GWM Ora Good Cat Malaysia review: A bargain of an EV let down by poor software – SoyaCincau. com

So far, we’ve seen plenty of different EVs, from futuristic ones , to fast types , in order to those that just look like any other car. But for EVs to really succeed in the marketplace, they need range (not the distance one, we’ll get to be able to that within a bit). Not every EV has to be a big crossover, or have so much power it will rip off your face. Some should just be fun. And cute!

This is the Ora Good Cat , from the Chinese company Great Wall Motor (GWM). It’s a funky name for an adorable little car. But is this cool cat actually good enough? We took this particular car for a spin to find out.

You can subscribe for you to this car through Flux

First, the bit of housekeeping. This car wasn’t loaned to help us simply by GWM but from your subscription service Débordement . The company is offering several associated with the latest EVs, including this specific Good Cat as well as the BMW iX , the Mini Cooper SE and the Hyundai Kona Electric . You can even drive a new Tesla.

A person can subscribe to any regarding these cars for as long or as short as you want, and you can switch to another EV or even a petrol car at any time. Insurance, road tax and maintenance are all taken care of, plus there’s also a door-to-door service that will deliver the vehicle to you in addition to take it in order to service, right from your doorstep. Visit the official website for more information.

Good Cat, great price

The Timpul Good Cat is the first automobile introduced as part involving the GWM relaunch. Attualmente, in case you’re wondering, is a sub-brand of GWM, just like Haval. Pricing starts at RM139, 800 for the 400 Pro model, the four hundred representing the amount of claimed range in kilometres. That makes it the cheapest electric vehicle in Malaysia today, undercutting the Hyundai Kona Electric powered e-Lite by simply more than RM10, 000.

The one we drove is the top of the range model, the particular 500 Ultra with typically the magical 500km of variety. It’s priced quite a bit higher than this 400 Pro at RM169, 800 , but it’s still some sort of bargain—especially considering that the Kona Electric e-Max, which can only muster 484km on a single charge, sits on the wrong side connected with RM200, 500. Astonishingly, GWM even bundles in a 7kW AC wallbox charger with each purchase.

We should point out that this particular unit is with Thai specification, which Flux managed to procure months before the Malaysian launch this week. As such, its software had not been localised as well as the standard equipment may not have matched the cars buyers will actually get. All of us doubt this will have made much of a difference, however , having spent a good short amount of time with your local auto at the launch event .

Cute mini-Porsche looks

Let’s cut to often the chase. You’re here with regard to the appears, aren’t you? In a world where everyone’s leaning towards aggressive SUVs, it’s refreshing to see a small hatchback EV—one that was not designed to appearance like your Predator. The big round headlights give it an expressive face, and even when a person combine this with the exact curvy body, you get a design that’s very similar to be able to a certain sports car brand from Stuttgart.

That’s not surprising, given that will the Good Cat was styled by former Porsche designer Emanuel Derta. It kinda looks like some squished Taycan Cross Turismo, but in a fabulous good way—I like that. But it is at the back where the car is most distinctive; there are so few embellishments it looks almost alien-like. The particular taillights, by means of the way, are embedded in the rear windscreen, while the slim lamps on the bumper light up when the tailgate will be open, maintaining visibility in night.

One a lot more thing. The car you see here is finished in Hazel Wood Beige with a brown roof, together with I’m not really an important fan—it helps make the whole thing look like a naked mole rat. I’d go for the Verdant Green model with the white roof. My girlfriend likes this kind of colour, though, so it may be got of which going regarding it.

These special two-tone paint options, by the way, are only offered on the particular 500 Super, although an individual can still choose through the standard Hamilton White, Sun Black, Coral Blue or Mars Red—the latter with a black roofing.

A nice place to spend time inside

The colour scheme continues on typically the inside, exactly where you’ll find nice leather-like trim throughout either brown or green. It’s matched to a light interior that really helps make this car feel bigger than it is, although good luck keeping the idea clean. Typically the good news is the fact that the great Cat is at least solidly built—despite the odometer showing over 14, 1000 km for what must surely be hard use, often the car still feels tight as the drum. This is a new huge relief, given that China doesn’t exactly have the best reputation when it comes to build quality.

The only thing I don’t like is usually centre console that rests at your bottom. The whole thing is finished in beige (or light grey in the exact case about the Verdant Green model), which seems cheap—especially whenever you consider that the USB ports and additionally the 12-volt socket cover is black. That’s not a good look.

Then there’s the impracticality of having such light colours inside areas that see so much use. There’s a reason why other cars possess storage compartments around darker hues—dirt gets everywhere in here, and if you spill something on the cupholders, you’re gonna have a tough time cleaning it up. The unique colours are nice, yet on balance, I think I prefer the black interior that will comes regular.

Still, everything looks nice in right here, with lots of chrome detailing not to mention the Mini-style toggle switches. You can clearly see where the designers have taken their inspiration from . The seats are also really comfortable—the driver’s pew will be electrically adjustable, and there’s even a welcome function of which slides the particular seat back so anyone have more room to get found in. Rear legroom is pretty great, too, although headroom is definitely a little tight intended for taller passengers.

Where the Great Cat suffers is in terms of boot space. There is just 228 litres back here, and also there’s no real underfloor storage either, meaning that typically the charging cables have to fight for space with this rest of your own luggage. There are no front boot, possibly, so the back boot can be all you get.

More compared to quick enough for daily use

The first thing you notice the minute you set off is that often the Good Kitty gets the basics right. It doesn’t have some sort of lot in power—the front motor causes just 141 hp as well as 210 Nm of torque—so it’s never going for you to rocket forwards like a Tesla. But it does make effective use of all 141 horses. It feels more powerful than those figures suggest, using your instant torque to obtain up to speed very quickly.

During our testing, the favorable Cat managed to accelerate from zero to 100 km/h inside of 9. 29 seconds. That doesn’t seem quick—and indeed it’s method slower as compared to GWM’s claimed 7. 9 seconds—but it is very more when compared with adequate to get daily driving. The top speed, upon the some other hand, is limited to 160 km/h.

As you’d expect from an electric motor vehicle, the Great Cat is certainly reasonably quiet, with zero real “engine noise” to help speak from; there’s also decent insulation to keep wind noise at bay, even though the Giti tyres do make themselves heard on rough roads. What this silence does do is amplify some of the noises coming through other parts associated with the car—things you don’t normally notice in a good petrol- or even diesel-powered automobile. I kept hearing your whirring sound coming from the back again, along with clicks in the front side under braking when adaptive cruise control was active. That’s just something you’ll have to have used to.

Speaking of brake, the excellent Feline comes with an one -pedal driving mode, but the braking system force isn’t really strong enough pertaining to daily driving—I found myself having in order to press the exact brake pedal when reaching a red light. Also, the function has some tendency regarding switching itself off at random times, which is a little disconcerting. This might be due to the buggy software…. that, we will get to be able to later.

Generally comfortable ride, uninspiring handling

As for the ride, the particular Good Cat is generally comfortable during daily traveling, although there are instances where it lacks a bit of finesse. It’s not quite while crashy as the Volvo XC40 EV all of us also drove recently, nevertheless there’s an underlying firmness the fact that reveals by itself in typically the way the car fidgets over minor surface imperfections. Thankfully, this smoothens out once you get upward to speed.

Given its small size and wide track, you would expect this Good Cat to become a riot in often the corners, although it really isn’t. Sure, it possesses stable dealing with, thanks to the battery positioning giving it a fabulous low centre of gravity. But the car or truck also rolls considerably, your steering is normally numb and imprecise plus there’s little real adjustability when you lift off the throttle mid-corner. This also dives quite an important bit under braking, which might become a problem in case you’re generating in the spirited manner while carrying a few friends—especially those with a new weak stomach.

Okay, so the Fine Cat is not exactly some sort of stellar performer in the exact bends—it isnt that sort of car. But meant for everyday use, aside from the slightly bumpy trip at low speeds, is considered actually quite a pleasant experience. You are able to certainly do a lot worse for below RM150, 000.

Don’t believe everything you read

Range is a major selling point involving the Very good Cat, but you really should take the claims with a pinch of salt. The car comes with two battery options—the smallest version has a good capacity connected with 47. 8kWh, providing a claimed range of 400km. This Extremely model has a 63. 1kWh electric battery, which GWM says delivers 500km with range. That will seems optimistic, given that the battery is quite your bit smaller than what you’d find within the Volvo XC40 EV plus the Hyundai Ioniq 5—both of which can just go some maximum for 430km about a solitary charge.

This thing you have to remember is that GWM uses the outdated NEDC cycle for measuring range, which is more lenient; other carmakers have moved on to the more stringent WLTP cycle. In reality, you would be lucky to hit 400km at most, in addition to that’s along with the bigger battery.

Still, that range is even more than good enough designed for driving inside the city, and even a small bit beyond. I managed a day trip to Melaka, covering a fabulous distance about 147km, most of this on the particular highway wherever EVs are usually least efficient. I then drove another 45km for you to the Gentari charging station in Pedas-Linggi —for a total distance in 192km—and still had an additional 80km from range left. In most situations, the nice Kitten should easily travel well over 300km.

Speaking of the Gentari station, typically the Good Kitty isn’t able to take advantage of this 180kW DC chargers there. In fact , often the car’s  POWER fast charging maxes out at 60kW, which means that getting the Extra from 0 to 80% takes 40 minutes. As for AC charging, the car is only capable to accept a miserable 6. 6kW—meaning that even with a wallbox, a full charge takes ten hours.

It can nearly drive alone

In terms associated with safety, your Good Pet cat comes together with all the driver assists a person could ever want. Even the base Professional model is usually packed using things like autonomous emergency stopping, adaptive cruise control, and even lane centring assist that will help take those strain out of highway driving. In stark contrast to the inconsistency I encountered using the XC40, the systems worked extremely well in this article. The vehicle behaved predictably when accelerating, braking together with turning, meaning I could trust it to help drive long stretches by itself.

Whereas inside Volvo I got fed upwards and simply turned the techniques off, for the Ahora I held them on. That’s a large win just for GWM—one of which banishes the exact perception the fact that Chinese cars are not really safe.

A UI thus bad that ruins the experience

You may have noticed that we haven’t yet talked about the software, and that’s because it has by far and away the worst part of the automobile. It all looks good in paper—you get a crisp 10. 25-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and a 360 camera with an important 3D view of the car, and you may even change the colour of the vehicle. There’s actually a seat massage functionality, which is without a doubt surprisingly great.

The thing is, the idea seems that will nobody offers given the layout any real thought. It’s as if someone just stuffed all of the car’s settings up their nose, sneezed, and simply left it like that. We mean, why is the aforementioned massage function buried through the car settings? Then there usually are the air-conditioning controls—yes, like everything else these days, the best Cat puts them from the screen, that is annoying enough. Worse even now, the icons are quite small and easy to miss with your current finger.

But the most infuriating thing is that any time you have CarPlay open, the particular whole strip on typically the right regarding the screen for controlling the air-con goes away. This forces you to stop whatever your were doing, jump back out in order to the home screen and additionally tap on the Ora icon—just therefore that an individual can do something as simple as adjusting the temperature or fan speed. It’s ridiculous.

This particular wouldn’t be such a chore if CarPlay in the Excellent Cat might be as fast as at some other car—but it isn’t. For reasons unbeknown to be able to us, anytime you use a navigation app on your phone, the touchscreen starts to lag severely. Sometimes it can take more in comparison with a minute after tapping the display before this actually responds. It’s so bad that I’ve missed turns because this map showed me because being further back as compared with I actually was.

All this is made worse by the fact of which everything is actually controlled by the display screen. As good as often the steering assist is, there are times that I want to turn it off, and I can’t do that on your steering wheel. Why, when there is a blank button right there with the still left spoke?

It is just not worth the effort

I know we all tend for you to nitpick the lot when it comes to tech. I understand that a new lot involving what we say when we review something is based on personal preference. Yet that’s not the case here. This is objectively bad UI design. Trust me, you will hate it.

And that’s this kind of a shame because I really wanted to help like the Superior Cat—it merely looks as a result cute not to mention cuddly! Plus the rest of the car really is as fine as the name suggests. It may be got a decent amount of selection, it’s powerful enough for most journeys, it could be very comfortable and, most importantly, it’s packed full connected with toys. Given the value proposition on offer, is understandable you’d be tempted. But unless you really don’t care about the exact tech, anyone might want to save on the headache and only buy the Hawaiian Electric. Trust me, you don’t need that kind of stress on the life.

Photography by way of Sofie Danial