Overview

The GWM Ora 03 was originally launched as the Funky Cat, a memorable name for a fresh, fun and, er, funky-looking small family-sized electric car. Ora is an offshoot of GWM, or Great Wall Motors – a large Chinese car firm attempting to break into the UK as successfully as MG has. This isn’t GWM’s first crack at the UK, as it previously sold a pickup truck called the Steed.

However, things have moved since then, with the Ora 03 taking aim at the most hotly-contested sector of the EV market. But before you get too confused, it isn’t as small as it looks in photographs. Despite looking like a MINI Electric or Fiat 500 rival, it comes in at 4,235mm long and 1,825mm wide, making it slightly shorter and a little wider than a Volkswagen Golf or ID.3.

That means it’s up against the aforementioned VW, Cupra Born, Citroen e-C4, Renault Megane, BYD Dolphin and the Parkers Car of The Year-winning MG4 EV. That size endows it with good passenger space but that comes at the expense of boot room, making this less of a practical option for families and more of a rival to the fashion-forward MINI and Fiat.

And fashionable it certainly is. Its retro-cute styling conjures up images of a Nissan Figaro for 2023, while its interior mixes chrome, ivory plastics and a clean aesthetic to make for an ambiance that’s rather unique to the Ora 03. Of course, that makes it divisive, but we suspect GWM Ora will sell quite a few models on the strength of this interior alone.

The underpinnings are more conventional, with a single electric motor and a 48kWh battery endowing it with an official range of 193 miles. That puts it in a sort of halfway house position – with more range than a MINI Electric or now-defunct Honda e, it’s still not quite as useful for long-distance duties as something like an ID.3.

Over the next few pages we’ve reviewed every aspect of this interesting electric car, so read on for our full GWM Ora 03 review.