This week, Kevin Czinger, Coda's CEO, presented a sales and service plan for his electric car company—all aimed at keeping down the costs while sales ramp up. He was speaking at Moving Ahead 2010, a conference at Ohio State University about the future of transportation. Here are the highlights:
- The vehicle's body will be assembled in China at a leased plant.
- The partially built car will be shipped to California for final assembly.
- Battery packs will be built in Ohio, or possibly California or North Carolina.
- The company will have a single store in Los Angeles County, plus seven other locations across the state where customers can go for test drives.
- Coda will contract with Firestone to have technicians trained to do warranty work at 75 Firestone retail locations. Czinger used the analogy of the "Genius Bar" at Apple retail stores.
For the first years or so, customers will be fleets and a small number of early adopters, Czinger said.
Sounds like a good plan for the Coda but one can't help but wonder if the American public will be accepting of a car made mostly in China. I suppose the deciding factor would ultimately come down to price.
Peter