I did a very irresponsible thing. Well, it started with another irresponsible thing, which was to set up an email filter on autotrader to mail me whenever anything electric under a certain limit shows up, and lately, this filter has been working rather a lot, because… several Ora models have suddenly dropped into a far more affordable bracket.
These cars entered our market in November 2023. So even the oldest models are hardly 18 months old. They have 8 year warranties on the battery, and a 5-year 100 000km service plan (probably to wash the car and refill the window washer, I guess). And they can now be had for less than half a bar.
It is here where the second irresponsible thing came in: I bought one. It is candy-apple red. It should be here by Friday.
My wife and I agreed to chalk it up as my second mid life crisis.
Initial impression: It’s a far more “grown up” vehicle than the i3. Acceleration is on par (according to the specs), but the throttle response is quite different, especially in eco mode. While I can drive the i3 all day in Eco Pro mode without it feeling sluggish, the Ora feels best in normal mode.
A more in depth review will probably follow later.
I can only speculate. I was told these cars were demo models, and the one I’m purchasing has a mere 4500km on the odo, but the competition from the BYD Dolphin means you can’t sell it for much more than 540k (which is how much the Dolphin is brand new).
The Ora has significantly more bells and whistles, safety equipment, more interior space, and a 125kW motor. The BYD has a bigger boot, and vehicle to load capabilities, but only a 70kW motor.
Would be a interesting review.
Though I don’t disagree with your mid life crisis choice in principle, red?
My sister always say she will never be able to drive a dull colour car in her life, but even she was cured from red after owning a candy apple red Mazda MX-3 for a couple of years.
It’s a matter of buying what is on the floor. I would never want a Coca-cola red car. That would have been a deal breaker. Cherry-red, that I can live with. And the wife likes it. A lot of buying decisions are impacted by the wife factor. I’m getting the thing ceramic coated, and it spends a lot of time in the shade anyway, so not to worried about the usual pinkifying that happens over time.
Since this is a demo, the registration date was further back. It was first registered in May 2023. So this one is officially a bit older, just under two years old.
I was out of the country for a few days, so I literally bought a car and parked it for the week. So no new real driving observations yet. But other annoyances.
There is no app. Apparently the hardware with the LTE modem and the internet connection isn’t even built into the car. On the upside, there is no way that China can turn off your car remotely, as the tinfoil hatters always say.
The charging display on the dash is way off, or at least useless. While charging the car at the lowest setting of 6A, single phase, the display shows that it is charging around 2A to 3A. I suspect the reason for this is that it reports the actual charging current at the pack voltage (of around 400V) rather than the input current draw (at 230V RMS). In other words, this is a bit of a useless metric. They should have just displayed the power instead. Maybe a future firmware update will resolve that.
It came with only a granny cable (with 3-pin plug). There is no three phase AC cable as with the BMW, should you want to charge at an AC station (which are more common at shopping centers). So you would have to purchase one. They run around 3.5k. For now, I just use the one that came with the i3.
In terms of driving, the little it has been driven:
Traction control is a bit less immediate. If you put your foot down a bit fast, it will fly off with screeching tyres.
The safety features can get a bit annoying. To get that 5-star ncap rating, it has all the electronic nannies, and while you can switch them out, they come back every time you turn the car on.
I’m used to the way the i3 drives, so the default “creeping” the car does, like an slushbox ICEV, was almost immediately disabled in favour of one pedal driving.
Things I like, that I didn’t initially expect:
It has wireless Android Auto. The lack of an LTE connection therefore doesn’t matter too much.
When you go around a corner, or otherwise park, the side cameras show you how far your wheels are from the curb.
Still too early to say. At the moment, if you asked me which one I prefer, I’d say the i3 is still my favourite jump-in-and-go vehicle.
I think it’s going to take a lot of metal strength to stop comparing it to the I3 every time you get in to it.
The Chinese car offerings these days are good, but I don’t think they are quite up there to beat the Germans yet.
The irony is that the Ora 03 was actually made with some help from BMW and they even share some parts. The toggle switches in the middle look like they are right out of the mini parts bin, and they probably are: The new Mini Cooper SE is built on the same platform.
The interior quality is a step up from the i3. The i3 actually used the recycled plastics and hemp interior as a selling point, while the Ora feels far more like a Bentley Continental by comparison. Not that I have ever driven a Bentley, but that’s the mental picture I have.
I’m actually in contact with Hanno. He had some bad luck on his unit. The onboard charger has a problem and it won’t charge from 3-phase. The car is presently at GWM for repairs. Odds are the car has had this problem from the factory already, but as a demo vehicle it was only ever charged with the granny cable, so nobody knew.