GWM Ora 03 review

The GWM Ora 03 is a small electric car that was launched with a name comfortably more bizarre than any other – the Ora Funky Cat.

Let’s explain what it all means. Ora is a sub-brand of Chinese automotive giant Great Wall Motors (GWM), which specialises in electric cars. And the Funky Cat bit? Well, it’s based on a car sold in China as the Good Cat. The Funky moniker was selected for the version being sold in the UK.

The Chinese and European versions of the Ora 03 are said to be virtually identical, with only a few software changes between them.

GWM Ora 03 video review

The line-up is expected to grow in the future, but for now there are three trims available: Pure, Pro and the supposedly sporty GT. There are two battery options, which depend on the trim you choose.

The GWM Ora 03 has lots of tech, a long warranty and very good crash-test results, but is all that enough to help it compete with its rivals, such as the MG4 and Renault 5? Read on to find out...

While the GWM Ora 03 Pure's official range is 193 miles, it managed 130 miles in our winter range test on a cold day, when most electric cars don’t perform as well. That was enough to beat the Mini Cooper Electric but fell way short of the Cupra Born, MG4 Long Range and Renault Megane.

By upgrading to the Pro or GT model, you get a larger battery and more official range – 260 for the Pro and 248 for the GT. Those figures are competitive with the Renault 5 150 (252 miles) but not the MG4 Long Range (281 miles) or Extended Range (323 miles). 

When it comes to performance, every Ora 03 has 169bhp and we timed an 03’s 0-60mph sprint at 8.4 seconds when we tested it on a damp day at our private test track. That’ll be more than quick enough for most situations, but if you want something faster, you’ll want to take a look at the Mini or the MG4 Long Range, which was a second faster on the same day.

The main thing holding back the Ora 03 is the fact that you need to be quite cautious with how you feed in power in: it’s quite easy to spin up the front wheels, even with the traction control on. Aside from joining a motorway, there’s little reason to explore the upper reaches of the moderate performance potential anyway, because it’s not a particularly rewarding car to drive.

Sure, it's easy to drive around town – as is every electric car – but if you crank up the speed on a twisty road, it handles more like a tall electric SUV. Its poor body control results in lots of body lean through a corner followed by a fairly harsh rebound back to the centre once you’re straight again. The slow, light steering robs the car of any feeling of agility too.

You’re even more likely to have an issue with the ride. The firm suspension set-up isn’t uncomfortable or overly harsh but it is a little irritating. Even on smooth bits of road, you’ll feel the car fidgeting around on its 18in alloys, and it never really settles down regardless of speed or road surface. The MG4 and most other electric rivals offer a calmer ride and more composed handling.

The Ora 03 isn’t as refined as the MG4 either, with a bit more audible road roar inside the car on a motorway. The brake-pedal feel is reasonably smooth though, and there’s a one-pedal driving function.

Is the Ora 03 GT much the same? Well, in fact, it’s exactly the same in every respect of the driving experience. GWM has made no mechanical changes to the GT over the Pro variant – not to the electric motor, battery, suspension or anything else. In other words, it's a sporty cosmetic package.

"Better tyres would help the Ora 03 get off the line better. I found that it can struggle for traction when pulling away quickly, especially in cold and damp conditions." – Oliver Young, Reviewer

The GWM Ora 03 has a decent driving position that offers a good range of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel to help you get comfortable. What’s more, the driving position lines you up with the pedals and steering wheel better than in the MG4, which offsets everything to the left.

Visibility out of the front of the car is good, with the pillars never intruding into your view out at junctions. The same can be said for the view over your shoulder, but not out of the back window, which is rather small. Even so, parking won’t be an issue thanks to the standard-fit rear parking sensors and 360-degree camera. 

Every Ora 03 gets a 10.3in digital driver's display. It has reasonably sharp graphics but some of the text and numbers are on the small side. The top of the steering wheel might cut off part of the screen for some drivers, depending on how they have the seat and steering wheel set up.

The driver display is joined to a 10.3in infotainment touchscreen mounted centrally on the dashboard. It has sharp graphics but small text, which is often difficult to read. On top of that, the lay-out is clunky and the screen is inconsistent in how it responds to touch inputs.

Actions that would be simple using buttons – adjusting the temperature, for example – have to be done using the touchscreen, which is more fiddly. There are some buttons on the steering wheel and centre console, as well as a voice-command system, but it’s still not an easy system to use while you’re driving.

You get sat-nav, DAB radio, Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay with every Ora 03.

The interior is available in a choice of bright colour schemes that highlight the pleasant soft-touch materials on the dashboard and door inserts. There are also some fancy-looking chrome toggle switches, which look classy and have a good quality feel.

Unfortunately, after a great first impression of perceived quality, you realise there are swathes of cheap-feeling plastic. The plush-feeling materials higher up are let down by the cheaper-feeling stuff around the centre console.

Overall, once the wow factor wears off, this is only really as impressive as the mediocre interior of the MG4. The Mazda MX-30 EV is in a different league.

"While the 10.25in touchscreen is impressively sharp, I often found myself peering closely at the icons because they're just that dinky." – Will Nightingale, Reviews Editor

A tall driver and front passenger will have no problems when it comes to space, because the GWM Ora 03 gives them plenty of head and leg room. There’s decent shoulder room too, so you shouldn’t find that you’re rubbing shoulders as you drive along.

Better still, you’ll find some helpful cubbies and cupholders dotted throughout the interior, to hold on to your coffees and such. The door bins are on the small side though.

Rear leg room is fairly impressive – more so than in the Renault 5 – with plenty for friends who are 6ft tall. Head room is fairly good too, but the Ora 03's sloping roofline cuts into the space over the head rests so it's not as generous as a Cupra Born.

While the rear seats are decent overall by small electric car standards, the Ora 03's boot space is tiny, with a capacity of just 228 litres, and there's no front boot to make up for it.

That space was enough for just four carry-on suitcases when we tried it. That's two more than the Fiat 500e and the same as the Renault 5, but one less than the MG4 and three short of the seven the Renault Megane swallowed.

There’s a huge loading lip at the entrance to the Ora 03's boot, making heaving heavy items in and out difficult, and plenty of wheel-arch intrusion eats into the available width.

For more space, you can fold down the rear seats in a 60/40 split, but because there’s no adjustable boot floor, you’re left with a fairly large step up from the floor to the seatbacks. Plenty of rival electric cars manage to offer good rear space and a more generous boot.

"The Ora 03's boot is tiny. I could only squeeze in four carry-on suitcases under the parcel shelf and I had to remove one of the charging cables to manage that." –  Claire Evans, Consumer Editor

If you buy a GWM Ora 03, we’d stick to the entry-level Pure version because it’s reasonably priced, sitting between the starting price of the MG4 and Renault 5. It comes with a reasonable amount of kit, including adaptive cruise control, a 360-degree camera, wireless phone-charging and LED headlights. 

If you need the extra range, consider the Pro. It also adds a few bits of kit, including a rear centre armrest and power folding door mirrors. 

The GT isn’t worth considering at all, to be frank. It costs similar money to an Alpine A290 but it’s far from a hot hatch in its performance and the way it drives. It gets plenty of creature comforts, including a panoramic glass sunroof and heated and ventilated front seats, but we still don’t think it’s worth it.

The Ora 03 is predicted to lose its value fairly quickly, depreciating more over three years than an MG4 or Renault 5. As a result, you might find that finance deals are not as competitive and that you’ll likely sell it for less after three years. You can check the latest prices using our New Car Deals pages.

The Ora 03 has a rather mediocre maximum charging speed of 64kW, meaning it will take at least 40 minutes to do a 10-80% charge. Even the MG4 Standard Range can achieve a 117kW maximum.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the model is its safety rating. It received the full five star from Euro NCAP and gets some good-to-have kit, including traffic-sign recognition and a driver monitor system as standard. The MG4 scored five stars too but the Renault 5 was awarded four. 

We don't yet have any reliability survey data for the Ora 03 yet so we can’t say how well it will fare over the years. It comes with a competitive five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty as standard.

"I was pleased to see the Ora 03's warranty is longer than the typical three years you get with a lot of cars, but rival brands like Kia and Toyota offer more – seven years and 10 years respectively." – Steve Huntingford, Editor

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