Why is the Coda electric so much more expensive than the Nissan Leaf?
Coda at the LA Auto Show, drab lighting intentional
Subsidies, scale, range, accounting shenanigans?
There has been a lot of hype in the green press regarding the Coda plug-in electric vehicle the last few days that has, frankly, been both surprising and annoying.
I mean, kudos to the Coda team for putting rubber to the road, but the story is DOA at $44,900, particularly for something this bland.
Today, you can buy an economy car that looks almost just like the Coda, for under $16,000. Or, you can buy a better styled, more refined, and much cheaper Nissan Leaf plug-in electric — and save almost $10,000.
Hello? McFly! Seriously, how can Coda compete?
Yes, the Coda offers more EV range than the Leaf, but not enough for an extra 10 g’s, especially wrapped in these flat design lines. There just isn’t any sizzle, only an over-priced piece of meat.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder what the real production price of the Leaf is today, not including R&D costs. If those costs were added into the equation, the Leaf’s price would have to balloon significantly. Still, it seems hard to believe that Nissan isn’t subsidizing production costs a little somewhere.
Certainly, thanks to the Leaf’s commonalities with the Versa, perhaps there is some scale overlap that helps keep costs down — scale that newcomers like Coda simply can’t access. Ford, for instance, has suggested that such a scaling advantage will be the case with the upcoming Focus electric as well. So, maybe mainstream automakers just have too many advantages compared to newcomers.
Consequently, startups in the EV space have no choice but to focus on the luxury market. Or, they have to think so far outside of the box that they create a new segment, a new niche. Coda does neither.
Again, I think Coda’s achievement is noteworthy, and maybe their battery management system, for instance, could find a home in the EV’s of other automakers. Maybe. Inevitably, however, the code to Coda’s long term success requires a more visionary and futuristic plan forward. A plug just isn’t enough.
