Earlier this month at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, Californian startup Coda Automotive promised that it would begin sales of its first car -- the all-electric 2012 Coda Sedan -- in February.
However, with just a week to go before the end of January and very little news to go on about the impending launch, you’d be forgiven for thinking Coda was on track to miss yet another deadline.
Not so, says Coda CEO Philip Murtaugh. Talking with The Detroit News yesterday, Murtaugh said sales of the $37,250 five seat sedan would start just as soon as final certification on the car has been completed.
That, he says, should happen before the end of February.
But final certification -- which includes obtaining official efficiency ratings from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and completing mandatory crash testing -- isn’t a process with a time-frame that can be easily guessed.
Without final certification, a car can’t legally be sold in the U.S.
2011 Coda Sedan electric car, lithium-ion battery pack, 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
Last year, Californian electric automaker Fisker Automotive took much longer than anticipated to obtain all of the necessary certification paperwork for its first car, the 2012 Fisker Karma range-extended luxury sedan.
As a consequence, despite starting production last spring, it was October of 2011 before Fisker could legally sell its car.
With just one month to go, time is running out for Coda’s promise to deliver its first car by February 28, but will it make its latest deadline?
Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.
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