China city EV (mini/micro cars) always use NEDC which the range is already unrealistic. On top of that most China EV advertised bloated range even compare to other brands with NEDC rating.

Ora Good Cat has 47.8 kWh and 59.1 kWh and claimed 401km and 501km respectively.

59.1kWh is impossible to do 501km on combined usage.

A proper 75kWh+ compact/mid size EV can do close to 500km on pure city drive on real world test. High 300km close to 400km for combined usage. Pure highway 100km/h is just over 300km.

This Ora is expected to do upper 400km if and only if strictly never drive above 60km/h. Combine usage would be 350km. Pure highway anything above 80-90km/h no more than 250km.

Conclusion and guidance
EV with NEDC, subtract 20% for combine usage. Specifically for China city EV with NEDC, subtract 30% for combine usage.
EV with NEDC, subtract 40% for highway usage. Specifically for China city EV with NEDC, subtract 50% for highway usage.
EV with WLTP, use as is for combine usage, and subtract 20% for highway usage, and add 20% for pure city drive.
China proper fast back saloon EV with big 70-80kWh battery capacity can use general rule 20%/40% subtraction from their NEDC mileage. Example Xpeng P7, BYD Han.


On top of that the Ora throughout their product lines, the braking distance is worrying. Because of their target city car nature, the installed brake is not good. Ora is over 40m, so be sure leave extra one car length vs any normal car.

Average braking distance 100km/h to 0 is about 35m. Even you take normal A/B segments Axia/Myvi also at worst upper 30m, no more than 40m. Super car low 30m, what they get is heat capacity on multiple braking repetition, they don't brake shorter than normal car by large margin if emergency brake a couple times. A few hypercar can brake sub 30m, but that's only handful of them.

This is the "gold rush" period in China where everyone jump into the bandwagon, 90% of the EV are mini/micro cars. Most of these companies will fail and disappear/move to other money making business in next 5 years. This is good, where the fittest and those really do R&D would survive. So we need to have sharp eyes, pick the good company that serious on making sustainable business. Like Xpeng P7 chassis tuning (at least the first version) was outsourced to Porsche. Just like Tesla hired Lotus during their early days (not sure if still the case). This is because they are more like tech company than car makers, and they know their weakness, and committed to offer good product to customers. BYD no need to say, they are the battery tech giant and were in the market for many years even before EV become the trend. They started by making EV busses and lousy cars then gradually move up the ladders to where they are today. BYD also export battery to some international EV makers, consumer electronics.

Great Wall been making cheap ICE vehicles for 3rd world countries, now sub-brand Ora just join others to flood the market with mini/micro EV. There is no confident 5 years later they will still in this business.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Dec 7 2021, 01:38 PM

Here's some of the issues from China's owner feedback on Ora Good Cat I gather and translate here.

1) Emergency power cut either bug or poor implementation. Happened to owner driving at night on road with no street light.
a) Power cut button is at the right of traction control off button, which at the right of manual headlight leveling knob.
b) driver was trying to adjust the headlight
c) owner manual said hold the power cut for 3 seconds, or press 3 times within 2 seconds
d) somehow it got triggered easily. Not sure bug or logic is too easy. Maybe do press 5 times in 3 seconds or hold for 5 seconds.

Great Wall is not a young company, they have been building cars for decades although mostly cheap car for 3rd world countries. Still make this kind of mistake?

2) High speed (100km/h) emergency brake is extremely unstable. The steering will wobble.
a) must hold the steering very tight and keep straight or car might to topple (happens to both Good Cat and Black Cat)
b) already mentioned many times, braking distance is longer than usual car. Always keep extra 1 - 2 car length vs normal car.

3) Hill start assist intermittent or maybe bug?
a) After release the brake, the car slide a bit
b) Then apply throttle, can feel a bit of power but car continue to slide
c) Until almost floored the throttle, only able to hold the car.
d) Owner manual warns about HSA ineffective over 30% gradient which is almost nothing (less than 18 degrees).
e) Most of our mall multilevel parking are a lot steeper than 18 degrees.

4) Jerky and inconsistent (or maybe lag?) brake energy regeneration
a) Normal EV/PHEV/FCEV brake energy regeneration is graduate, directly proportional to how much you lift off.
b) On the Good Cat, often lift off nothing
c) lift off more nothing
d) lift off completely, suddenly get strong regenerative braking. Very non linear

5) One pedal mode totally non linear. Since it utilize the brake energy regeneration, same issue.

6) Auto high beam has very weird logic. It detect ambient light and your car own speed, doesn't detect on coming cars.

7) Electric motor easily overheated.
a) Owner manual do warn about overheat and will display little tortoise icon for car output fault, the output will be reduced.
b) However the owners complain is it happens a lot frequent than expected.
c) Just a few KM (Mandarin "few" is not clearly defined, but usually means less than 10) of continuous climb will trigger the the fault.
d) Fortunately it also recovers fast, stop by the road size for dozens of seconds, a minute or so, it will be gone.
e) Haven't have anyone complains on pure city driving though.


Conclusion, not recommended to leave the city at all, even though it said can do 150km/h top speed. Can totally forget go Genting, probably want to drive to IIUM also got problem.

Hope it help everyone to have a realistic expectation of this mini EV.


For the future owner, please do us a favor and keep EXTRA 1-2 car length vs the normal wherever you drive Please please please, we don't want to get rear end collision. If got budget, modify better brake system. Thanks in advance

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Dec 8 2021, 12:39 PM

I think we need to differentiate city mini/micro car (sub A segment), be it EV or not, vs proper car sub-compact size and above (A segment and up)

Ora Good Cat even though have a wheelbase of a B segment car, they still in A0 segment at China. While the smaller Black Cat is A00 segment. Can't have anything smaller than A so A0/A00.

China also have higher end EV that fit in normal car segments that are not mini/micro car. Those are ok but unfortunately also expensive like the European/Japanese/Korean EV. Those should do highway just fine like the Tesla/Polestar/Porsche etc.

Ask yourself if you have spare car for long distance commute? Is this gotta be your toy car and strictly use it within city literally inside city center. KL even if go Shah Alam or Kuala Selangor will take other car.
If this is the case, by all means these mini/micro car is good enough.

That's why I keep emphasize battery size relative to the range, we can't change law of physics. Also if a car is properly R&D for the 3 most basic functions SAFELY - Move, Stop, and Turn.

Not against from buying, just want to share the info so potential buyer have right expectations. I remember seeing Wxxcar article saying can go Melaka -> Penang trip with the 500km range in this type of mini/micro car, that is totally misleading.

I'm sure Tesla, Leaf would do fine. Model 3 LR Performance, go ahead to whack 200km/h on highway. Model 3 stock brake disc lasted 1 lap in Nurburgring, battery warning 3min+ which is about half the lap. Get a bit power cut, but still plenty fast. Electric motor no warning at all. But this Nurburgring, most EV get battery warning around same spot (near the bridge if you familiar with the track).

Everyone have different opinions, I merely share mine. You can choose what you want to believe.

Also what I shared are not only for this car, but applies to any low cost mini/micro car from China. The Wuling EV or Chery EV etc also have similar problems.

I'm just the road user with serious concern about the inferior brake. Other issues only effected the owner, subpar brake will impact other road users safety and property loss.

Really hope the authority would put them on saperate registration roadtax category as city driving only vehicles.

I did not said it will wear the brake faster, I said the braking during maximum braking in emergency is poor due to excessive long braking distance compare with normal street car average.
Brake wear and brake system heat capacity and maximum gripping force and brake force bias distribution are not correlated. Brake that can brake very well doesn't equal to pad/disk longitivtiy, more likely it is the opposite. Also it is combination of entire brake system + tires, not focus on brake pad alone.

Maybe in your dictionary of good brake = minimum maintenance/maximum life and don't care about the safety/braking distance, then the Ora Good Cat brake maybe is fantastic, then I got nothing to say.


Ora Good Cat GT, the sportier version with 168hp 250nm that do 0-100km/h sub-7 seconds. Even the GT version did 39.49m braking distance in their best attempt.

https://drive.xcar.com.cn/202108/news_2061363_2.html







Testing of various mini/micro car.






This post has been edited by constant_weight: Dec 10 2021, 05:20 PM

Thanks. So my estimation base on battery capacity of 250km on highway is pretty spot on in our hot and humid weather conditions.