GWM Ora 07 Long Range Ultra Review: Style With Substance

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A polarising exterior aesthetic belies a premium cabin and more-than-decent drive with the Ora 07.

Despite being ostensively paid to do so, sometimes the old adage of ‘if there isn’t anything nice to say, it really is best to not say anything at all’ still somewhat applies when it comes to critiquing a car. And that unfortunately was to be the case with the GWM Ora Good Cat, where this writer’s critique of it can unfortunately be summed up as: very cute but somewhat compromised.

Handily however, GWM’s second EV it has brought over here, the Ora 07 is actually a different beast entirely. In fact, after living with a Long Range Ultra variant of one for a few days now already, it could even be said that this particular spec of e-sedan will be likely where the writer would put his money in this segment, over the likes of say a Tesla Model 3 and BYD Seal.

Touching on the massive elephant in the room regarding this Ora 07 here first though, there is really no denying that its styling is polarising to say the least. Looking directly head on at it certainly doesn’t do its bug-eyed face any favours, while the those with a penchant for automotive history might say for its rounded rump to be a(n unflattering) mashup of AMC Pacer and Chrysler Crossfire.

But to paraphrase what a certain J. Clarkson previously said about the similarly aesthetically-challenged first-generation Porsche Panamera: once you’re in the car, you don’t actually get to see what it looks like from the outside. And really, the good bits of the Ora 07 only comes to light right after stepping into it!

Starting from how its interior looks first, there certainly are no complaints to be had (at least with this writer) for the Ora 07 to have borrowed its general dashboard design from the Bugatti Chiron. While its other rivals have cockpits that can best be described as sticking one or two iPads on the bulkhead and calling it a day, the stylised central spine featuring three rotary dials and its hooded binnacle that splits a 10.25-inch digital screen into three circular displays just offers a greater sense of driver-focused occasion to the cabin of this EV.

This being a Chinese car too, there are expectedly oodles of standard equipment to be had within the Ora 07. Among the highlights include twin front seats that offer both ventilation and 5 massaging modes to choose from, an interesting wireless charging pocket for one’s smartphone in the centre console, as well as a bangin’ 11-speaker Infinity sound system.

Even more impressive than how the interior looks and how much kit it has though was the overall sense of premium-ness exuded by the cabin of this Ora 07. Material quality for one is way above par for a car of this price point, with a concerted effort required just to find signs of cost cutting amid the supple upholstery and soft touch plastics. But this elevated sense of luxury comes more so from the little things really, like how its thick pile faux fur floor mats extends to even the dead pedal for instance.

Moving back onto the bigger things meanwhile, praiseworthy with this Ora is also just how it drives. This base Long Range Ultra spec tested here is an especially pleasant surprise, as while it may be the lower-powered variant with middling (for an EV at least) performance figures, but boy can it still boogie in the real world.

Despite its sole front-mounted motor only rated at 204 PS and 340 Nm of torque, picking up a serious amount of speed in this thing is absolutely no issue. In fact, the ease in which this Ora 07 Long Range Ultra pulls up to its alleged real-world top speed of 177 km/h really makes one wonder why even bother with the premium of a Performance variant.

What more is that equally impressive to how it gets up to speed is for this Ora 07 to offer Porsche-esque levels of stability at those speeds. Its steering was weighty enough to provide the confidence to push it further (when set to the correct mode of the three steering weights available: light, comfort, sport), while its suspension supple enough to offer a decently comfortable ride when cruising down the interstate.

Of course it should go without saying too that with this being an EV, the Ora 07 remains whisper quiet while maintaining at those alleged speeds. Tyre roar and wind noise while on the interstate were at an acceptable minimum, but perhaps a better testament to this Ora 07’s more-than-decent sound insulation comes from the fact that even while just pootling around in the city with the music volume being not all that loud, there occurred not once, but twice, that no one in the car took notice of an approaching ambulance until about 3 car lengths away.

And on the topic of pootling around town, it would be remissed not to mention that the Ora 07 also has a surprisingly tight turning circle, where there was always more lock to be had than one would typically expect. This therefore made this rather sizeable vehicle a doddle to manoeuvre in even the tightest of spaces, which is further helped along by it having a surround view camera with selectable side views of the vehicle.

Though perhaps the biggest plus point with this Long Range Ultra variant is right there in its trim name, as this Ora 07 here could really go the distance on a single charge! Even with this writer trying as hard as he might to fully explore the performance potential of this EV during his time with it, it still nevertheless somehow managed to achieve well over 500 km from a full charge.

Now naturally however, the Ora 07 isn’t entirely perfect. Polarising looks aside, there are some more objective gripes with it that are worth a mention here. Its seats for instance, while looking rather plush and premium, is not exactly the most ergonomic for this writer’s orangutan body. The seat base was also a tad hard, thereby causing those with less fat on their arses to possibly have a flat one at the end of an hour-long journey.

Thanks to it coming with a bunch of tech but not very many physical buttons to control it all too, the Ora 07’s cabin does suffer from it being not the most intuitive cabin to navigate around. Quite a number of examples for this is provided in the accompanying quirks and features article regarding this EV linked here, but a short and sweet one here is that it took quite a while to figure out just how to set the cruise control or reset the trip (press down again past D on the gear selector lever to activate the cruise control).

Onto the minor quibbles regarding the driving aspect, the weight of this EV does make itself rather apparent when one pitches it into the corners, and even more so when it comes to stopping this hefty, hefty car. Now this is not to say the brakes are inadequate, as they actually do offer good progressive feel and bite. It is just that their perceived performance on such a heavy car could be further enhanced to provide further confidence when bringing proceedings to a stop, especially from higher speeds.

Finally, the Ora 07 does have the usual overcautious driver aids that is typical of a Chinese car, with the adaptive cruise not being all too keen on closing the gaps to the car in front as well. At least the warning bings and bongs are of a soothing non-irritating tone though.

In summarising this Ora 07 here, this all-electric sedan is rather analogous to an Honor flagship smartphone. An analogy that was constructed from this writer’s time looking at smartphones to replace his Samsung that suddenly died during his time with this EV, the Ora and Honor share similarities in the sense that beneath its somewhat (for the lack of a better word) tacky design is actually a really good product.

The Ora 07 offers good technical specs and it excels in all the other more qualitative areas as well: Decent drive, premium cabin, good ride and refinement, along with what is a substantial electric range. Best of all too is that it essentially offers all the bang that a Tesla Model 3 and BYD Seal has, but for a good chunk less buck, which in turn makes it a really easy proposition to recommend when taking the value for money it offers into account. Much like recommending an Honor smartphone really, relative to say like a Samsung or an iPhone.

Being completely frank here at the end also, the polarising exterior aesthetic of this Ora 07 did eventually grow on this writer. This is especially after spending some time photographing it for this review, and realising that there are indeed quite a few intricate details that get lost when viewing the design as a whole.

Stare at its bug-eyed face for long enough and one might eventually notice that its front bumper is accented with a subtle diamond-pleated pattern, with its LED headlights featuring a similarly detailed treatment in its design too. The Ora 07 further features frameless doors, the (all but certain) accolade of being the cheapest car on the Malaysian market today with an electronically deployable rear spoiler, as well as a rear window glass that actually is a single piece from the rear panoramic sunroof!

Oh, and while there is unfortunately no visual accompaniment on hand right now, this writer can nevertheless attest that a meaner set of aftermarket alloys can really transform the Ora 07 into something more visually appealing. Add to that too a racier bodykit that our neighbours to the north will inevitably come up with in due course, and one can really have a bonafide Porsche Panamera-lookalike (from 50 paces anyway).

Odds & Ends

There’s so many quirks with the Ora 07 that there is an entire separate article (linked here) devoted to covering all the interesting findings from this EV.