Electric car maker Coda Automotive has laid off about 50 employees.

The layoffs included a substantial part of the Los Angeles company’s sales and marketing staff, according to a report from PluginCars.com, a blog covering the electric car industry.

The layoffs were made on Dec. 7.

Sales of Coda’s all-electric sedan have been slow since the car’s debut in March. Less than 100 of the Chinese-made cars were recalled in August due to faulty airbags.

Forrest Beanum, Coda’s senior vice president of external affairs, said that the layoffs totaled 15 percent of the company’s workforce across all departments, and were made in an attempt to right-size the company.

“The company is taking this action to better position our business going forward,” he said in a statement to PluginCars.com. “We remain committed to the continued development and distribution of our products.”

Coda Automotive Inc. moved to Los Angeles from Santa Monica in 2011, bringing 126 jobs and promising up to 600 more within 10 years.

The Los Angeles City Council approved an incentive package of $832,000 to assist Coda in moving to a vacant building in the Mid-City neighborhood, near where Fairfax Avenue meets the 10 Freeway.

– Staff reporter Howard Fine contributed to this report.