Californian electric automaker Coda Automotive might have recently opened its first showroom and signed a deal to open a final assembly plant in Benicia, California where it plans to install the electric drivetrain in its 2012 Coda Sedans -- but it has only just closed an eight-month funding round which will help it bring its first electric car to market.
Announced late on Monday, the series D funding includes first-time investments from companies including including New World Strategic Investment Limited, Indus Capital and Och-Ziff. Existing investors, including the firm’s founder Steven Heller, also added more investment to the company during the series D round.
Totaling $147 million, the investment round was first announced in January this year, when the firm announced that it was in the process of securing $76 million in investment.
A few months later, Coda’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Development Christopher Rose told The New York Times that it needed an additional $50 million of investment to get its delayed Sedan ready for a fall 2011 Launch.
2011 Coda Sedan electric car, New York City, September 2010
The disparity between its initial Series D funding announcement and the figure announced on Monday accounts for the additional $50 million of much needed investment, and gives Coda an additional $22 million of oversubscribed funds.
Coda says funds from Series D round will be used to help it get its 2012 Coda Sedan ready for market, as well as continue development on what it calls its “breakthrough solutions in energy storage” and its “proprietary EV propulsion systems”. On paper this seems plausible, but with the revised launch date for the 2012 Coda Sedan looming ever closer we remain skeptical that we’ll see the 2012 Coda Sedan before the start of 2012.
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