Two White House alumni join $24M round for Coda

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Coda Automotive said today it raised $24 million in a Series B round to speed the time to market for its electric vehicles and battery technology.

Coda plans to sell a $45,000  electric sedan in California starting in 2010 that uses a 33.8-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery for a range of 90 to 120 miles. The Series B, which closed in early summer, is expected to finance the development and market launch of the sedan, in addition to funding a battery manufacturing joint venture.

The company was launched this year by Miles Rubin of low-speed EV seller Miles Electric Vehicles, which in 2007 debuted its low-speed truck powered by a 72-volt battery system. The company manufactures its vehicles in China (see Miles Electric debuts small truck).

Much of Coda's technology is also coming out of China. Coda plans to outsource assembly and components but to retain control of the brand, design and IP in order to save on manufacturing costs and retain the flexibility to scale quickly.

The final assembly is to be done through an agreement with HaFei Automobile Industry Group, based in Harbin, China. HaFei is a state-owned Chinese manufacturer of automobiles and airplanes that currently produces 200,0000 vehicles per year.

"Avoiding the problems that plague large manufacturers, we've developed a flexible structure that allows us to move rapidly to market and be profitable even while selling a relatively small number of vehicles per month,” CEO Kevin Czinger said in a news release.

The lithium ion batteries are to be supplied by Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock, a joint venture of Coda and Tianjin Lishen Battery, dubbed Lishen. Lishen manufactures and supplies lithium-ion cells customers including Apple, Motorola, Samsung and Vodafone (see Maxwell Tech, Tianjin Lishen team up on batteries). The JV’s batteries are to be manufactured in Lishen’s existing facility in Tianjin, China, but Coda also plans to establish a partnership with a U.S. battery company.

Just yesterday, Coda announced it plans to get its electric propulsion systems from UQM Technologies (AMEX:UQM), a popular choice among other makes of next-generation vehicles (see New bus a milestone fuel cell vehicle). Starting later this year, UQM plans to deliver 20,000 in the first two years of the 10-year deal. UQM says the electric propulsion system delivers 100 kilowatts (134 horsepower) of peak power, 300 newton-meters (221 pound-feet) of peak torque, and a peak system efficiency of 94 percent. UQM said the electric sedan will be on display at its annual shareholder meeting Aug. 11 in Golden, Colo.

Coda’s Series B round included two former members of U.S. presidential administrations: Thomas McLarty, who served as chief of staff for U.S. President Bill Clinton; and Henry Paulson, the former U.S. secretary of the treasury under President George W. Bush. The round also included Farallon Capital Management founder Thomas Steyer and investment bank Piper Jaffray. Coda officials participating were co-Chairman Steven Heller, CEO Kevin Czinger, and board member John Bryson.

The round also saw the return of the company’s two Series A investors: Coda co-founder and Chairman Miles Rubin; and venture firm Angeleno Group. The company did not divulge the size of the first round.