diff --git a/IPython/nbformat/v2/nbpy.py b/IPython/nbformat/v2/nbpy.py
index 5cb5d2b..e49bf6b 100644
--- a/IPython/nbformat/v2/nbpy.py
+++ b/IPython/nbformat/v2/nbpy.py
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ class PyWriter(NotebookWriter):
def writes(self, nb, **kwargs):
lines = []
- lines.extend([u'# 2',''])
+ lines.extend([u'# coding: utf-8', u'# 2',''])
for ws in nb.worksheets:
for cell in ws.cells:
if cell.cell_type == u'code':