GWM ORA 2024 News

GWM is having a near range-wide sale with between $1000 and $6000 cut from drive-away prices until the end of the year. Additionally, the majority of discounted cars sold between now and November 8 get their three first scheduled services thrown in for free, valued between $297-$1870. The only exceptions are the Jolion Premium and Lux grades.Anyone who purchases GWM’s only battery electric car, the Ora, also gets a free charging station installation thrown in, valued at $1690. What’s the reason? Well, like BYD, MG and others with big offers on the table, it's partially about sales bragging rights but mostly clearing excess stock. GWM is on track for a record-breaking sales year in 2024, up 21.8 per cent having delivered 35,143 new cars. In October, it was in 10th spot, just shy of Nissan (37,710) and with a few strong months to round the year out, it could climb into ninth place.The new Cannon Alpha now starts at $49,990 drive-away with a $2000 discount on both the 135kW/480Nm diesel and unique 255kW/546Nm plugless hybrid version. Its smaller Cannon ute sibling with its smaller 120kW 2.0-litre turbo-diesel can be had from as little as $35,490 drive-away, a $3500 discount, while the blacked-out Vanta black-pack is $5000 more affordable at $42,490. The related Tank 300 Jeep Wrangler-rivalling off-roader now wades in at $45,990 ($2000 off) while the hybrid versions get $5000 knocked off the sticker, as low as $50,990 for the Lux. The only model to miss a straight discount is the Tank 500, though it still gets $1870 worth of scheduled servicing thrown in. GWM’s Haval SUV range includes a Kia Seltos challenger, the Jolion, which can be had for up to $3000 less in petrol guise, handily undercutting a Mitsubishi ASX at $23,990 drive-away.The larger H6 is also on offer with up to $3500 off the hybrid version, meaning the rival to Toyota’s in-demand RAV4 can be as low as $38,990 on-the-road. A petrol version can be had for $30,990 drive-away. Finally, the Ora electric car nearly makes its way as low as the MG4, with $2000 knocked off the Standard Range guise making it $33,990. The Extended Range gets a tantalising $6000 lopped from the price at $34,990 — plus a free home charging station.

The final quarter of 2024 is set to see GWM offer some of the lowest prices it ever has on most of its models, including its already extremely competitively priced electric car.

Haval's off-road flagship gets a price-tag in its Chinese home-market, but would the seven-seat SUV work with a petrol engine at this price?

The automotive world is at war with Chinese brands like BYD, levelling profit-sinking tariffs designed to protect existing industries. But Australia is set to benefit.

The cost of electric cars is coming down at last and it’s happening fast, too, with big brands slashing prices.

Change is in the air.Carmakers are starting to realise sky high electric car prices won’t cut it in the long term.Demand is dwindling in the giant European and US markets as the cohort of early adopters are now spoken for and it is becoming more challenging to tempt buyers away from cheaper petrol and hybrid vehicles.In the past few months several car makers have slashed prices on their slow - and not so slow - selling electric cars in Australia.Peugeot cut the price of its e-2008 small electric SUV by more than $20,000 to $39,990 drive-away. Only a few days later the company had sold all its remaining stock and the car won’t be on sale until the updated version arrives early next year.Tesla has slashed the price of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan several times since the start of April to $55,900 (before on-road costs) and $54,900 respectively.An entry-level Model Y was $65,400, and the same Model 3 was $61,900 - meaning a $9,500 discount on the Model Y and a $7000 saving on the Model 3.That’s a big discount on the two best selling electric cars in Australia by a wide margin.Nissan has axed about $16,000 off the price of the slow-selling Leaf, which now starts at $39,990 drive-away with the longer range e+ model $49,990 drive-away.Ford announced on Friday cuts between $7000 and $8000 of its Mustang Mach-E electric SUV range.It now starts at $64,990 for the base Select grade, $79,990 for the Premium variant and $97,990 for the potent GT version.Ford already lopped up to $7000 off the Mach-E before it went on sale in December last year.Ford Australia boss Andrew Birkic said: “These price reductions offer even greater value to our customers and it makes these great vehicles an option for more people.”Subaru made a similar move with its Solterra, knocking up to $8000 off the price before a vehicle was even delivered to customers.GWM has discounted its Ora small electric hatchback and Renault has generous deals for its Megane E-Tech EV, too.These EV discounts are no longer an isolated incident and are a direct response to cooling customer demand and increasing competition.Luxury carmakers have been struggling to sell their EVs in big numbers too compared to their petrol-powered equivalents.These trends show that outside of early adopters consumers are finding it hard to justify spending the circa-$20,000 price premium for an EV compared to a petrol or even hybrid models.Sales of EVs were down five per cent in April, but are up 32 per cent for the year. That sounds good until you factor in EV sales were up 130 per cent in 2023.By comparison hybrid sales are up more than 130 per cent this year. Car makers such as Hyundai, Kia and Nissan are adding more petrol-electric versions of their cars to feed this demand.Most states wound back their EV incentives at the start of this year but the Federal Government's very generous FBT exemption on EVs should be spurring higher demand.Carmakers finding it hard to move their EVs now are in for a tough time as a wave of Chinese electric brands are set to wash over our roads in the next 12 months.These include GAC, Leapmotor, Smart, Xpeng, Zeekr and more.China has the tech and manufacturing advantage to undercut conventional cars brands. China is the leading producer of batteries and is the closest to bringing the game-changing solid-state batteries to market.These solid-state packs are considered the silver bullet for mass EV adoption. They are smaller, lighter, more energy dense, faster charging and safer than today’s lithium-ion units.They have the capacity to make their cars cheaper than others and they have insanely short life cycles, meaning they can upgrade and improve their vehicles in much shorter time than legacy carmakers.Help is on the way, though.Established carmakers are now preparing to roll out an array of cheap, small EVs targeted at the everyday driver.Volkswagen is the latest brand to confirm it’ll build a circa-$30,000 EV with its coming ID.1 hatchback.That price puts it in the same ballpark as an entry-level Mazda3 or a fully-loaded Mazda2.Jeep and Citroen are rolling out little EVs at a similar price and Kia will launch the EV3 small electric SUV in Australia next month.Kia and Hyundai both have mini EV SUVs in the works with the EV2 and Casper.These kind of cars will have a knock-on effect and will lead to cheaper used electric cars too, which will again spread the zero-emissions motoring to new sectors.The people have spoken: the only true barrier to EV adoption is the high prices but carmakers are listening and help is on the way.

The thought first hit me as I was steering the MG4 51 Excite - one of Australia’s cheapest electric vehicles, and one that really should be pretty ordinary, given its bargain-basement status.