GWM Ora 2023 review: Extended Range

The Ora Extended Range starts at $45,990 plus on-road costs. In true GWM (and Chinese brand, for that matter) style, there is plenty of bang for your buck on offer here.

Outside, there are 18-inch alloy wheels, all-LED lighting (including DRLs), and heated door mirrors.

Inside, there are twin 10.25-inch screens.

Inside, there are twin 10.25-inch screens (one in the centre in the cabin, the other that's placed in front of the driver). There's wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, along with wireless device charging, too.

All-LED lighting (including DRLs).

The seats are synthetic leather, but they feel nice enough, and the driver and front passenger seat feature electric adjustment.

There's also dual-zone climate control, as well as USB charge points and a power outlet.

The Ora is unashamedly a city car but, thanks to its EV underpinnings, there's a surprising amount of room in the back seat, too.

The Ora measures 4235mm in length, 1603mm in height and 1825mm in width, and it rides on a 2650mm wheelbase.

To put that into perspective, the Toyota Corolla hatch is 4375mm long, 1435mm high and 1790mm wide, so you can see what segment the Ora plays in.

The front seats are a better place to spend time than the back seats.

There's not much in the way of amenities for back seat riders – save a single USB charge point – but there is the luxury of space.

I'm 175cm, and I could easily, and comfortably, sit behind my own driving position without touching the seat in front or the roof, and the lack of a tunnel running through the middle of the cabin makes it easier to fit three across the back, too.

The boot, however, is on the small side. Open it, and you'll find just 228 litres of space with the rear seats in place. Fold them flat, and that number grows to 858 litres.

As you've no doubt guessed from the whole 'Extended Range' part of the name, our car is fitted with the biggest battery in the Ora fleet, a 63KWh lithium-ion battery pack, compared to the 48kWh offering in the entry-level Ora.

Power comes courtesy of a front-mounted electric motor delivering 126kW and 250Nm to the front wheels – enough, GWM says, to deliver a sprint to 100km/h in 8.4 seconds.

A bigger battery means a bigger range, and the Ora Extended Range will serve up a very manageable 420km between charges on the WLTP testing cycle.

When it comes time to plug in, an 11kW wallbox (three phase) will see you go from 10 to 80 percent charged in 6.5 hours. Use an 80kW fast charger (you can use more powerful DC chargers, of course, but the input into the Ora is capped) and you'll take on the same level of charge in 50 minutes.

Full credit to GWM here, with the Ora nabbing those coveted five safety stars, this time from Euro NCAP, though the brand says its working on getting them translated to ANCAP stars here in Australia.

The safety story starts with seven airbags, a 360-degree around-view camera and rear parking sensors, but there is a heap of active safety stuff on board, too.

There's AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, stop-and-go adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection with lane change assist, lane departure warning and even a semi-autonomous lane keep assist function, which will keep you within the lines on freeways.

Add to that rear cross-traffic alert, rear collisions warning, traffic sign recognition and a driver drowsiness detector, and you've got a pretty full bag of safety goodies.