

Got a cell phone or a computer? There's an excellent chance that they and/or their batteries are made in China.

Great.. 2-3 year max. Even my Apple, which has very good charge eletronics to manage the batter, only expects 1000-1500 cycles on the battery before it needs replaced.

They are, however, different chemistries. We'll see how well CODA batteries stand up in a few years. Even accelerated testing is tricky with LI-ion as actual age matters too.

 

[Randy]

For whatever it's worth, the Coda battery warranty is 10 years or 100,000 miles...

 

[GRA]

Great.. 2-3 year max. Even my Apple, which has very good charge electronics to manage the batter, only expects 1000-1500 cycles on the battery before it needs replaced.

They are, however, different chemistries. We'll see how well CODA batteries stand up in a few years. Even accelerated testing is tricky with LI-ion as actual age matters too.

Likely very different cycling pattern as well. If you buy consumer Lithium batteries, with a few exceptions they're produced in Japan, South Korea or China, on essentially the same production machinery.

For whatever it's worth, the Coda battery warranty is 10 years or 100,000 miles...

Yes, they claim the LiFePO4 chemistry has much lower capacity loss than the LiMn2O4 (?) used by the Leaf and Volt, 7% after 100,000 miles. I have no idea what data that's based on, how many cycles and what DoD, etc. I note that Car & Driver, in their Quick look at the Mitsubishi i, says that Mitsubishi claims that the battery will lose 20% after 5 years, and 30% after seven years. The article also states that Mitsubishi uses 92% of the battery capacity, which would go a long way to explain the drop-off. Most batteries have their cycle life rated at no more than 80% depth of discharge, and taking them lower will shorten the life of any battery. I wouldn't want to drive an 'i' more than about 50 miles between charges on a daily basis (62 mile EPA range), and if I wanted the battery to last me 10 years I'd want to keep the average daily driving down around 30 miles or so.

 

[TomT]

The Los Angeles dealership has been open for about six months...

Coda currently has two dealerships, one each in Silicon Valley and San Diego, and plans to announce more near its headquarters in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

 

[evnow]

Coda is delivering its first car to a retail customer today.

http://www.electricauto.org/events/event_details.asp?id=223223" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Quick note to invite you to a special event at the new Coda dealership on Steven's Creek.

What: First Coda Retail Customer Delivery

When: Friday March 16th, 2012 12:30PM - 1:30ish PM

Where: Coda Silicon Valley, 4175 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95051

 

[SteveInSeattle]

Chinese battery, huh? Well, I sure hope it lasts longer than the Chinese batteries in those solar lights I bought for my back yard. :roll: :roll:

Got a cell phone or a computer? There's an excellent chance that they and/or their batteries are made in China.

True, but those batteries don't last 10 years-- so, who knows if ANy batteries last 10 years-- Chinese, Japanese, US... it's all uncertain at this point.. but who has the best history of reliable engineering in your opinion? For me, I'll go with Japanese and the Leaf.

 

[GRA]

Two cars delivered in SoCal (although one was to a board member) and one in the Bay Area yesterday:

http://www.codaautomotive.com/electric-vehicle-blog/sold-all-electric-codas-go-to-first-customers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[TomT]

My co-worker was told Friday to expect his in three to four weeks...

Two cars delivered in SoCal (although one was to a board member) and one in the Bay Area yesterday

 

[GRA]

My co-worker was told Friday to expect his in three to four weeks...

Two cars delivered in SoCal (although one was to a board member) and one in the Bay Area yesterday

They need to get their Enterprise/Hertz rental programs up and running soonest, so people can try them for a day or a weekend.

 

[IBELEAF]

From their press release

"Fast and easy recharging: An unbeatable 6.6kW onboard charging capability provides a full charge in about six hours on 240 V (Level 2 EVSE)."

6 hours... so if it had 3.3 charger like on Leaf it would've been 12 hour charge?

 

[GRA]

From their press release

"Fast and easy recharging: An unbeatable 6.6kW onboard charging capability provides a full charge in about six hours on 240 V (Level 2 EVSE)."

6 hours... so if it had 3.3 charger like on Leaf it would've been 12 hour charge?

Maybe a bit less. Once they reach the constant voltage point the current starts dropping, and the last 20% or so takes a long time no matter what the max. charging rate is; once it drops below 3.3kW they'd both charge at the same rate. We still don't know how many of the nominal 31kWh is usable, but assuming about the same ratio as the Leaf there should be about 27-27.5 kWh. I expect getting from whatever the minimum is to 80% would probably take 3-4 hours.

 

[GRA]

There is now a dedicated forum for the Coda Sedan:

http://www.mycodasedan.com/forum/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It just got started Friday, so there's not much there yet.

 

[Stoaty]

Good to have choices, but the poor efficiency would make this car a non-starter for me. The Leaf (99 MPGe), Volt (93 MPGe) and iMiev (112 MPGe) are all pretty similar in their energy usage, but the Coda is much worse (73 MPGe). Put another way:

iMiev - 30 kWh per 100 miles
Leaf - 34 kWh per 100 miles
Volt - 36 kWh per 100 miles
Coda - 46 kWh per 100 miles

The Coda uses 28% more energy than the Volt, 35% more energy than the Leaf, and 53% more energy than the iMiev to go the same distance.

 

[TomT]

I'm going to withhold any opinion or comments until I hear some real-world numbers since we all know how off the EPA numbers can be... My co-worker gets his the end of next week and lives not that far from me so we should have some reasonable Coda/Leaf numbers to compare shortly thereafter...

Good to have choices, but the poor efficiency would make this car a non-starter for me. The Leaf (99 MPGe), Volt (93 MPGe) and iMiev (112 MPGe) are all pretty similar in their energy usage, but the Coda is much worse (73 MPGe).

 

[Stoaty]

I'm going to withhold any opinion or comments until I hear some real-world numbers since we all know how off the EPA numbers can be...

I think that the EPA numbers are likely to provide a good basis for comparison. Not sure why you think the numbers wouldn't be a good approximation of the relative energy efficiency of each car. Granted, I am getting more like 140 MPGe in my Leaf due to the way I drive, but the other cars would probably achieve an equivalent boost in efficiency for the same driving style.

 

[Herm]

Good to have choices, but the poor efficiency would make this car a non-starter for me. The Leaf (99 MPGe), Volt (93 MPGe) and iMiev (112 MPGe) are all pretty similar in their energy usage, but the Coda is much worse (73 MPGe).

Probably an inefficient charger.. but it does not matter if you make your own electricity with solar panels.. I hope you do.