ORA 5 eSUV Review: Compact SUV With A Big Point To Make

There was a time when buying a Chinese car in Singapore required a little leap of faith. These days however, the bigger question is whether established brands from Japan, Korea and Europe should be the ones doing the catching up.

GWM - Great Wall Motor - is one of China’s major automotive manufacturers, with ORA serving as its electric-focused marque. The ORA 5 is the brand’s first fully electric SUV here, following the Good Cat hatchback and ORA 07 fastback.

And it is arguably the most sensible ORA yet.

Size Matters

At 4,471 mm long, 1,833 mm wide and 1,641 mm tall, the ORA 5 is compact enough to make sense on Singapore’s roads, while its 2,720 mm wheelbase gives it an unusually generous cabin for its footprint. It weighs 1,685 kg and rides on a MacPherson strut front/multi-link rear suspension setup.

That wheelbase is particularly useful once you climb inside.

There is good head and leg room in the rear, and even with a small family aboard, the ORA 5 never feels like it is making everyone play automotive Tetris. The 362-litre boot is hardly cavernous, but it is more than sufficient for the daily duties of supermarket runs, school bags, gym stuff and the other things that mysteriously accumulate in a family car. Fold the rear seats and that expands to 1,120 litres.

The large panoramic roof helps enormously, too. It makes the cabin feel airy and open, rather than like a compact SUV that has simply been stretched upwards. In Singapore's perpetually warm climate, you might question the wisdom of having a huge piece of glass over your head, but the ORA 5's roof comes with an electric sunshade, so you can… well… have your sunshine and shade it too.

The Inside Story

The interior is one of the ORA 5's stronger points.

GWM has used a mixture of soft-touch and solid plastics in sensible places, giving the dashboard and door panels a more substantial feel than you might expect from an EV positioned in this part of the market. More importantly, there is a sense that somebody actually thought about how the cabin should feel, rather than simply filling it with screens and calling the job done.

There is a 14.6-inch infotainment display, a 10.25-inch driver's display and GWM's Coffee OS 3.0 running on a Snapdragon AI processor. Voice commands are supported, while wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto make the system relatively easy to live with.

And then there is the nine-speaker sound system.

I have noticed that Chinese EV manufacturers seem to be taking audio surprisingly seriously, and the ORA 5 is another example - it sounds properly good. If your Spotify playlist gets more attention than your family does during a drive, then this is an aspect of the ORA 5 you will enjoy every day.

Driving It

To stay within the boundary of Cat A, the Singapore-spec ORA 5 uses a 58.3 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery and a single front-mounted electric motor producing 100 kW - or 134 bhp - and 260 Nm of torque. It is front-wheel drive, takes 9.6 seconds to reach 100 km/h and tops out at 170 km/h.

Of course, those numbers will not have a Tesla Model 3 owner losing sleep, but they are perfectly adequate for Singapore.

More importantly, the electric motor delivers its 260 Nm instantly, so the ORA 5 feels brisk enough when pulling away from traffic lights or finding a gap in moving traffic. It is not fast, but it is responsive.

The official WLTP range is 435 km, with a claimed efficiency figure of 6.5 km/kWh - approximately 15.4 kWh/100km.

In Singapore, I would be more conservative. With our traffic, stop-start driving and air-conditioning working almost constantly, expect something in the region of 360 to 370 km in real-world use; that is still more than enough for a normal working week for most drivers.

DC charging at up to 120 kW takes the battery from 20 to 80 percent in around 25 minutes, while 11 kW AC charging takes about 3.5 hours for the same window.

Handling Wise

For something with SUV proportions and front-wheel drive, you might expect the ORA 5 to handle like an enthusiastic washing machine; but take it down the winding roads of Lim Chu Kang and it is surprisingly entertaining.

The relatively short overhangs, low-mounted battery and multi-link rear suspension give the ORA 5 a tidy, planted feel. GWM says the car's chassis was validated across 76 global road conditions, while its suspension development included testing at Australia's Lang Lang proving ground.

You can feel some of that engineering when you start pushing a little harder - it changes direction neatly and carries its weight reasonably well.

The steering, however, is less impressive. Like several compact EVs in Singapore, it is light and easy but lacks feel and could respond more naturally to driver inputs. A little more communication through the steering wheel would make the ORA 5 considerably more enjoyable.

Still, for an everyday compact SUV, it is a pleasant surprise.

Safety is another area where the ORA 5 makes an important statement.The Singapore model is listed with a five-star Euro NCAP rating and seven airbags, alongside a comprehensive suite of driver-assistance systems.

And this is where I have to indulge in a little nostalgia.I still remember reviewing my first Chinese car back in 2008 - it had a grand total of... two airbags. Driver and front passenger. That's it.

Heck, come to think of it, I hadn't even done my CPF nomination back then.

The difference today is remarkable. Chinese manufacturers are no longer merely competing on price; they are competing on engineering, safety, technology and refinement.

In A Nutshell

The ORA 5 makes a compelling case by getting most of the important things right; and doing so with a look that is difficult not to like. Essentially a larger, more practical evolution of the Good Cat, the ORA 5 carries over that car's rounded character, with a bulbous rather than angular exterior that gives it an almost adorable presence without looking childish. Its distinctive rear, in particular, gives the ORA 5 an identity of its own in a sea of increasingly similar electric SUVs.

The BYD Atto 2 remains the cheaper proposition at S$170,888, with its 4,310 mm length, 2,620 mm wheelbase, 51.13 kWh battery, 100 kW and 290 Nm, and 345 km WLTP range. True that the ORA 5 costs more, but for the extra outlay, you get considerably more physical car, a larger 58.3kWh battery, longer 435 km WLTP range and a more generous cabin - differences that matter more in everyday family use.

Then there is the electric MINI Countryman E. At S$288,888, it is an appealing proposition if your wallet has a rather generous sense of humour. The ORA 5 is certainly no MINI, nor should it pretend to be, but it delivers much of the same broad formula - distinctive styling, compact electric SUV proportions, five seats, useful range and a well-equipped interior - for roughly S$100k less. That's not pocket change; that's a very different pocket…

So taken as a whole, the ORA 5 is not the fastest, sharpest or cheapest EV in its class, but it is more sensible: A larger, more accomplished Good Cat that combines characterful looks, genuine practicality and enough driving ability to prove that an affordable EV doesn't have to be dull.

Photos by Azfar Hashim (@azfar.talks).

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