This is an ORA R1, a cool small electric hatchback from China. The R1 is quite a cute looker, everything is rounded, without any sharp edge in sight. It has a white-colored front with a charging port in the middle.
ORA is an EV brand under Great Wall Motors, founded in 2018. The first ORA car was the ORA iQ, launched in the same year. The R1 was the second ORA, launched in 2019. In 2020, ORA changed its name to Black Cat. By that time, ORA had decided to name all their cars after cats and dogs. Production of the R1/Black Cat ended in 2022.
The R1-named cars are quite rare, as they were only made for about 1.5 years. I saw this blue example in Beijing in 2019. It is special to see these in a single color. Most were sold with a dual-color scheme.
The ORA R1 had small 15-inch wheels and aero wheel covers.
The interior was as cool as the exterior. It had a big round 3-spoke steering wheel, round digital dials, a 9-inch center screen, and 3 round air vents in the center stack. There was a traditional hand brake and the controls for the electric front windows were located between the seats.
The start button and drive selector are on the center stack too.
Power came from a single electric motor at the front. The output of the 2019 model was 48 hp and 125 Nm, good for a 102 km/h top speed.
Note the pop-out rear windows. The ORA R1 was classified as a four-seat car. It was compact and relatively light: 3495x1660x1560, 2475. The curb weight was 990 kilos.
Electricity was stored in a 33 kWh ternary lithium battery for a claimed 351-kilometer range. Fast charging from 20-80% took 45 minutes and a full charge on 220V took 10 hours.
Characters: 欧拉, Ōulā, ORA. The ORA brand has changed a lot since 2019. At that time, price was the most important selling point. The R1 sold for only 59.800 to 79.800 yuan at the time, which made it one of the cheapest electric cars on the market. Nowadays, the ORA brand is more focused on cool and lifestyle-style electric cars aimed at a young audience.
From the early 2010s until the late 2010s all China-made EVs had this government-mandated and government-supplied EV badge with the words: 电动汽车, ‘electric car’. The characters below are 长城汽车, Chángchéng Qìchē, Great Wall Motors.
The green-white license plates were issued to New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) in the Beijing Municipality. In Beijing, anyone who wants to own a car has to participate in a lottery for a license plate. Back in 2019, the local government tried to push the usage of electric cars for cleaner air. So they launched a separate lottery for EVs, with more license plates and thus a bigger chance to ‘win’. The scheme really worked and helped considerably with the early EV adoption in the Chinese capital. The ORA R1 was the right car at the right time, and Great Wall Motors sold a lot of them.