While Coda settled a couple of those billing disputes from earlier this year, two of those companies that settled have filed new lawsuits stating that Coda didn’t begin paying the agreed upon settlement fee. Auto supplier CDH Detroit said that in a settlement agreement with Coda in early March, Coda agreed to start paying CDH Detroit monthly installments of $28,186 for almost a year, resulting in a total bill of $338,234. In the new suit filed April 26, CDH Detroit said that Coda allegedly missed that first monthly payment (embedded below).

Car engineering and development company RLE International (as well as an affiliate contract work company RTECH) said that Coda also settled with them and agreed to pay them $50K a month for a year and a half, but didn’t start paying the first monthly bill. The suit, dated April 25, alleged that Coda owes them $850,029.15 in total (embedded below).

In addition, events company Exhibit Works filed a suit on March 19, alleging that Coda owes them $242,265.27 (embedded below). A company called BET Services has filed a suit on April 24 alleging that Coda owes them $454,228 plus interest (embedded below). A billing and accounts receivables company called Corporate Billing filed a suit back on January 16, alleging Coda owes them $248,800 for an unpaid bill for auto parts (embedded below). And there’s at least two other pending suits in Los Angeles County Court.

Finally, former Coda employee Tony Bulchak just filed a class action lawsuit against Coda on Monday. Since the case is so new, the online complaint isn’t available yet, but I’ll update this when it is. I would assume the class action is over the layoffs, but I’ll confirm that when the documents are online.

Like how Fisker Automotive is now unraveling, Coda Automotive seems to be coming apart at the seams as well. Media reports are starting to sound its death toll, too. How much longer til Coda files for bankruptcy?

CDH vs Coda

RLE/RTECH vs Coda

Exhibit Works vs Coda

BET vs Coda

Corporate Billing vs Coda

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Next AutoWorks didn’t receive the loan. And rightly so. Next AutoWorks made Fisker look like a good idea (both companies were backed by Kleiner Perkins, by the way). The company struggled right out of the gate with its gas-sipping, low cost, plastic car, and never went anywhere with it.

But there were another almost half dozen alternative vehicle startups that asked the DOE for loans out of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program (created in 2007 and funded in 2008) but that didn’t receive loans: Bright Automotive, Aptera, Coda, Think, and Carbon Motors. And these are just companies that publicly discussed the loans with the media.

Tesla and Fisker were the only startups that received funding from the ATVM program, and half of Fisker’s loan was withheld. The close to $200 million that went to Fisker represents around 2 percent of the entire ATVM loan portfolio advocated. The bulk of the loans went to the big automakers, Nissan and Ford. The DOE became much more cautious with this program in 2011 (coinciding with Solyndra’s struggles), and has since frozen the remaining $16.6 billion of the $25 billion program.

All in all, the DOE was actually pretty cautious and conservative with the ATVM loan funding. The program definitely had problems, to be sure, including some things I outlined in this previous post: miscommunication with companies, and better early due diligence. It’s also questionable whether the government should be giving such sizable amounts to single companies, instead of putting those funds into other incentives like tax breaks.

But the ATVM program wasn’t an example of massive misspending from the DOE; it was a program that was stalled before it was really even started.

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Coda says it will provide the propulsion technology, including the battery systems, for the electric car, while Great Wall Motors will likely provide the car chassis and other systems. The cars will be assembled in both China and the U.S. The deal is not a joint venture and does not involve an equity stake, said Coda.

Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh said on a call with reporters that the low cost electric car won’t be launched until the second quarter of 2014, and more details of the car will be provided in the next six to nine months. Coda didn’t say how much the EV would cost.

Coda early days

To put this announcement in perspective, Coda, a spin-out from electric car startup Miles Electric, only just started shipping its inaugural electric sedans in March of this year, and Murtaugh said that sales volumes of that first car are still “low.” Murtaugh wouldn’t give more specific figures. Coda delayed the launch of that car by over a year and “soft-launched” it recently.

Coda also just recently launched a stationary energy storage business — using its battery packs to store energy for the power grid — and is in the very early stages of that business, too. So basically, Coda is not yet bringing in much revenue to run its business, and already it’s got a new deal in the works to develop a second electric car.

Coda’s battery technology is based around lithium iron phosphate batteries, and a good chunk of its intellectual property is around the cooling management system and software. The company already has a joint venture with China battery maker Lishen, called Lio (oil spelled backward), and Lio owns the IP for the battery cell production, but Coda has retained the rights to the advanced thermal dynamics and battery management system.

Coda raised close to $150 million in funding back in September, including raising money from Chinese investors New World Strategic Investment Limited, and Indus Capital. Coda and Lishen also agreed to invest $100 million into the venture alongside a commitment for a $294 million line of credit from the Bank of Tianjin Joint-Stock Co. Coda says it is no longer pursuing a Department of Energy loan.

Chinese auto market

Great Wall Motors Company is a public company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and sold 500,000 traditional internal combustion cars in 2011. Murtaugh said Great Wall Motors doesn’t yet sell electric cars and Coda says Great Wall Motors is the fastest growing and most profitable Chinese auto original equipment manufacturer.

China is the world’s largest auto market, and all of the car companies launched their latest models at the Beijing Auto Show this week. As the Financial Times put it: “The Middle Kingdom is increasingly claiming its place as the centre of gravity of the automotive world.”. . . “This is a 30m market by 2020 – it will be the dominant market in the world.”

That’s one reason it could be the quintessential market for electric cars. The other reason China could dominate EVs is that the Chinese government can take the top-down approach, like mandating electric cars for government and service workers, and banning internal combustion two-wheelers. China is the largest market for electric scooters and motorcycles. Murtaugh said that the “Chinese market will overwhelm all other EV markets in the world.”

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The first shipment has been a long time coming. Coda was planning on starting shipments of the electric sedan — the first car from the venture-backed startup — back in late 2010, but then pushed that back to late 2011, and now early 2012. It’s not unusual for an electric car startup to push back launch dates, though, and both Tesla and Fisker also delayed the launches of their first electric cars.

Last week Coda’s sedan got its official ratings from the EPA, and it received an 88-mile range (the distance its batteries can go on a single charge), with fuel mileage of 73 miles per gallon equivalent (77 in the city and 68 on the highway). That range is one of the longest official ones out there for an all-electric car, other than Tesla’s higher-end cars, and Coda says its car can do a 125-mile range under reasonable driving conditions.

Coda is directly competing with the LEAF in terms of price, all-electric features and the fact that both cars are pretty basic. Nissan’s LEAF has an official electric range of 73 miles and a 99 MPGe, and costs $35,200 (without subsidies). The Coda sedan has a base cost of $37,900 $39,900, down from $44,900 (before any state and federal subsidies). Coda boosted the battery warranty on its car to 10 years (up from 8 years) or 100,000 miles late last year. Nissan has a warranty of 8 years for the battery for its LEAF.

Coda has a joint venture with China battery maker Lishen, called Lio (oil spelled backward), and is in the process of raising $150 million in funding to help get these inaugural cars to the first customers in California. Other investors in Coda include Aeris Capital and Singapore-based EDB Investments.

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Coda sedan

Electric car company Coda Automotive is raising more funds as it moves closer to shipping its first electric sedans. According to a filing, the company is looking to raise another $150 million, and has closed $21.5 million of that — the financing is in addition to the $150 million round announced in September 2011.

Coda’s delayed electric sedan is supposed to begin shipping this month, and a Coda spokesperson tells me that the cars are in the “final assembly stage,” and are expected “to start shipping shortly. The cars are a bit behind schedule, and also were delayed by almost a year in late 2010.

A Coda spokesperson says the company will use this funding for “ongoing business activities and expanding business opportunities, including energy storage, new vehicles and other company activities.” Last month Coda launched an energy storage division, which plans to sell batteries to utilities and power producers. The company has raised $322 million to date.

Here’s 10 things you should know about Coda.

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Coda sedan

Despite Coda just going into production of its inaugural electric sedan, the startup will announce on Friday it’s launching a division that plans to sell its batteries and battery management systems to act as energy storage for the power grid. The idea has been in the works for years (former CEO Kevin Czinger told us about this plan in summer of 2010) and Ed Solar, the new SVP for the Coda Energy division, told me in an interview this week the energy storage division was officially developed about a year ago.

Coda’s battery technology is based around lithium iron phosphate batteries, and a good chunk of its intellectual property is around the cooling management system and software. The company has a joint venture with China battery maker Lishen, called Lio (oil spelled backward), and Lio owns the IP for the battery cell production, but Coda has retained the rights to the advanced thermal dynamics and battery management system.

Energy storage is a much-needed part of the power grid. The grid currently has to be in a constant state of equal supply and demand. But if energy storage tech — which includes batteries, thermal storage, compressed air, pumped hydro, and others — is added to the grid, it will help utilities manage balancing the load much more easily. And because clean power like wind and solar are unpredictable, the addition of more clean power will require more energy storage tech, too.

Coda sedan, under the hood

Batteries are among the most expensive forms of grid energy storage, but there are some benefits to batteries: They can be used in many more locations than compressed air and pumped hydro, and they are pretty fast to deploy compared to other technologies. Both U.S. power company AES   and Chinese utility State Grid are deploying huge battery projects for grid energy storage.

Coda’s Solar tells me Coda has a first customer for a trial of its grid batteries, but it doesn’t plan to disclose that customer until February. Solar says utilities, clean power producers and demand response players have shown interest in Coda’s grid batteries.

Solar also tells me the batteries and management systems Coda will sell for the power grid aren’t all that different from the ones it’s using in its cars. The main difference is that while the car batteries are flat, the grid batteries are organized in a tower, and 25 batteries grouped together creates 1 MWh worth of storage.

Coda is launching its new energy storage division in time with next week’s smart grid conference DistribuTECH, in San Antonio, Texas. We’ll see how many grid energy storage companies are at the event, as that industry has started to grow in recent months.

Other companies selling grid batteries include A123 Systems and Chinese battery maker BYD. Both A123 Systems and BYD also sell batteries for both electric cars and the grid, so clearly this is a common road for battery companies.

On Coda’s electric car front, the company isn’t actually selling its electric sedan just yet, and hopes to start doing so in February through its Coda store, through other dealers and through its website. Coda also closed $150 million in funding just a few months ago to get all of these efforts off the ground.

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Here’s what the Department of Energy said back in February about which cars would deliver what part of the goal. It should be noted that the DOE didn’t include estimates from Coda Automotive, Honda, and Mitsubishi which will likely deliver some volumes of cars between now and 2015. But let’s look at the numbers below and see what is still there. A couple months ago Pike Research said that it thinks that we might end up seeing about 667,000 plug-in electric cars sold by 2015 instead of the 1 million.

Think EV: From the get-go we can cross off the 57,000 cars from the Think City EV. The company filed for bankruptcy this summer, and though it was acquired by an investor, I don’t think it will be producing any cars anytime soon. That takes us down to 1,165,200.

Tesla: Tesla will sell 2,500 of its Roadster car in 2011 and 2012, so that adds another 1,500 cars, bringing us up slightly to 1,166,700. The numbers for Tesla’s Model S seem to be on track with those on the list.

Smith Electric Vehicles: Electric fleet maker Smith Electric Vehicles recently filed for an IPO, so has revealed its latest figures for how many cars it thinks it can produce. Smith says it has sold 320 vehicles for the year ending Sept. 30, 2011, has a backlog of 120 vehicles, and has pre-sold 540 vehicles, which it will make through July 2012. So after the Summer of 2012, Smith will have made and sold about 1,000 electric cars. That’s close to half of what the DOE was expecting by then. Smith says it make another 2,220 vehicles between 2012 and 2015, while the DOE was predicting 4,000 vehicles from it (1,000 per year) by the end of 2015. I think we can conservatively cut Smith’s contribution by a third of what the DOE estimated, bringing us down by 1,600, roughly what the extra Roadster sales contributed, 1,165,100.

Nissan LEAF: Nissan said about a month ago that it had sold 15,000 LEAFs globally. The DOE predicted that there would be 25,000 LEAFS just in the U.S. by 2011. Conservatively I think we can cut 10,000 cars off the DOE’s 2011 LEAF figure, bringing it to 1,155,100.

Navistar eStar: I’m not sure on the latest numbers for this company, but I’ve contacted the company and will update this when I know more. Navistar was given a $39.2 million grant in 2009 under the $2.4 billion stimulus program, and the company hoped to deliver 400 eStars by the end of 2010. It launched eStars for its first customer FedEx in the Summer of 2010. But I don’t think its goals have been met, and the DOE estimates for its status report that it thinks Navistar can deliver 200 eStars by the end of 2011. Given that lag time I would bet that the Navistar numbers for the DOE status report are lower, but I’ll since they were already low, I’ll keep them as is for now.

GM Volt: O.K. now for a big one. According to the DOE numbers, GM is supposed to produce 15,000 Volts by the end of 2011, though more recent figures put GM’s own estimates for 10,000 in 2011. According to Wired last month GM had shipped about 4,000 Volts off of the lot by the end of September. GM sold 723 Volts in the month of September. So let’s give GM the benefit of the doubt and say it will  sell 1,000 Volts each month for October, November and December. So that would mean GM would have shipped 7,000 Volts for 2011, less than half of what the DOE was predicting for 2011.

Then the DOE says that GM is supposed to produce 120,000 Volts for 2012. That number is way high. According to reports GM intends to likely produce 45,000 Volts for U.S. dealers in 2012, and will make more cars for other markets. So we can cut the 2011 figure by 8,000, and the 2012 number by 75,000. Bringing us to 1,072,100.

DOE is depending on GM to make and sell 120,000 Volts for the U.S. market each year in 2013/2014/2015. It will probably end up being more like half that figure at 60,000 cars for at least 2013, though it could ramp up in 2014 and 2015. Giving the DOE the benefit of the doubt for 2014/2015, let’s shave off another 60,000 for 2013, to bring it to 1,012,100.

Ford Focus EV: Ford won’t even start selling its Focus EV until the end of 2011, and just opened a website to accept reservations. The DOE thinks it can produce and sell 10,000 Ford Focus EV’s in 2012. Ford hasn’t said how many it intends to produce, but if it sells 10,000 it would mean the Ford Focus EV would sell more than the Volt in its first year. Doable? Let’s keep the number the same on that for now.

Fisker: And now to Fisker, which has delayed production and salesof its Karma car, and plans to produce the car in small volumes in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, and then ramp up to volume production in 2012. The production of 1,000 Karmas in 2011 doesn’t

Coda sedan

seem realistic, as last I heard Fisker had shipped 40 cars from its partner’s plant in Finland in mid October. Let’s say Fisker produces and ships 200 Karmas in 2011. Let’s cut the DOE’s Fisker Karma estimate by 800, bringing the number down to 1,011,300.

Fisker says its Nina won’t be produced in volume until mid-2013, with prototype production starting in late 2012. That’s assuming this car is coming out at all (the skeptic in me says it’s 50/50 at this point). Erase those entire 5,000 cars that the DOE says will come from the Nina in 2012, bringing us to 1,006,300. Since Fisker isn’t going into volume production until mid-2013, I think we can cut its 2013 estimates in half, by 20,000, bringing us to 986,300. I’ll leave the 2014 and 2015 Nina DOE estimates alone, but they seem rather unreasonable at 45,000 Ninas produced and sold in 2014 and 75,000 in 2015.

Coda: The DOE didn’t take Coda into account for that table, so let’s add in some cars for Coda, as it will start shipping its first Codas to dealers in December. Let’s say Coda sells 2,500 Codas in 2012 (it’s estimated 14,000 in its first year, 7,000 for consumers and 7,000 for fleets, but that sounds high), and 5,000 each year for 2013, 2014, and 2015. So I’ll add that backup to 1,003,800.

Wrapup

All of this math is based on guesses and assumption, but I’m trying to give you a picture for how close this is going to be. I’m also being conservative in assuming that Fisker stays afloat and is able to ramp up volume production of its Karma, and then is able to produce the Nina at all — the DOE estimates that the Nina will give close to 200,000 EVs to its 1 million total by 2015! So if the Nina doesn’t emerge or struggles the numbers will go waaaay down.

In addition if GM doesn’t ramp its Volt up to 120,000 per year, it will also cut the total significantly. The DOE was assuming about 500,000 EVs to come from the Volt for its estimates. Essentially between the Nina and the Volt, the DOE thinks close to half of the volume will come from them!

Finally some companies that are meeting their milestones could end up producing more cars than previously estimated. Tesla will be unveiling its Model X, a cool SUV minivan, which will likely go on sale before 2015.

It’s going to be close — very close — for the U.S. to meet its goal to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. As I said earlier Pike Research thinks that we might end up seeing about 667,000 plug-in electric cars sold by 2015, instead of the 1 million.

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Coda sedan

Electric car startup Coda Automotive started production of its inaugural electric sedan this week, and expects to start delivering its first cars to dealers in December. While Coda pushed back production of the car from the end of 2010 to the end of this year, the sedan has now come out with some interesting features that helps the five-seater stand out from the competition, including a 150-mile range, an under-$40,000 price tag, and a 10-year battery warranty.

The official production car is being shown off at the LA Auto Show this week. Here’s 10 things you need to know about Coda Automotive and its inaugural electric sedan:

1. It’s the first startup to bring a lower cost but mainstream electric sedan to market. Coda, like Fisker and Tesla, is a relatively young company, but instead of starting out focusing on higher-end vehicles like Fisker and Tesla have, Coda’s first electric car has reached a $40,000 price point (before subsidies). Tesla will start delivering its $57,000 car — the Model S — in the middle of 2012, but Coda says it will start delivering its first cars to customers (beyond dealers) in January 2012. Other EV makers have been selling low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles, but Coda’s car is a sedan.

2. It’s competing with Nissan’s LEAF. Because Coda is looking to produce a more mainstream and affordable car, it seems to be directly competing with Nissan’s LEAF. There have been 15,000 LEAFs sold globally, at a price point of $35,000 before subsidies. Coda has boosted its battery range to 150-miles, and its warranty to 10 years, seemingly to offer better features than the LEAF. Which one would you buy?

Coda sedan

3. China connection. Coda is relying on deals in China to help it sell its electric car at $40,000. It’s one of the few U.S. electric car startups doing this. Coda has created a joint venture with China battery maker Lishen, called Lio (oil spelled backward). Coda and Lishen agreed to invest $100 million in their venture, and said they’ve received a commitment for a $327 million line of credit from the Bank of Tianjin Joint-Stock Co. In comparison, Tesla originally worked with Lotus for its first car and is building its second car at its factory in Fremont, Calif. Fisker is working with Finnish company Valmet to assemble its first hybrid electric car and will build its second car Project Nina in the U.S.

4. Small volumes initially. Coda plans to produce its electric sedan in relatively small volumes at first. If its original estimates are still correct, about 14,000 in the first year: 7,000 to consumers and 7,000 to fleets. In comparison, Tesla plans to produce 6,000 of its Model S initially, then move into 20,000 per year after that.

5. Coda has raised a significant amount for a startup In late September of this year, Coda closed $150 million in funding. That brings Coda’s total funding to hundreds of millions of dollars — at least $300 million, though former CEO Kevin Czinger told me last year that with that final funding, it would have around $600 million with various commitments.

Coda steering wheel

6. L.A. push. Coda recently moved its headquarters to Los Angeles, from Santa Monica, Calif. California Governor Jerry Brown attended the ribbon-cutting event. L.A., along with the Bay Area, will be one of the hot spots for EVs in the U.S.

7. Value car. I interviewed Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh Wednesday, and he said he thought Coda has the highest value electric car in its class. So with all its beefed-up features and lowered price, Coda is plugging it as the best value for a $40,000 car.

8. Branding effort. Coda has a long road ahead of it in terms of getting its brand out there in front of customers, which could be its biggest hurdle. Both Tesla and Fisker have been able to draw more attention, likely because they started selling sports cars, and have famous founders. And the big auto companies, Nissan and GM, have enough money and brand recognition to put out a lot of ads about the LEAF and Volt, respectively.

9. Car delay. Like most of electric car startups, Coda delayed the launch of its inaugural car. Both Fisker and Tesla did the same thing. Coda’s car just went into production, so it will likely be coming to dealers and first customers soon. Murtaugh told me it will land with dealers in December and go to the first reservation holders in January.

10. Coda had been waiting for a DOE loan. Coda had been waiting to get a loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Vehicle Manufacturing Program, but has yet to receive one. I’m not sure if its application is still in the works. Both Fisker and Tesla received loans from that program, but they were some of the only startups that did. The other companies that received loans were big auto.

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