ORA Good Cat 03.
If you’ve never driven an EV before, you might still believe they’re impractical because they don’t offer enough driving range.
Or perhaps you think that while an EV’s range is adequate for Singapore, they can’t be taken on road trips since it takes longer to charge them than it does to fill a petrol tank. There’s also the question of charging points – and whether there are enough of them along the way.
Such myths are what Great Wall Motor (GWM) sought to dispel when it invited members of the media from Singapore and Thailand on the GWM EV Tour.
Sgcarmart’s Mattheus Wee (left), poses with a fellow journalist following the convoy’s arrival at the GWM showroom at 239 Alexandra Road.
For seven days, they drove the ORA Good Cat from Bangkok, Thailand to Singapore via Malaysia. The journey saw them cover over 2,000km as they visited scenic spots such as the Red Cliffs in Prachuap Khiri Khan, and Matsee viewpoint in Thailand.
As they crossed the border into Malaysia, the convoy stopped at well-known locations such as George Town, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, and Malacca to enjoy numerous culinary delights.
The Good Cat hatchbacks had a range of up to 420km, which in theory meant that they wouldn’t have to be charged more than five times to complete the entire journey.
However, to show how developed the charging infrastructure in Thailand and Malaysia was, drivers were able to charge the Good Cats at numerous points along the way.
Indeed, Sgcarmart’s Mattheus Wee, one of the two Singapore journalists who participated on the Tour, recounted that lunch stops were also opportunities to charge the cars. “As long as you weren’t pushing it for extended periods on expressways, the Good Cat is quite capable of achieving its on-paper consumption figures,” he recounted.
For the record, ORA says that the Good Cat 03 has an average energy consumption of 6km per kWh. More importantly, this road trip has shown that with proper planning, taking an EV on a road trip is not only possible, but fun, too.
This story was first published on Sgcarmart.
Cora, the official and only mascot for the ORA Good Cat, was created in Singapore.
