I’ve driven the Ora Funky Cat, it’s funky but its price spoil the party

HERE’S one for you: Ora Funky Cat.

Is it: A) Rita Ora in a leather catsuit, B) Google doing an auto correct, or C) the name of a Chinese electric car?

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As much as we’d like it to be A, the answer is of course C because we talk cars on these pages.

Right, let’s start by explaining the odd name.

Ora stands for “open, reliable and alternative” and it’s a new premium electric car brand owned by Chinese giant Great Wall Motors.

Ora sold 135,000 cars in China last year — more than Ford did here — and has just launched in the UK.

As for the name Funky Cat? We have absolutely no idea.

Although Punk Cat (a VW Beetle copycat) and Lightning Cat (a Porsche Panamera copycat) is already on sale in China, so someone in power clearly likes cats.

What we do know is, Funky Cat is a mash-up of cars familiar to us all.

It’s a Golf-sized hatch, with Mini headlights, posh Merc interior, Tesla graphics, and a red rear strip light that swooshes like Kitt from Knight Rider when you unlock it. Also like Kitt, it’s a talking car.

Prices. We hoped it would start with a two like the MG4, another Chinese export.

But it costs £32k.

ORA insists it’s an alternative to Volkswagen’s ID 3 but is better-equipped and £4k cheaper.

That maybe true but I’m not sure it’s enough to tempt people from what they know. The cars will be sold online and via Lookers and Peter Vardy from November 28.

Quiet and nippy

So what’s it like to drive?

Funky Cat has a 48kWh battery that’ll do 193 miles. The 171hp e-motor drives the front wheels. It’s quiet and nippy and easy. And it feels solid. That’s backed up by a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating.
Soon we’ll get a Funky Cat GT with a bigger 63kWh battery.

Right, interior. First some positives. It looks classy.

Very Merc-like. Lots of soft-touch surfaces. Lot of tech including wireless phone charging, adaptive cruise control and 360-degree cameras. We like the Tesla-like graphics showing other traffic in the driver’s display.

Also, there’s plenty of room for gangly teens in the back. Negatives. The boot is tiny. The touchscreen is tasked with too many things. Clunky Cat?

Give us a simple knob for the volume.

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The highly sensitive facial-recognition camera keeps telling you off (we covered it with an Elastoplast) and the voice assistant is at best hit-and-miss.

Say “Hello Ora” and it replies “What’s up?” like you are interrupting someone.

Apple CarPlay will be added as an over-the-air software update next summer. It needs it.

Rapid charging to 80 per cent takes 43 minutes, which isn’t great. But if you can top up at home, you’ll be fine.

To conclude, then.

Funky Cat is different but it doesn’t move the game on.

If you really want a smart, do-it-all electric car, go and try a Kia Niro. That’s the Top Cat.

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