MG MG4 vs GWM ORA

What's the difference?

The MG4 Essence 64 makes a strong case for itself as a value-focused EV, balancing a competitive price with useful range, a good level of equipment and engaging driving dynamics.

It's not perfect but it does enough well to remain a compelling option for buyers looking for an affordable EV that's easy to live with.

The GWM Ora is a solid electric car for the city with an extremely competitive price, balanced with some flaws that might frustrate some - Android phone owners especially. But the GT variant doesn’t offer enough to justify how much more expensive it is than the variants below.

It has a slightly lower range, no more performance (not that it needs more power), a features list almost identical to the Ultra and arguably loses its appealing cutesy looks. 

While the rest of the Ora line-up has its strengths and a cute but daring design, the GT effectively offers only its bark-over-bite styling changes.

If the Ora is on your shopping list, it’s certainly worth checking out the $43,990 Ultra, or even the $40,990 Extended Range if its list of features suits you. But if you for some reason enjoy the GT’s styling, that extra spend might be worth it.

The MG4 hasn't seen major changes on the exterior, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It remains one of the more distinctive options in the affordable EV segment, with sharp styling and compact dimensions that don't come at the expense of interior space.

There's a full suite of LED lighting front and rear, with the tail-light treatment remaining one of the more interesting design details I've seen of late.

The bigger changes are inside, where the updated MG4 gets a fresher, more polished cabin. Synthetic leather and fabric upholstery, large digital displays and a cleaner dashboard give it a more upmarket feel for the price, while thankfully retaining something that is becoming increasingly rare in new cars - physical buttons.

Hurrah! Not every function needs to be buried in a touchscreen and the MG4's mix of physical controls and digital interfaces offers a sensible balance.

Yep, as a step-up from the Ora Ultra, the GT’s main selling point is its styling. For a car with a 400km driving range, it’s so non-threatening it looks like it would get beaten up and have its lunch money stolen by dual-cabs if it left the city - but cute works, just ask Mini or Fiat.

Its headlights have a splash of Porsche 911 in them. There are some angles that even look a little like someone had an Abarth explained to them then tried to draw it. More than one friend has told me it reminds them of a VW Beetle.

None of that bothers me in particular, but the GT-specific additions to the Ora make it feel like a deeply unserious car.

The fake carbon trim is tacky on a car that has no performance improvement over its base variant sibling, the red strip under the number plate looks like a tongue poking out under an overbite, the wheels look like Tony Stark designed them, and the rear ‘wing’ and diffuser just don’t feel at home.

One thing that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would was the lack of ‘traditional’ tail-lights, instead a light bar under the rear window takes that role.

The rest of the Ora range is cute, fun, and looks at home in the city where the Ora is at its best. The GT’s features are mostly the same as the Ultra, so the extra $3000 for the GT exterior doesn’t really feel like value.

Inside, however, the design is less in-yer-face. A tidy set-up features a Mini-style row of switches (for some of the climate control) under a bar that spans the dash with the vents integrated.

The steering wheel is big, arguably too big, behind it is the 10.25-inch driver display attached to the central multimedia display. Everything’s very tidy and minimalistic inside, even the gear selector is a round dial.

It looks like a reasonably fashionable interior, but when it comes to the functionality, it starts to fall apart.

The front seats get the best of the MG4's cabin, with a decent amount of space between driver and passenger and enough room that you don't feel like you're sitting on top of your co-pilot. The seats are comfortable enough for everyday driving, particularly with the benefit of heating, although the lack of lumbar support becomes noticeable on a longer trip.

Storage is also well considered up front. There's a good-sized glove box, a deeper centre console than you might expect in this class, large door bins, and a couple of cup- and drink-holders. I particularly like the shelf underneath the centre console, which is a handy spot for a handbag or takeaway lunch and the sunglasses holder.

The 12.8-inch multimedia display dominates the dashboard and offers sharp graphics, good resolution and a reasonably responsive touchscreen. It's easy enough to navigate, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included. However, my Apple CarPlay connection hasn't automatically connected at all during my week with the car, meaning I've had to re-pair it each time. That might not a deal-breaker per se, but it's certainly annoying.

Charging provisions are decent with a wireless charging pad, a 12-volt socket and two USB-C ports. The catch is that all three of those additional connections are tucked inside the centre console which could get fiddly once you start connecting multiple devices.

Move into the back and the story changes somewhat. Legroom is a little tight behind my driving position, and for reference, I'm only 168cm tall. It's been perfectly comfortable for my nine-year-old, but I'd be more inclined to reserve the rear seats for shorter trips if you're carrying adults.

Rear-seat amenities are also fairly sparse. There are no directional air vents, centre armrest or cupholders, although each door gets a small storage bin and there's a USB-C port to keep a device charged on longer journeys. For occasional family use, it's workable, but this isn't an especially generous second row.

The boot offers 350L of space with all seats in use. That's not class-leading, but it's enough for a decent grocery shop and has been sufficient for my needs during the week. Larger items will require a little more planning, though, so you'll need to be strategic about how you load it.

There's no powered tailgate, but I don't consider that much of a drawback given the hatch door isn't particularly heavy to lift. Like many EVs, there's also no spare wheel, with a tyre repair kit supplied instead.

Overall, the MG4 is at its most practical up front, with useful storage and a good range of everyday conveniences. The rear seat is more compromised, but for a small hatchback, it remains usable provided you're realistic about how much you're asking of it.

I can see the appeal of the Ora, but there are some glaring issues that I suspect many will find frustrating over time during ownership.

I’ll start with the big one - Android Auto. Or the lack thereof. Apple CarPlay is available however, even wirelessly.

Being a car journalist in 2024 involves a lot of playing around with in-car tech, and it’s been an awfully long time since I wasn’t able to mirror my phone to a car’s central screen where those with an Apple iPhone could. About 70 per cent of the world uses a phone running Android, by the way. Mostly Samsungs, like mine, but pretty much anything else that isn’t an iPhone too.

It wouldn’t be as major an issue if there was a navigation function in the car’s native multimedia system, but there isn’t. Having only a Bluetooth connection and no map felt a little like taking a step back in time, with an old iPad tacked onto the dash. No Fruit Ninja though.

Smaller things come down to basic ergonomics. The touchscreen itself and the system on it are simple and easy enough to use, if a little unresponsive. The driver display is fairly simple and doesn’t fall too far into the trap of sub-menus on sub-menus.

Physically, the cabin is almost there - the seat and steering wheel adjustment, however, made it a little tricky for me to find a comfortable driving position. 

I’m pretty much dead-on the average height of an Australian man, and the lack of tilt for the base of the seat meant no under-thigh support if I was to be the right distance to have a proper hold on the steering wheel - not telescopically adjustable, by the way.

Another interesting ergonomic fail is the placement of the drive mode select button (one of the GT’s few unique features) being to the right side of the steering column, near where you’d expect rarely-used controls like the headlight height adjust to be - or in this case a couple of centimetres from the button that kills the power to the battery if pressed while not in motion.

This caused severe embarrassment at a set of lights while searching for the drive mode switch, with no obvious way to start the car again, short of opening and closing the driver door.

Oh, and switching through the drive modes elicits a unique videogame-style chime or jingle for each mode. Gimmicky at first, potentially rather irritating after some time.

A positive of the interior layout, however, is the space in the rear seats is fairly generous for a small car - at almost six-feet tall behind my own seating position, I wasn’t lacking space to move and the seat itself is comfortable enough for a decent trip.

Behind that, a relatively limited 228-litre boot is probably less useful for a decent trip, though its 858L of space with the rear seats folded down is more handy in a pinch.

The GWM Ora GT was once a mid-$50K car, once you got it on the road. Its former sticker price of $51,990 before on-roads has, along with every other variant in the range, been dramatically knocked into a more budget-friendly shape: $46,990 drive-away.

That’s pretty cheap for a top-spec electric car, or for an electric car in general in Australia, but it’s still $11,000 more expensive than the entry-level Ora Standard Range ($35,990 DA).

The Ora GT also shares most of the key draw cards on its features list with the Ultra.

Its panoramic sunroof, electric tailgate, heated and ventilated seats with massage function and its heated steering wheel are all available in the Ultra for $3000 less.

One of the only things the GT has in terms of functionality in the cabin is a light for the driver visor vanity mirror.

There are a couple of differences when it comes to driving functionality, and we’ll get to that in a later section of this review, but the rest of the tech in the cabin is standard across the range.

The 10.25-inch touchscreen and same-sized driver display, six-speaker sound system, wireless phone charger, electrically adjustable synthetic leather seats - it’s all in the base-level Ora.

What is missing, very notably, is Android Auto functionality. The Ora does however feature wireless Apple CarPlay.

The MG4 Essence 64 is a rear-wheel-drive EV powered by a single electric motor, producing up to 140kW and 350Nm.

Those are healthy outputs for a small hatchback, and there's plenty of pep on hand for everything from urban traffic to overtaking on the open road. As you'd expect from an EV, that torque is almost immediately available, giving the MG4 a responsive feel when you need to get moving.

The 0-100km/h sprint is covered in a reasonably rapid 7.5 seconds.

All four variants of the Ora have the same outputs from its front-mounted electric motor - 126kW and 250Nm. Yes, even the GT.

What the GT does have over at least the base model is a larger battery shared with the Long Range and Ultra variants, but despite having the same weights and outputs, the GT is, on paper, claimed to be a tenth of a second slower to 100km/h than the rest of the range: 8.5 seconds versus 8.4sec for the cheaper models.

The MG4 Essence 64 is fitted with a 64kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery and has a claimed WLTP driving range of up to 452km. That's a useful amount of range for a small EV and gives the MG4 enough breathing room for longer trips, particularly when starting out with a full charge.

MG quotes energy consumption of 17.6kWh/100km, and my average for the week is 16.4kWh after a mix of longer highway stints and city driving. As always, real-world efficiency will vary depending on driving conditions, traffic, temperature and how much time you're spending at higher speeds. Around town, the MG4 hits all the right notes.

For charging, the MG4 uses a Type 2 CCS charging port, supporting DC fast-charging at up to 154kW. It can accept up to 6.6kW from an AC charger. MG claims a 10 to 80 per cent charge can take as little as 25 minutes when connected to a suitably powerful DC charger.

That means the MG4 is reasonably well equipped for overnight home charging and the occasional longer-distance trip, where a relatively short stop can add a substantial amount of range.

That aforementioned larger battery is a 63kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery, over the 48kWh unit in the Standard Range base variant.

According to GWM’s brochure, the GT’s electric driving range under WLTP is 400km, 20km less than the Long Range and Ultra (and like the acceleration time, for no obvious reason).

With a 400km claimed range and 63kWh battery, the Ora GT should return a power consumption figure of around 15.75kWh/100km, though on test we saw 16.4kWh.

GWM claims charging with 11kWh AC power will take 6.5 hours to jump from 10 to 80 per cent charge, while 80kW DC charging takes 50 minutes to do the same.

The MG4 Essence 64 is a well-rounded package when it comes to driving. It's responsive off the mark, with enough performance that there's always a sense of power in reserve when you need it. That makes it well suited to urban driving, but it's equally comfortable stretching its legs on the open road.

The steering is light but responsive for a car of this size, helping the MG4 feel nimble through corners and around suburban streets. The rear-wheel drive powertrain adds a degree of stability and composure, while also making the MG4 feel a little more engaging to drive than you might expect from an affordable electric hatch.

Visibility is good all around and the cabin remains impressively quiet, even at higher speeds.

There are five levels of regenerative braking to choose from, with the strongest setting providing a reassuring amount of deceleration without becoming too aggressive in stop-start traffic. It's easy enough to tailor the system to your preference, although drivers coming from a one-pedal driving EV may still find themselves using the brake pedal more often than expected.

The MG4 is also easy to manoeuvre and park, helped by a decent 360-degree camera system and an excellent turning circle. It's the sort of car that feels just as comfortable squeezing into a suburban parking spot as it does settling into a longer highway drive.

As is the case with the GT’s outputs and features, there’s nothing to suggest the GT would be fundamentally better to drive than any other variant. Unless all those kids at school were right about red bits making cars go faster.

The Ora’s front-drive layout paired with relatively immediate electric torque delivery, however, means you probably wouldn’t want it to be much more powerful with this particular mechanical setup.

The Ora, as a city car, does its job reasonably well in standard drive modes, though its sport mode is possibly a little too eager for day-to-day affairs - and the way it quite conservatively understeers on corners suggests there’s not much ‘sport’ driving to be done in this cute EV.

The steering itself feels fairly numb (again, fine day-to-day) and becomes heavier or lighter in different drive modes, but with no real advantage - the wheel itself is also a little on the large side.

Its suspension tune is comfortable enough for the low-speed streets on which this car is likely to find itself most often, where most city cars aren’t exactly riding on clouds, though can more obviously start to feel a little underdone on rougher roads at high speed.

It’s not a light car, after all, a hatchback that weighs 1580kg and has a short wheelbase isn’t going to be a dynamic masterpiece, though it does at least feel stable enough through corners thanks to its low centre of gravity.

It’s not going to encourage any heroic driving, but it’s also more likely to deter rather than outright punish any silly behaviour behind the wheel.

The GWM Ora’s safety features are almost all standard across the range, which is great even if you don’t opt for the GT.

This means its seven airbags (dual frontal, side chest, curtain and centre) are all standard, as well as autonomous emergency braking, secondary collision avoidance, rear cross-traffic alert and forward collision warning, lane keep assist, traffic jam assist and even a surround-view parking camera. The Ultra and GT are the only variants with a front parking sensor and auto parking assist.

The features are all there, but some finer tuning when it comes to some driver assistance could be looked at - thus the slightly lower side of the scoring scale for a car that’s ticking all the boxes on paper.

The MG 4 Essence 64 comes with MG's seven-year/unlimited-km warranty, which is a solid offering for the class. Buyers can also extend the coverage to up to 10 years or 250,000km, but it is service activated.

Servicing is reasonably priced, with five scheduled services costing $1380. Service intervals are also relatively generous at 12 months or 20,000km, whichever comes first.

MG has around 95 dealerships across Australia, giving the brand a relatively broad service network and making it easier to access servicing and support outside the major metropolitan areas.

Taken together, the lengthy warranty, reasonable servicing costs and established dealer network give the MG4 a fairly straightforward ownership proposition, particularly for buyers making the switch to an EV for the first time.

GWM offers a seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, as well as an eight-year/unlimited kilometre battery warranty. The former is quite decent for the industry, the latter relatively par when it comes to battery warranties.

Five years or 150,000km of roadside assistance is also included.

The Ora’s first five services, each coming in at 12 month/15,000km intervals, are capped price, all at $99.