The Great Wall Ora is one of the most interesting electric cars to come out of China in recent years. It is sold worldwide.
When Ora’s first model, the Good Cat, came out in late 2020, it caused a lot of buzz on the internet because of its cute design, which looked like a VW Beetle. The car quickly made it to Europe, where it was given the name Funky Cat. In Australia, you can now buy the electric car under a new name: GWM Ora.
Great Wall has created and built an electric vehicle (EV) that can compete with the BYD Dolphin and MG 4. However, they aren’t sure which names work in which countries. How does the Ora work?
We lived with the top-of-the-line Ora GT for a week to find out. The GT costs more in Australia than the Ora Ultra (AU$48,990, or about $32,500), the Ora Standard Range (AU$39,990, or about $26,500), and the Ora Extended Range (AU$45,990, or about $30,500). Starting at AU$51,990 (~$34,500), the GT is a costly undertaking. That’s before you pay for on-road costs.
It’s cute and creative
The body kit is what makes the Ora GT different from all the other models. The changes start at the front end, where there are two big, weak air intakes and a new, slightly more aggressive lower fascia than the normal design.
More changes have been made to the sides of the Great Wall, such as adding new 18-inch alloy wheels with red details and fake carbon fiber wheel arches. A new rear spoiler, red brake calipers, and a fake carbon fiber back diffuser are some of the other changes. As you’d expect from a fast electric hatchback, it looks mean. The only bad thing about it is that it’s less sporty than a regular Ora.
Like the base model, the Ora GT has an electric motor at the front axle that makes 126 kW (169 hp) of power and 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) of torque. The battery powers the motor with 63 kWh of nickel manganese cobalt. Even though it’s small, the Ora GT is pretty heavy. It weighs 1,580 kg (3,483 lbs) and takes 8.5 seconds to reach 100 km/h (62 mph). It takes 0.1 seconds longer than the Ora Ultra and Ora Extended Range to hit 100 km/h, which is a surprise.
How do you spend your extra money? The Ora GT gets launch control and a personal drive mode from Great Wall. Most of the changes are cosmetic. I thought the Ora GT was great, even though it looked weird.
A house full of surprises
The trunk was one of the best things about the car. Like many other cars, the two 10.25-inch screens on top of the dashboard catch your eye right away.
It was a surprise to see dark images on the digital instrument cluster, but the quality of the display as a whole is great. The software wizards at GWM should have spent a little more time on it, even though there is a lot of empty room and only a few ways to make it your own. The control screen is the same way.
It can take a lot of work to get used to the menu layout and all the settings and displays that look like they belong on a smartphone at first. The screen is mostly used to handle important vehicle settings, such as the ESC toggle, some driving modes, and the brake regeneration settings. It’s not possible to connect to Android Auto with the Ora GT, but you can connect to Apple CarPlay either wired or wirelessly.
Four big switches under the central air vents can be used to turn on the air conditioning, fans, and front and back defoggers. A big button in the middle of them turns on the red lights. One of the best things about the cabin is these toggles, which look like they are made of very high-quality materials. The feel of these buttons is actually much more high-end than the plastic keys that most car companies use.
There is also a wireless charging pad, two USB-A ports, a rotary gear selection, and two small cupholders on the Ora GT. My favorite part was the red-and-black, soft-touch material that went over the panel and felt like suede. It’s mostly made of scratchy, black plastic, but a lot of high-quality materials are also used. Faux leather is used to cover things like the seats. These seats also have massage, heating, and airflow features, but they are hard to use because you can only get to them through the entertainment screen.
Along with the panoramic glass sunroof, GWM gave the second row of seats in the Ora GT a lot of red and black fake leather. For people who are longer than six feet, there is less headroom than legroom. Even though I haven’t driven the MG 4 or the BYD Dolphin, the inside of the Ora GT is just as nice as the Fiat 500e, which is more expensive and smaller.
A stylish and comfy daily
I had little hope for how the Ora GT would handle on the open road. I thought it would be rough, cheap, and rattly. None of them worked. It was made just as well as any electric car from Japan or Korea.
The ride is so smooth that it is the first thing that you notice about it. Too many electric vehicles are very stiff because they need strong stability to hold up a big battery pack. The Ora GT, on the other hand. Even though it’s very comfortable, it does a great job on any route. It was easy for the Ora to handle the many big speed bumps in my area, and the ride was smoother than in some three-times-expensive cars I’ve tried.
The EV shakes and moves around a lot when you’re going fast around corners, which is a bad thing about its soft ride. All four wheels of our test car had GitiComfort 225 V1 tires (215/50 R18). The tall sidewall definitely added to the car’s comfort. The name of these tires suggests that they weren’t made for high-performance driving, but they did great in twisties. They also don’t say much.
The Ora GT is almost silent when driving on the highway. The motor produces a small hum, but it’s not as annoying as the Fiat 500e’s whining.
The Ora weighs 1,580 kg (3,483 pounds), even though pictures make it look small. The battery pack, on the other hand, is underground, so its weight is hidden. GWM said that the combined cycle used 16.8 kWh/100 km of energy, but we were able to cut that down to 16.4 kWh/100 km. The Fiat 500e, on the other hand, used an average of 13 kWh per 100 km.
For the Ora GT, there are six different ways to drive: automatic, normal, eco, eco+, sport, and individual. The car makes different sounds when you change modes. You can also change the amount of regenerative braking by navigating the menu. In another setting, you only need to press one pedal to drive. The weight of the steering can also be changed between Comfort, Normal, and Sport modes.
It’s great that you can customize this much, but there should be more physical buttons to change these settings. It’s hard to switch between the choices while you’re driving, especially since the infotainment software has small text and toggle buttons.
In conclusion
The Ora GT has many good points. We don’t think everyone will like the way it looks, but it’s well-equipped and works well. It would likely be a better choice if it cost between AU$35,000 (~$23,200) and AU$40,000 (~$26,500), which is how much it costs now. Everything is nice in general, but nothing special.
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