Another Chinese car brand apparently mooted for NZ introduction next year could be purr-fect for those seeking a truly budget electric vehicle.

WITH the signs looking so right – atop of rising electric car enthusiasm, NZ leads the world for feline ownership – what chance we’ll be saying hello kitty to the latest pet project from China’s Ora electric car brand?

A compact EV hatchback called the Good Cat seems a top candidate as the first product for release here next year from Ora, a sub-brand of Great Wall Motors born in 2018 and rising fast through being a specialist in small to medium-sized budget electric passenger cars.

Set to join the GWM and Haval sales network, Ora has potential to significantly undercut the cheapest new electric passenger model currently sold here, the ZS EV from MG (owned by GWM’s arch rival, Shanghai Automotive) that’s $40,365 with the Clean Car rebate.

That’ll put Ora in the spotlight with EV fans – but, then, so surely might the model identifications.

Memorable names are always a bonus with new products and, on top of that, China’s car makers are developing a tendency for the unconventional.

Another GWM vehicle MotoringNZ.com understands has been signed off for here in 2022 is a large, robust off-road wagon called the Tank 300. Prototypes are running in Australia now.

 Ora, meantime, has embraced a convention some might think ‘hiss-terical’ and others plain ‘claw-ful’.

Of the four products it currently sells to its home market, three are named after cats: Good Cat, White Cat and Black Cat.

It enhanced that theme in April at one of China’s biggest motor shows, Auto Shanghai 2021, with two concepts - the Punk Cat and the Lightning Cat.

Those products attracted attention for more than those monikers.

Punk Cat attracted the interest of Volkswagen’s legal department for its resemblance to the classic Beetle – basically, it was a direct rip-off, save for Ora having gone for a four-door design. The shape and lines were almost identical to the old Beetle.

Lightning Cat, meantime, might well have peeved Porsche – basically, it was the German sports car specialist’s Panamera to a smaller scale.

BTW, the Punk Cat had its name chosen in an internet consultation, winning out over ‘elf cat’, ‘noble cat’, ‘Persian cat’, ‘royal cat’ and ‘big orange cat.’

Anyway, the Good Cat, or Haomao in local dialect, is expected to be a strong contender for export development; it is the model most discussed as a candidate for becoming Ora’s first product built in right-hand drive.

As today’s images show, the car is a compact hatch with similar proportions to Nissan’s Leaf, being 4235mm long, 1825mm wide, 1596mm tall and with a 2650mm wheelbase.

The styling theme delivers a MINI-like face but without a traditional grille; there’s just a small opening at the lower end of the bumper.

The rear is interesting as, instead of traditional taillights, it has a lightbar incorporated into the rear window as well as two thin horizontal lights/reflectors on the bumper. There is also a light towards the base of the bumper and a brake light at the top of the rear window.

Styling touches include retro-inspired five-spoke wheels and two-tone paint schemes with a white roof.

The interior includes a digital display in front of the driver and a secondary display for the infotainment system. The two-tone theme continues inside and it trims with soft-touch leather.

Power comes from a 105kW/210Nm electric motor driving the front wheels and linked to a battery with up to 500 kilometres of range, though this is measured by the now defunct NEDC standard. The model only entered production last November.

Ora is the fourth brand under Great Wall Motors, after Great Wall, Haval and Wey, which remains China-restricted for now.

Named after Leonhard Euler, a 17th century Swiss mathematician and physicist considered one of the founders of pure mathematics, Ora’s role is to make EVs, aimed at a young audience. 

It has two lines of vehicles in China’s domestic market, the iQ line with normal sized cars – these include the ‘cat’ product - and the R line with city cars.

Its first car in production, the R1, is a city runabout trading on being small, light, modestly-powered (36kW, top speed of 102kmh) but with good range, around 300km on NEDC calculation, and very cost effective – at launch it was considered the world’s cheapest car.

The R1 has been exported, but just to countries where cost is the main attraction. It would undoubtedly struggle to meet crash regulations here - as well as being an ultra-light, it lacks airbags and antiskid brakes.

Great Wall says all Ora cars are based on dedicated electric platforms and it has also established a new design centre for the marque, separate from the other brands: Not just in spirit but geographically. Whereas GWM, Haval and Wey locate in Baoding, an industrial city near Beijing, Ora’s design centre is in Yokohama, Japan.

 MotoringNZ.com was unsuccessful in achieving comment from GWM country manager Todd Groves about Ora or the Tank. Examples of the latter have been testing in Australia with a 167kW/387Nm engine and eight-speed automatic transmission. The model has ability to tow three tonnes.