GWM Ora Standard Range review

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GWM Ora Standard Range review

If you love cats, the GWM Ora is cuter than a kitten pouncing on a fluffy toy.

Launching as the Ora Good Cat or the Ora Funky Cat — I’m not joking — in other markets, it arrived as the Ora in Australia in early 2023 and is one of the latest offerings from ******** automobile manufacturer Great Wall Motors named, you guessed it, after the Great Wall of China.

GWM refers to Ora as a “new energy” vehicle brand, revealed in 2018 and paying homage to Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler because, as the company explains, mathematics is the foundation of human scientific and technological innovation and the core premise of auto design.

Earlier Ora models included the R1/****** Cat and R2/White Cat, the naming, apparently, in a nod to former ******** ********** party leader Deng Xiaoping’s famous quote “it doesn’t matter if a cat is ****** or white, as long as it catches mice”, which was taken to advocate pragmatism in economic and foreign policy, which continues to this day.

Enough about cats.

Looking deeper, it turns out the name is actually a combination of the first letters of “open”, “reliable” and “alternative”, with the brand logo on the bonnet derived from an exclamation mark that’s intended as a salute and greet to Euler, customers and the world.

Now I get it.

My test car is the Ora Standard Range, which is $35,990 drive-away, making it one of the cheapest EVs in Australia (the MY23 MG ZS EV Excite is currently priced from $34,990 D/A).

It’s a pretty Glacier Blue, which is premium paint and costs $595 extra.

Ora prices have come down since launch, in part because GWM says the costs of battery technology — the largest single contributing component of EV pricing — have fallen recently due to lower raw material pricing.

Additionally, new discounts of $2000 and $1000, respectively, were applied to the Extended Range and GT in August.

Is GWM trying to claw back market share with this little city car?

It’s been consistently outsold by the competition since launch, despite heavy price cuts.

VFACTS sales figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries show 592 Oras sold in Australia (including 80 in WA) in the first six months of 2024 — a whopping 810.8 per cent increase over the same ******* in 2023, but no match for the BYD Dolphin with 1248 sales and the MG4 with 2771 sales.

Ora drive-away pricing

+ Standard Range (310km EV range): $35,990

+ Extended Range (420km EV range): $36,990

+ GT (400km EV range): $43,990

+ Premium paint is $595 extra

+ All Oras qualify for WA’s Zero Emissions Vehicle rebate scheme, which provides a $3500 rebate for people purchasing an eligible, brand-new car with a maximum dutiable value (the manufacturer’s retail selling price) of $70,000.

The look

Cute, with a funky retro vibe and exaggerated styling that looks a bit Mini-cross-Beetle.

The *********** wink at me and do a little dance every time I unlock the doors.

Depending on who chooses to comment, the Ora is either “cool” or “ugly” at first sight.

Camera IconIt’s a city car with a retro vibe. Credit: Olga de Moeller

Trust me, it grows on you the more you drive it.

Overall, it’s well finished with an extended, single-panel digital display brimming with darting koi when I first get in, but — and I don’t mean to be catty — the interior could do with a little refinement. I don’t like the row of glitzy silver levers for air control under the dash and steering wheel buttons feel hard and plasticky.

There is, however, a nice crystalline rotary gear selector on the centre console, along with a wireless phone charging pad and phone holder, which is convenient, but it means cup holders are repositioned out of easy arm’s reach underneath — for me, at least.

You actually get two wireless charging pads up front and USB-A points only, so grab an adaptor if you need to plug in more recent devices.

There’s no obvious stop/start button, which I eventually find under the dash — it’s the one with the voltage symbol — alongside the drive mode selector and other switches, but it doesn’t matter anyway because the Ora powers on with a whooshing sound as soon as you unlock the door, before you even sit down — and powers off when you get out and lock up.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconGlacier Blue paint is $595 extra. Credit: Olga de Moeller

Simply hop in, put on the seatbelt (it won’t move if you don’t), press the brake, select R or D, and you’re good to go.

Upholstery in my car is charcoal faux suede with blue stitching and there’s feature quilting on seat backs. Doors and dash finishes are soft touch.

Apple CarPlay connects easily and works flawlessly each time — and you’ll need it because there is no sat-nav.

Interior space is generous, with enough legroom for me at the back, though taller passengers might struggle here.

The lowdown

The Ora is built on GWM’s dedicated electric vehicle ME platform. All variants are front-wheel drive.

The Standard Range has a 47kWh lithium ion battery and 310km of range, calculated using the World Harmonised Light Vehicles Testing Procedure (WLTP), which is regarded to be tougher than others.

Extended Range variants get a 63kWh ternary lithium battery, which uses a different chemistry.

Stated Standard Range outputs are 126kW of power and 250Nm of torque, with claimed 0-100km/h acceleration of 8.4 seconds.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconMaximum AC charging capacity is 11kW. Credit: GWM Australia

Maximum charging capacities are 11kW using three-phase AC power, which would take 5.5 hours to get from 10-80 per cent, and 80kW using a DC charger (41 minutes to get from 10-80 per cent).

If you plug into a standard wall socket at home using the granny cable supplied, you’re looking at 20 hours-plus with a minimum 2kW supply.

The tailgate is manual on the Standard Range, but not heavy to pull down, and cargo capacity is 228 litres — which is pretty tight — with all seats up and 858L with the second row down.

Safety and driver assistance

The Ora has a five-star ANCAP safety rating, scoring 92 per cent for ******-occupant protection, 84 per cent for child-occupant protection, 74 per cent for vulnerable road-user protection and 93 per cent for safety assist.

It has seven airbags, including a centre airbag which provides added protection to front seat occupants in side impact crashes.

Driver tech is comprehensive (as with all GWMs), with all variants getting, among other things, a 360-degree camera, intelligent adaptive cruise control, all sorts of lane assist features, traffic-sign recognition, intelligent cornering control, forward-collision warning, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian, cyclist and crossing detection, camera-based driver drowsiness warning and, curiously, “dangerous behaviour” monitoring which, when turned on, issues a prompt if you’re smoking in the car or making a call.

I do neither, but it still makes me paranoid.

The drive

No pussyfooting around, the Ora is the best GWM I’ve tested — ever.

Acceleration is punchy, with agile cornering and good traction on suburban roads, but the emergency lane keep comes on randomly for no apparent reason.

The same happened when I was driving the Haval H6 Hybrid and Tank 300.

At 50 per cent, I have 141km of range left and like to use iPedal — which is ******* in vehicle settings on the screen and needs to be engaged each time you power on the car.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconThere’s a crystalline gear selector on the centre console. Credit: Olga de Moeller

You can choose from several drive modes — eco+ (the default), eco, normal, auto and sport — each with a different amount of regenerative braking.

The indicator makes a cute “popping” sound, visibility is good and the camera includes a see-through view of the road — if you want.

Steering feel can be adjusted (light, normal and firm) and I find firm suits my driving style — but I need to get used to cruise control, which is on a stalk under indicator. It works just fine, but sometimes I’m fiddling around to grab it.

Alas, wind rush is very noticeable in the cabin, even at low speeds. On a hellishly stormy day, it turns into a high-pitched whistling through the car going up the freeway on-ramp in South Perth.

My energy consumption is 13.5kWh/100km, which counts as efficient for a small EV — and I’m happy to say there is no range anxiety over a week of driving.

Warranty and servicing

The Ora is covered by a seven-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, an eight-year high-voltage battery warranty and five years of roadside assistance. It comes with five years of capped price servicing, each costing $99 every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

EV rebates: one step forward, two steps back

Not that I’m a fan of Marx or Lenin, who used the phrase to title a work describing conflict between factions in the Bolshevik party, but Australia rolled out EV rebates to encourage people to make the switch — and is now scaling back.

Queensland has just become the fourth *********** state to end its EV rebates ahead of time — though it’s understood to be the first to do so due to all funds for the incentives being exhausted.

Victoria ended its $3000 EV purchase subsidy on June 30, 2023 — well before it was meant to conclude in May 2024 (or when 20,000 rebates had been allocated) and little more than two years since it began in May 2021.

From September 2021 to January 2024, 25,000 New South Wales residents could access a $3000 rebate on EVs priced up to $68,750, however this was scrapped before the sales target was reached.

South Australia ended its $3000 rebate for new EVs and plug-in hybrids under $68,750 before on-road costs on January 1, 2024 — 18 months before the June 2025 planned end date.

So it’s good news that WA committed to investing an additional $5.2 million for the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) rebate as part of the 2024-25 State Budget to meet expected demand for the scheme, which was announced in June 2022.

Up to August 31, 2024, there have been 7840 ZEV rebates, totalling $27,440,000, paid to EV owners in WA.

The ZEV scheme provides a $3500 rebate for people who purchase an eligible vehicle and apply to the Department of Transport. Applications will be accepted until midnight on May 10, 2025.

To be eligible for the rebate, the vehicle must:

+ Be a zero-emission vehicle fully powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells.

+ Be brand new and never previously been registered or licensed in Australia or overseas.

+ Be granted a vehicle licence in WA on or after May 10, 2022.

+ Be a light vehicle (****** vehicle mass of 4.5 tonnes or less). This includes light passenger vehicles, such as sedans, hatchbacks and SUVs, light commercial vehicles and light trucks.

+ Have a maximum dutiable value of $70,000 or less.

With Jordan Mulach

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