Coda recalls 78 electric cars for misinstalled air bags

Electric car start-up manufacturer, Coda Automotive, announced a recall today of 78 of its electric cars because of a mis-installed side curtain air bag. The company says the airbags may have been improperly installed, and that they could fail to deploy in an accident.

This sort of recall is par-for-the-course for any automaker, and as manufacturing mistakes go it is relatively minor. Owners of Coda electric cars will be contacted by the automaker to schedule an appointment to correct the side curtain airbag installations as needed.

Coda's electric cars are manufactured in China by Haifei Motor Co. and shipped to an assembly facility in Benicia California for final assembly and testing. Haifei supplies the engineless car bodies (a.k.a. gliders) to Coda, and the final assembly is performed by AMPORTS, under contract to Coda, in Benicia.

The Coda electric car is similar in style to typical family sedans. The company's advertising likes to proclaim it is the only electric car with a real trunk. Due to its larger battery pack than comparable electric cars like the Nissan Leaf or Ford Focus Electric, the Coda electric car has an 88 mile driving range.

In March 2012 the company, manufactured its first production cars, and then made first deliveries of electric cars to customers. Since then the company has established dealers in San Diego, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.

In April 2012 the company announced an agreement with Great Wall Motors, in China, to jointly develop affordable electric cars.