Is that cool cats or just copycats?

by Bill Buys THEY must be true animal lovers over at Great Wall Motors in China. Why else would they name many of their products after dogs ...

by Bill Buys

THEY must be true animal lovers over at Great Wall Motors in China. Why else would they name many of their products after dogs and cats – even dragons?

Australia, and most of GWM’s other export countries are familiar with GWM commercial and Haval passenger vehicles, but the home market has a few more to keep them happy.

One brand is called Ora, another Wey, and discontinued models include the Cowry, Wingle and Sing.

There’s also a long list of concept cars, more than a few also linked to pets: Coolbear, Big Cat, Lightning Cat, X Dog and Deer, while other potential vehicles of tomorrow include Florid, Phenom, Dragon, Sailor, Pegasus, Safe and Socool.

The Dragon is a sleek, muscular high performance model powered by 405kW of electric power and it says its intention is to subvert the inherent soullessness of electric vehicles.

Sounds a bit scary, so I’d rather stick with the company’s puddy-tats.

GWM's Ora Punk Cat . . . or is that copycat?

 

A particularly interesting GWM model is the Ora, which has a VW-Beetle-inspired design for one of its electric cars: the Punk Cat.

The name is said to have been chosen in an online consultation.

Six names were considered: elf cat, punk cat, noble cat, Persian cat, royal cat, and big orange cat.

The latter would probably have been a winner in Holland.

Anyway, the Punk Cat joins three more Oras with purry names: Good Cat, White Cat and Black Cat.

And then there’s one called the Lightning Cat, a high-spec model which made an appearance at the Auto Shanghai 2021 show, then apparently went walkabout, as some felines tend to do.

However, it’s back home as a sleek, sporty sedan with a tail-end similar to some of the 9-3 Saab models and there’s talk of it landing in Australia, maybe even sometime this year.

Ora, an all-electric brand, says the Punk Cat would appeal especially to women . . . and that its body resembles a carriage. Really?

Inside, a single dashboard gauge houses a few details and a big horizontal LCD screen reveals the infotainment system and breaks the retro-feel with its circular air vents and vivid green, pink and white details.

Still, the Ora Punk Cat does have appeal and there’s indication it can had had in various configurations, front, rear or all-wheel drive. We’ll have to wait and see.

Ora Black Cat

Ora Good Cat

Ora Lightning Cat

Ora White Cat

 

The Wey brand is GWM’s luxury offshoot, named after the company’s founder, Jack Wey.

But rather than cats and dogs, its three SUVs should attract coffee lovers.

There’s Mocha, Macchiato and Latte, all of similar shape and size but with varying degrees of ‘intelligent luxury.’

GWM’s Tank is an aptly-named boofy SUV that’s already arrived in Australia and there’s also the Cannon ute and H6 and Jolion SUVs.

But it’s going to be hard to ignore than Ora Punk Cat and its Lightning sibling.

Consider that while you sip your mocha. Or did you order latte?

Wey Latte

Wey Macchiato

Jack Wey

Wey Mocha

 

CHECKOUT: Rugged Tank money in the bank

CHECKOUT: Made for China — Welcome to the Urbansphere