Electric-Car Maker Coda Files for Bankruptcy to Seek Sale

Story originally appeared on Bloomberg.

Coda Holdings Inc., parent of the electric-car maker backed by billionaire Philip Falcone, filed for bankruptcy and will seek to sell its assets to a group led by a Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG) unit.

Coda Holdings will focus on its energy storage business, Phil Murtaugh, the Los Angeles-based company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The closely held company’s Coda Automotive unit listed assets of as much as $50 million and liabilities of as much as $100 million in the Chapter 11 filing in Wilmington, Delaware, today. The company said it would separately try to sell the unit within 45 days.

A U.S. congressional committee is investigating the Energy Department’s loans for alternative-fuel vehicles after the manufacturers have been plagued by financial problems. Fisker Automotive Inc., another California-based battery powered carmaker, fired three quarters of its work force last month and missed its first payment on a U.S. government loan.

About 87,000 electric and plug-in hybrid cars have been sold in the U.S., with two years until the deadline for President Barack Obama’s target of 1 million sales for the industry.

The case is In re Coda Automotive, 13-11154, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.