If you don’t have the opportunity to buy an existing brand off the shelf in order to get attention, try naming your car brand something funky, and here to we have the Ora Funky Cat and it’s come all the way from China. Here we have two versions, the 300 PRO with 310 km range and the 400 PRO+ with a range of 420 km. Starting from €31,995 (SEAI grant of 5k until June) it includes features such as facial recognition, voice recognition, 360-cameras and adaptive cruise control as standard. As for colours, you can get it in Starry Black, Moonlight White, Aurora Green or Mars Red.
Special mention : Interior space for passengers is great, range is good, face recognition for driver settings is a great idea.
Needs work : The boot is tiny, the indicators sometimes don’t know when to knock off, the safety nagging is far too intense (even while stationary!).
| BHP 171 hp | Electric / Auto |
| 0-100 km/h in 8.5 seconds | Road Tax €120 |
| Price: from €31,995 As specc’d €39,995 | Boot Space 228 litres |
Rivals include the MG4, the Peugeot e-208, VW’s ID.3, the Renault Zoe and the Fiat 500 EV. 64kW charging allows up to 80 per cent charge in less than 45 minutes. Using a suitably fast charging point will fill the battery in around four hours, while a 7kW home wallbox will do the same job in around seven hours.
While city driving is its ideal environment, it is competent at higher speeds. It handles a small motorway hop in its stride but is more suited to nipping in and out of tight spots in congested cities and car parks but it will complain about perceived lane discipline even if you’re well within the lines and the indicator is on. The Ora feels firm and controlled but the steering is too light and feedback is limited. The Funky Cat is capable of one-pedal driving, but the full regen mode won’t bring you to a full stop which would be handy in heavy traffic. The ride is firm and comfortable and body control leans heavily in the corners. The slow, light steering robs the car of any feeling of agility too. It isn’t as quick as a Peugeot e-208 or an MG4 with the 0-100 km/h time taking 8.3 seconds.
Inside, the interior mixes chrome, ivory plastics wrapped in a neat interface. It has face recognition which will save your driving preferences and set them when you sit into the car. Most surfaces at eye level are soft touch, the body colour matching micro-suede material that lines the dashboard and door cards feels nice and squashy. The seats are upholstered in a bright synthetic leather, the colours of which, while a nice change from the darkness of some modern cars, is a personal choice.
The Funky Cat gets a 10.3” digital driver display with clear, sharp graphics even if the numerics could be a bit bigger and easier to make out. While it’s easy to set up a decent seating position, you may still be missing part of the screen due to the top of the steering wheel blocking visibility. You have a 360-degree camera as well as keyless entry, LED headlights and 18” wheels, dual-zone climate control and wireless phone charging. Adjusting the temperature has to be done using the screen. There are some button controls 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. There are five controls underneath the screen climate control shortcuts and hazard lights, mostly you will need to access heating and ventilation adjustments using the screen.
The steering wheel is also dotted with controls, which look like touch-sensitive pads are actually proper buttons. They don’t feel pleasant to press and have no markings, so you will spend some time figuring them out. On the outside there are just as many quirky details, such as the hexagons on the car’s ‘cheeks’, the 50’s styling and the light bar containing the brake lights.
There’s a big loading lip to the boot, which makes getting heavy items in and out tricky, the wheel-arches also eat into the available space. The rear seats fold 60/40 , but because there’s no adjustable boot floor, you’re left with a fairly large drop from the seatbacks to the floor. Most of its rivals offer more rear space in the boot, with the Ora Funky Cat it’s all about the passenger space.
The three door is dead, long live the five door and while the Ora’s rear doors don’t open all that wide, they open into a spacious cabin with enough leg and knee room for a tall adult to sit behind a similar sized driver. The flat floor means if you need to carry three in the rear, it is possible but not comfortable. The rotary drive selector always returns to centre as does the indicator stalk making it too easy to indicate the wrong way. In Ireland Linders and the Blackwater Motor Group are the official GWM ORA dealers.