GWM Ora 2023 Review

When it comes to brand-new Chinese EVs, two crucial elements are absent in the case of the 2023 GWM Ora – a sub-$40,000 starting price and a silly name.

The price of $43,990 plus on-road costs for the entry-level 2023 GWM Ora sounds reasonable, but that rises to between $44,490 and $47,891 in terms of drive-away pricing (depending on the state or territory).

Still, the GWM Ora is now Australia’s cheapest new electric vehicle, undercutting the national drive-away price of $46,195 for the MG ZS EV small SUV by a significant margin.

Watch the video of the GWM Ora

Three model grades will be offered initially, the base Ora hatch ($43,990) with a 310km range, the Ora Extended Range ($47,990) that can do 420km and the Ora GT ($53,900), which is good for 400km according to GWM.

As for the silly name – or lack thereof – the vehicle in question is called the Funky Cat and Good Cat in other regions… but GWM Australia has played it safe with the more banal name of GWM Ora. It’s about as exciting as burnt toast.

Although the GWM Ora looks a lot like a MINI, it’s larger in size and much closer to a Volkswagen Golf. Direct rivals in the EV sphere include the Nissan LEAF hatch ($50,990 plus ORCs), BYD Atto 3 small SUV ($48,011 drive-away) and the MINI Electric hatch ($55,650).

While the 2023 GWM Ora is unlikely to compel a flood of Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 and Hyundai i30 owners/buyers to make the switch to an EV due to its relatively high asking price, the small Chinese hatch nevertheless represents reasonable value.

Standard equipment includes dual 10.25-inch digital screens in the cabin, a wireless phone charger and power-adjustable synthetic leather-clad retro-style seats that felt comfortable and supportive during our short preview drive.

Smaller touches like the fact there’s no starter button (as with many EVs, you just unlock the car, sit on the seat and pop it into drive), the high-quality steering wheel buttons and soft-touch dash materials make the car feel special, or at least not cheap and cheerful as we were expecting.

It rides on sporty five-spoke 18-inch alloy wheels, has LED headlights and pixel-like LED tail-lights and automatic climate control, and a 360-degree surround-view camera and rear parking sensors are also part of the base package.

Five exterior paint jobs are available, all of them with a contrasting roof. Hamilton White is the only free colour option, while Sun Black, Glacier Blue, Mars Red and Aurora Green add $595. Black cabin upholstery is swapped for the striking turquoise interior trim on Aurora Green models.

GWM Australia’s seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty applies here, while the battery warranty is eight years. Capped price service intervals are set at 12 months or 15,000km (whichever occurs first, but service pricing has not been confirmed at this stage.

Awarded a five-star NCAP safety rating in Europe, the 2023 GWM Ora is almost certain to get the same maximum rating from Australia’s equivalent independent safety authority, ANCAP.

In addition to a full complement of airbags protecting front and rear occupants, the GWM Ora gets a reversing and 360-degree surround-view parking camera system.

Automated acceleration, braking and steering are standard in the form of adaptive cruise control, active lane keep assist and autonomous emergency braking (detecting cars, cyclists and pedestrians in both forward and reverse gears), in addition to traffic jam assistant and traffic sign recognition with real-time speed limit updates.

An advanced driver attention assistant constantly monitors the driver’s line of sight with an optical sensor and will chide the driver for looking away for too long. Kind of like an excessively assertive Siri.

LED headlights and LED pixel tail-lights – both with strobing/dancing functionality, naturally – are also part of the package.

Fitted with a pair of high-resolution and responsive 10.25-inch digital widescreens integrated neatly into the dashboard, the 2023 GWM Ora cabin looks quite smart. Over-the-air (OTA) updates are also supported, which should keep the digital interfaces current.

While there’s no head-up display, the digital instrument cluster is pretty good, with plenty of driving intel and customisability.

However, the lack of faster-charging USB-C ports is disappointing in a new-age EV (you get twin USB-A ports instead), although the fitment of a wireless phone charger is appreciated, as is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

It’s disappointing there’s no vehicle-to-load (VTL) charging functionality. This allows vehicles to power appliances, charge laptops or even other EVs via a conventional powerpoint inside or outside the vehicle.

A front-mounted permanent magnet synchronous electric motor pumps out 126kW of power and 250Nm of torque in the 2023 GWM Ora – and it performs with gusto.

It accelerates promptly from standstill (the 0-100km/h claim is 8.3 seconds) and delivers impressive roll-on acceleration from higher speeds. And during our preview drive the Ora was more than happy to push to 130km/h. Claimed top speed is 160km/h.

It should be a very capable urban runabout and especially good in cut-and-thrust traffic given its size and haste, and as with all EVs acceleration is smooth and ultra-quiet. The small e-motor drives the front wheels through a ubiquitous single-speed reduction gearset.

The battery pack in base models is a 48kWh lithium-ion unit with LFP (lithium ferro-phosphate) chemistry. Extended Range and GT versions get a larger 63kWh battery.

The entry-level 2023 GWM Ora with its 48kWh battery has a claimed WLTP range of 310km and while was impossible to corroborate this during our short drive, that figure compares favourably with rivals like the MINI Electric (233km) and Nissan LEAF (270km) and is almost on par with the more expensive BYD Atto 3 (320km).

GWM says Extended Range and GT versions can travel around 25 per cent further, at 420km and 400km respectively.

Charging times are neither particularly fast nor slow, with the industry-standard 10-80 per cent charge taking just over five hours via a 6.6kW wall box, around three hours with an 11kW charger and 42 minutes using a 100kW fast-charger. However, the vehicle’s 400V architecture has a maximum charging rate of 64kW.

The Ora has a type two (AC) charge port and an extra section below that for a CCS (DC) plug.

Driven on two separate road courses at the AARC Proving Ground in Anglesea – one designed to mimic highway driving, the other a winding country road – the 2023 GWM Ora showed a clean pair of heels.

On the long, high-speed straights with gentle sweeping corners, the Ora’s suspension remained composed and confident for the most part, although we did notice excessive wind noise around the exterior mirrors above 90km/h – so much so that we thought one of the windows may have been open a smidgen.

This funky little cat (sorry, had to) is fairly nimble and may appeal to MINI owners who like their cars with a bit of a character. It tackled the twists and turns of the handling course with avid enthusiasm, turning through corners without much body roll.

Indeed, mid-corner balance was sound but wasn’t all smiles and cute kittens. The car sometimes thumped and bumped over rougher sections of roads at higher speeds, while vague steering and cheap tyres that lack the grip of higher-quality hoops (and sometimes challenge the traction control and spin up when exiting T-intersections) blemished the drive experience slightly.

The brake pedal felt a bit wooly in the UK-spec cars we drove but by and large the brakes did a reasonable job decelerating the vehicle. There are a number of regen settings and even a one-pedal driving mode in which deceleration is so strong it can bring the car to a complete stop, thanks to the regenerative braking system that also charges the battery.

The interior of the 2023 GWM Ora doesn’t feel cheap but it is most certainly cheerful. With tones of stylishness and cheekiness blended with a few copy-cat elements (the toggle-switch climate controls are blatant MINI knock-offs), the cabin looks smart.

Two-tone white and blue décor add a dash of Italian flair to proceedings, while the retro vertical lines and diamond stitching on the seat trim add more flavour to this urban explorer.

Better yet, the Ora cabin not only looks good but feels good, with reasonably high quality plastic materials used across most major touch points – dashboard, doors inserts, centre arm rest, air-vents – and a lovely steering wheel with modern buttons for audio and cruise controls.

Incidental storage is pretty good and while there’s only one USB-A port in the rear seat, there’s a surprising amount of room for taller types.

Perhaps the only major gripe concerning the Ora’s interior packaging is the boot, which at 228 litres is best described as measly. But for what it’s worth there’s still more cargo space than MINI Electric’s 211 litres.

The 2023 GWM Ora is not the game-changing EV we had hoped for and is unlikely to compel legions of Hyundai i30 owners to jump on the electric bandwagon. Had the price been under $40K drive-away, things may have been different.

But the characterful little electric hatch is a promising taste test of what’s to come from the Chinese EV brand, combining an upmarket cabin with loads of advanced safety features and plenty of standard equipment.

With a solid warranty and (relatively) sharp pricing, the Ora hatch should appeal to first-time EV buyers and GWM will probably sell every example it can get its hands on.

2023 GWM Ora at a glance:
Price: $43,990 (plus on-road costs)
Available: April 2023
Powertrain: Single permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 126kW/250Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 48kWh lithium-ion
Range: 310km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 14.8kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Five-star Euro NCAP (2022)