Great Wall ORA — “A Cute Little Thing”

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The Great Wall ORA (Good Cat) was launched a few years ago as the cheapest electric vehicle in the Australian market. After rave reviews from the Chinese market, it was great to see it in person. We took one for a test drive and were impressed by its “retro” design. Since launch in 2023, GW has sold about 3,000 units of the car. Nicholas Carmichael brought his newly purchased ORA to our coffee morning yesterday and graciously accepted my request for an interview.

“Why did you go EV? Why ORA?” I asked.

“I change in and out of cars probably too often than I should, looking for what is going to fit me best. Before the ORA my ‘daily drive’ was split between the practically new 2023 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (petrol) and a 2004 VW New Beetle (manual). I’d been pretty keen on the ORA when they were launched, but the price tag of it and most EVs were a turn off.” (The Beetle is a similar shape to the ORA, I noted.)

“Late April, I read in an online article GWM was ending the road for the “ORA” hatch and replacing it with the SUV style Ora 5. I figured that was a sign to have a serious look at one. The only one I found in the Brisbane area was the one I ended up taking home, and the numbers trading in the Mitsubishi worked out as well. I drove home in a 2025 Green demo.

“I’m into hatchbacks and something fun and quirky (hence the New Beetle – which I still have) and the up to 400km of range and now LFP battery of the ORA got me over the line.

“My husband has an Atto 3, so having an EV in the garage was not new to me, but I do a lot more driving, so changing from petrol to electric was definitely a change – didn’t take too long to adjust to.”

My next question: “What about charging and tripping?”

“I’ve had the ORA since mid/late May and done a touch over 3,000 km in it — it’s been to Toowoomba [100 km] for a swimming event, it’s been to the Gold Coast regularly for training, and up to my parents in Tin Can Bay [224 km].

“I’ve treated the charging like my phone, mostly plugging it in overnight has done the trick with the trickle charging, but I am getting a 7kW charger installed in the near future — already booked. I don’t need to plan long drives so much. More planning is needed if there is going to be more than 1 of them in a 3-day period. I will need a more rapid charge up.”

“Mostly I have been charging it off the solar at home and using the nighttime EV rate, so the charging/fuel cost has been minimal. I used a free type 2 charger in Toowoomba, and a Tesla Supercharger in Gympie on the Tin Can Bay trip — having the Tesla membership, lowering the rate to 0.38/kWh, definitely made a difference. I have used the Evie chargers on the odd occasion, but that’s more because I have a credit with them from financing the car with Angle Auto.”

“Tell us about the transition from driving petrol to electric,” I probed.

“The main adjustment has been the driving attitude, the silence, the speed increasing with no noise or power curve, and using the high regen mode. When I drive the Beetle, I take my foot off the accelerator and expect it to slow down by itself — it doesn’t — plus it’s manual — it feels 20 years older than it already is now that most of my driving is in the ORA EV.” [Editor’s note: I’m renting a gas car right now for the first time in a long time, and it really is shocking how much worse the drive quality is when it comes to trying to increase speed, the noise, the weakness of the powertrain, and the lack of one-pedal driving. People who don’t drive EVs really don’t know what they are missing! Nic explains it well here. —ZS]

“Do you have any quirky or funny stories about the car to share with CleanTechnica readers?”

“Quirky stuff. We have home automation. When it detects Android Auto startup, it puts the garage door up. Well, opening the door on the Ora brings it to life, and Android Auto — so we’ve had to disable that part and leave the ‘once I’ve left the property put the door down in place.’”

“Any pros and cons you would like to share?”

“Timing the charging and working out the running costs, I did it for a month on rough maths and gave up when it got to $400 saving vs putting petrol in the Eclipse Cross. The at-home charging is minimal, it’s the public charging that adds anything meaningful.

“I love the light bar in the rear window, the two-tone retro-inspired interior, the green is really nice with the black roof, the quilted ‘leather’ on the door cards (and a lot of the quirky stuff has not carried over to the Ora 5), the list goes on.

“‘ORA’ comes from a joint venture between BMW and GWM — Spotlight Automotive. It’s really hard to say something bad about the car. “

“It’s given me the push to restart my ocean training, as the mounting fuel costs for that trip were getting pricey. I can’t complain when it’s costing me $1 for the drive to go to training. The restart of training for that squad is located on the Gold Coast. We do Open Water Swim Training at Burleigh Beach and Tallebudgera Creek. Besides work I am a Masters Swimmer doing both Pool & Open Water, I’ve competed at World Masters Games in New Zealand in 2017 bringing back a bronze medal for 5km Open Water event, and competed at the World Aquatics Masters World Championships 2023 Japan (Pool), 2025 Singapore (Open Water).

“Anyone who has seen it says it’s a cute little thing, and love the ‘cat’ theming with the Good Cat / Funky Cat branding in other markets. Even the floormats have a cat’s face in them, and the welcome screen has a swimming gold fish — another nod.”

“Any reaction from friends, family and work colleagues?” I ask.

“My family are sceptical and love their General Motors Commodores, more being comfortable with what they know,” he responds.

“Any issues?” I ask to conclude the interview.

“Reviews of the ORA in other markets speak of technology we don’t have in Australia (or yet anyway) — the voice assistant is not there, and being able to add the driving options menu to the steering wheel also isn’t for us — would be handy for the One Pedal driving mode.

“I don’t think I would ever buy another petrol car after owning an EV, it would be like going back in time technology wise.” (And Nic would know. He works in the International Development industry as Global IT Business & Data Systems Manager.)

“Thanks for your time, Nic, and sharing your informed insights with CleanTechnica.”