Great Wall to launch budget Ora Cat electric hatch in Australia

The compact and cute Ora Cat electric hatchback made by Great Wall Motors (GWM) will land in Australia in 2022, it has been confirmed by Great Wall Motors.

If you haven’t heard of Ora, it is a sub-brand created by China’s Great Wall Motors in 2018 aimed at selling budget electric vehicles – something that is very thin on the ground in Australia.

And now it would seem the Cat, an electric four-door that comes in various configurations most easily discernable by their headlights (see below), is finally destined for Australia.

In a press release underlining the company’s success in the Australia and New Zealand markets in 2021, where it increased sales by 250% compared to 2020, it also outlined its plans for the coming year of 2022.

“… the first electric model will soon be revealed in Australia,” the company wrote.

“Under the overwhelming wave of electrification, as one of the important areas of Great Wall Motor’s global strategic map, the Australian market has laid out the lineup of electrified products prospectively, and started the “fully charged” journey of electrification.

“In 2022, the first batch of electric models will be launched in Australia, including the pure electric brand Ora,” the carmaker said.

Exactly when it will arrive is still to be confirmed, a spokesperson for GWm told The Driven: “Confirming that Ora will launch in Australia in 2022 but we are still working through the final details on exact timings.”

The four-door hatch promises to add another electric option at the bottom end of the scale to the Australia auto market; in Europe it is only undercut by budget EVs such as the Fiat e500 and the basement bargain Dacia Spring (which has, unfortunately, a similarly positioned safety rating).

Mind you, with a price tag in Europe of just under €30,000 (the super-cheap R1 only sells in China, and is priced from about 110,000 yuan, or $A24,300), that still equates to about $A47,000, which will pit it against the likes of the short-range Nissan Leaf.