mReview: Ora Good Cat Electric – The Cat's Pyjamas

[This article was first published on motorist.sg]

As the latest in a growing lineup of quirkily designed small electric vehicles, the Ora Good Cat manages to set itself apart as more than just another funky EV.

Built by Great Wall Motor, China’s eighth-largest vehicle manufacturer, Ora is a new player in Singapore’s automotive market, bringing in the all-electric Good Cat as their first challenger to take on the local EV scene.

The Good Cat is a zany little thing, with curves and interesting proportions galore. Retro-futuristic is the name of the game here and it achieves that in style. The design is unique and looks like no other car on the market, although there are shades of inspiration in the Good Cat’s design that seem to have been taken from cars of yesteryear. 

A froggy front somewhat resembling classic Porsches.

For example, the front end is vaguely reminiscent of an old Porsche with its single bulb design and lots of chrome surrounds. The 18-inch rims also harken back to somewhere between classic Carreras and JDM Watanabes. 

All Good Cats come in some variety of two-tone paintwork too, with our test car sporting the Aurora Green body and Hamilton White roof. Personally, I prefer some of the other colours as I feel they suit the Good Cat’s vibe a little better, the pink option even makes the Good Cat look like the car from Jojo’s Circus.

The electric tailgate houses the minuscule rear window and the rear light bar.

Design-wise, I think the rear of the car is its worst angle. It just looks out of place and almost unfinished. The rear light bar across the tiny rear window seems like an afterthought and nothing back here looks congruent with the rest of the Good Cat’s design. 

Enough for one carry-on bag and not much else, but the rear seats do fold down.

To paraphrase Gru from Despicable Me, in terms of boot space, there is no boot space. The good news is, that’s probably the least practical bit of the whole car. The rear seats are spacious and even at 1.8m tall, I could sit back here with head, knee, and foot room to spare. 

The floor is basically flat so occupants don’t have to worry about straddling a large central tunnel in the back. There’re also USB Type-A ports for the rear passengers to charge their devices with, although I would’ve preferred to see at least one Type-C port in the car as even up front, there’re only Type-A ports available. 

The front half of the cabin carries on the spacious aesthetic with a very airy feeling interior. The ceiling is rather high and has a giant sunroof that lets in loads of light. The centre console is also mounted low down which gives the interior that open, uncluttered feel. 

The interior colour of our test car was a little lacklustre in my opinion and a little too safe, I much prefer the cream-coloured interior of the other press car which is much kookier and suits the feel of the Good Cat a little more. One thing I do love though, are the front seats. They’re both electric, ventilated (fantastic), and feature seat massagers that do way more than feel like a small cat stepping on your back, the little massaging nodes properly protrude out of the seat and you get a surprisingly strong massage. 

While the two-spoke steering wheel of the Good Cat is an uncommon inclusion and suits the car well, it is also the gateway to the car’s biggest failing, its infotainment system. Ora have elected to take up the task of making their own infotainment system instead of using an established one and while I do respect that decision, it is quite plain to see that there are numerous kinks that need ironing out. 

The UI is unintuitive, the 10.25-inch screen is laggy and unresponsive, and the system as a whole tends to have a mind of its own. On multiple occasions, the radio station changed by itself with zero input from me and the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity is equally as fickle-minded. On the upside, every time you turn the car on, there’s an animation that shows two koi fish swimming across the screen. 

Driving the Good Cat is a quiet, unassuming, inoffensive affair.

Dynamically, the Good Cat is a perfectly capable and effective little city roundabout. The ride is comfortable and the suspension forgiving. You’ll have no issues pootling around town in quiet EV comfort. Power is more than sufficient for everyday usage and still gives you a little shove for when you need to make quick overtakes in traffic. It’s even well-insulated, only getting a little noisy when driven above the speed limit. 

The Good Cat also comes with useful driver assistance features like adaptive cruise control with lane keep assist, various collision warnings and evasion systems, a 360˙ camera, and even auto parking. All these are features that are often missed on more premium vehicles so the Good Cat having them all makes it very good indeed, but then I suppose that's why it's not called the Ora Just Okay Cat. 

On a recent trip to Thailand, where Great Wall Motor and Ora have been present for a little longer, I saw a surprising number of Good Cats prowling the streets everywhere from bustling Bangkok to bucolic Buri Ram. And after testing it for a few days, I expect to see no less from the our local Good Cats. Me-ow. 

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[Source article: motorist.sg/article/2512/mreview-ora-good-cat-electric-the-cat-s-pyjamas]