This is the new, 'affordable' EV, that you've probably never heard of, unless you live in China...

New Chinese brand Ora exclusively make ground-up EVs and they are part of the huge GWM (Great Wall Motors) group.

Jonny’s walk-around was as detailed as we could make without physically driving the Cat (yet… or has he?). In China cats are signs of good luck, so it will be fascinating to see how an unknown car company can ‘luck’ it’s way into the British and European EV market.

Known as the Good Cat in its native country, the stand out specs here are that it will start at £25k without any government incentive discount. With the UK gov discount for plug-in cars this will start at £22,500. It will have a range of 209 to 261 miles (depending on whether you choose the 48kWh or 63kWh battery pack) and it will be able to CCS rapid charge up to 80Kw as standard. There’s also 3-phase 11kW as standand, heated massage seats as standard and wireless Apple Carplay and Android thingy.

Jonny thinks the Cat has something fascinating about it. After all, we don’t get completely new car brands entering the market often, so it’s good to see a 5yr warranty (8yr for the batteries) car turning up for 2022 delivery in Europe, and taking the fight to Vauxhall, Renault, Peugeot, MG (who are Chinese, remember) and VW. Jonny hopes the spec list will allow for retro wheels and colour palette.

There’s plenty of Mini One, Porsche, later VW Beetle and (inside at least) current Fiat 500 going on. The Chinese are good at emulating existing designs (like the Japanese did in order to conquer western markets), but this seems to blend old and new, with a pretty funky outcome. Performance will be average for class: 0-62 in 8.5 secs from the FWD 171ps 250nm front motor and 100mph top end.

Please do subscribe and contact me through here if you have something that could be interesting to feature on our Youtube channel.

Want to be a Late Brake Show Patreon? Follow this link