ORA FUNKY CAT FIRST DRIVE! Will Ora’s £32k electric hatch leave you feline fine? / Electrifying

It is called the aura funky cat now this is the newest brand to arrive here in the electric car market in the UK. So the big question is: will it leave us feeling fine after driving it? Will it claw its way into our favorites? Well, remember two subscribe to our Channel put the notifications on. Otherwise the cat puns will continue. So I guess a bit of background is in order. The funky cat is a car from a Chinese brand called gwm or Great Wall Motors and is a 50 50 joint venture with BMW, which sounds good right now. Gwm is a big player in China, and this electric hatchback is the first in a new Range which will be sold under the aura brand in China, where the funky cat is just called. The good cat Great Wall also sells the punk cat Black Cat and white cat theres. A four door Saloon called the lightning cat coming soon to the UK and thats even weirder. Looking someone really likes cats and yes, the funky cat is a little bit different Id say its a bit of a mishmash of a few things. The first thing that jumps out is the mini, which is actually unsurprising, because next years mini is based on some of the underneath parts of the funky cat. I also think the front resembles Porsche 911 come on. There are some similarities there in terms of animal features. Im gon na go with more frog, like than feline drink, that in a harmless slightly blank face, though I do think it could be described as cute theres.

The possibility of two tone color schemes as a cost option that adds a bit of fun with 18 and Alloys as the standard on this model, then theres the bag, which is probably the most interesting part, the rear lights arent, quite where you expect them to be, Because theyre up here and down here – and they do funky things when you approach the car, what do you guys think too much? Let us know below so its a five door: five seater hatchback and in terms of sizing its kind of similar to the Volkswagen ID3. Also, the Hyundai Kona and the mg4 its a bit bigger than a Vauxhall Corsa and a bit smaller than the Nissan Leaf. Now this is the first edition. This is whats going to hit the UK first and it comes with a 48 kilowatt hour battery, which gives a range of 193 miles, probably looking for a little bit more when it comes to range, but very much workable and livable. So how much does it cost? Well, its five quid under 32 000 pounds not cheap, but it puts it sort of middle of the pack. The good news is there is Supply. There is availability of this car, apparently its going to take only 15 days once you order one for it being on your driveway at home, which is quite remarkable, given the crisis that is going on at the moment around the supply of electric cars. Now this is where it gets very interesting.

Take a look around. What do you think? I think it looks rather premium in here? I think its a really nice finish. I like how the two tone carries on inside how the upper part here is in the dark. Turquoise, which is reflected in the steering wheel, nice attention to detail, look at these buttons, they kind of remind me of a Fiat 500 or a mini um theres, also plenty of storage. If you look around youve got storage here in the middle: oh old school, USB ports, no usbcs, which is its a bit like having a cassette player in your car isnt. It should I go and find a CD, perhaps thats a shame and also having the old school lighter plug makes. It just feel a little bit dated. There is wireless charging for your phone and I was charging my phone earlier and I loved this. As I got out of the car, my lovely funky cat said: do not forget your phone Nikki, okay, didnt, say Nikki part, but so dont forget your phone, which I really liked, because when you do put your phone charging sometimes it is easy to forget. So, thank you very much little cat. If you look up front, there are two screens, both ten and a quarter inches and theyre fused together to give one overall display screen, which I think looks really nice and from what Ive experienced so far. Its also really quite easy to use and nice and responsive the gear.

Selector has this sort of cut diamond style around the edge which feels quite nice, surrounded by this pinstripe plastic as Im calling it got to point out the rather than I see designed leatherette seats with the quilting and stitching on um and finally, the badge which just Reminds me of an exclamation mark which no is okay. I guess the standard equipment for this first edition is really good. So there are those 18 inch alloy wheels, keyless entry voice, recognition, internet radio, though that subscription ends after a year, Sat Nav, a wireless phone charger. A 360 degree, camera and loads of other stuff, including a full Suite of driver, assist and safety gear. But although its got heated door mirrors, there are no heated seats or wheel. I mean really. That is just not good enough, but thats, not it. There is also an aura app. We havent actually had time to properly test it. Yet, however, it does all the usual things, so you can pre condition the cars temperature heat, it up, cool it down, and you can also lock or unlock it remotely, and you can also check all the charging information too. Now there is also voice control um, which we are going to test now. But no, you have to say hello, no hay, no high, no whats up hello, aura! Yes, Im here, hello, um! Please, could you tell me where the nearest charging station is which do you want? Oh wonderful, thank you.

So much. There is a pod Point. 0.2. Kilometers away. Thank you all right lets. Try one more thing: hey Aura! Oh see, old habits, hello, aura, Im listening! Please can you wind down my windows already closed? No, I said wind down my windows, hello, Aura. Please can you put my windows down Im still here, hello, aura. Please could you put my windows down? Sorry, hello, aura. I know youre there. Please put my windows down. Sorry, please say this again: I can see you recognize it. It comes up in the text lower the window. Thank you to Manos, who is filming this clearly Im were not on the same page. Okay, we got there in the end. The window is open. Ladies and gentlemen, okay, so maybe the voice recognition, isnt, quite perfect um. I think you have to use maybe the right words. Maybe I just didnt: have the right lingo, never mind now the observant ones among you may have noticed this little piece of gadgetry in the corner. This is facial. Recognition, yes, be warned, you will be being filmed at all times of driving. You can opt into if your data is shared um. However, the clever part about facial recognition is that when you jump into the car it will recognize your face and then it will personalize the settings within the card to suit how youve set it up, which is great um. So well do things like make sure your shortcuts are set to your preferences.

It will put the heating onto the temperature that youve selected pre selected, which is great the other thing that facial recognition does. Is it looks at your expression and when you yawn, it will say things like take a break driving tired is dangerous, which I think is rather smart. It also has a distraction, Watcher uh, I dont think thats the official term but thats what Ive called it. So when you are distracted, are you not looking at the road ahead? It will also tell you off. Were gon na go for a drive in a minute, so I will put it to the test just to see if it catches me out. As far as space goes, the front seats are plenty big enough, but the rears are theyre. Okay, you can get a six footer in there, but more than one and its gon na get a little bit cozy and the boot is a bit small too. At 228 liters it is only 17 liters bigger than the mini electric theres. Also a big step up to lift stuff over, but you know what a mini is really good at and thats driving of course isnt. It now like we said earlier, the funky cat is based on what will become the new mini next year, so theres a hint of mininess about it, but I think the funky cat is more relaxed. The steering is slower, the suspension is softer. The general Vibe is more Cruise than abuse.

Now this first edition gets 169 brick horsepower. It can do the usual naught to 62 mile per hour Sprint in 8.3 seconds nothing special um. It doesnt actually feel that nippy, if Im honest. Obviously it will get round around about it will keep up with what you need to do, but it is probably not one that youre going to take on a Sunday for a drive just for the heck of it. Now this is the all important test of the day. My facial recognition, I feel, like I actually covered my hand when Im about to yawn, but that would defeat the whole point so lets give it a go: tired, Im, so tired, Im, really tired. Maybe it switched off just as an FYI, I have been asking our good friend Aura with the voice control. Quite a few other plans, shes not the best at interpreting. What Ive got to say just be warned anyway, where were we facial recognition, Im gon na try? The looking away, whilst also driving, safely right down to the Practical stuff and its not all good news. The first funky cats come with a 48 kilowatt hour battery and a possible 193 miles of range on the wltp cycle, which is more than a mini electric. But down on something like an e208 or Corsa electric, which both manage more than 200 and the charging ability is decidingly. Underwhelming were talking 64 kilowatt DC, which means it will take 42 minutes to get from 15 to 80 on a big enough charger.

Something like a Cooper born will charge almost twice as fast now thats, not really a problem if youre doing a lot of charging at home. But if this is a city car aimed at people who might not have a driveway thats a little bit of a miss, there will be a longer range 63 kilowatt hour cats coming later, as well as cheaper, less well. Speced versions so well probably have to see how they pan out in the range versus price calculations, but overall, not quite Blown Away. As for the rest, as you might expect from a car thats going to share bits with the new mini, the funky cap gets a full five stars from the Euro end cap safety, people, which is great and theres a five year. Unlimited mileage warranty on the car with eight years and a hundred thousand miles on the battery now thats better than most and matches Hyundai, but Kia and mg both offer seven years. Dont forget it is time for our conclusion, and this is a bit of a tricky one. You know, I think, in isolation. The aura funky cat is a perfectly good electric car, but I think we all sort of assumed that the aura would be priced to compete with the mg4 and also start with a price tag that might have started with a two. But that is not the case. Think about it, a smaller Peugeot, e208 Allure Premium Plus comes with a 50 kilowatt hour battery and 220 miles of possible range for pretty much the same price.

An ID3 or a born are more expensive, but they have a battery which is 20 bigger. Now there is something like an mg4 trophy that comes with a decent amount of kits and 280 miles of wltp range, so you are really going to notice that extra range and lets not forget the mg4 is actually cheaper at 31 495 pounds. Ultimately, you need some sort of reason to buy from a brand that youve never heard of before I mean look at Genesis. They have a concierge style, buying experience to try and get the attention of Audi or BMW drivers Tesla they got the foothold with their supercharger Network aura. It doesnt necessarily have that big, unique selling point, except, of course, for the wing. It looks the style and the quality that you get with it and some really clever Tech. So actually, maybe that is a decent and upsetting point. I think youve really got to want the funky cat style to make up for the time that you are going to spend explaining what the car is when people ask about it in the pub. So my overall final final conclusion is I really like the way it looks. I think its got a cool look about it, a bit of a head turner. It feels a bit different. Ultimately, I think this is the choice that youre going to make.