And of course no electric car is an environmental free lunch; using the latest Government figures for electricity generation means the Funky Cat produces 30g of carbon dioxide per kilometre.
At urban speeds the ride is pretty dire, but no worse than rivals in the battery electric world (have you driven a harsh Tesla Model Y lately?). The body rolls rather a lot as you turn into corners and the tyres will spin on the exit to corners. This is a shame as the dynamics aren’t too bad, especially if you forswear the Sport function and leave it in the Normal setting, where the steering is over-assisted but reasonably direct.
The brakes aren’t bad, either, with a decent feel to the pedal and a smooth but strong mix of regeneration and friction braking.
The trouble is that the damping control is poor, which means the Funky Cat never settles, even at speed on largely straight roads. It feels like neither fish nor fowl; in the comfort stakes a VW ID.3 would leave it standing and in dynamics Cupra’s Born or the MG4 are much better.
The Telegraph verdict
“It’s the sort of car that feels very convincing when you first climb in, but within half an hour you’ll be shouting at it,” said a motoring journalist friend. He’s right and that’s a big error by this Chinese firm as most of the gripes on this otherwise appealing car would be easy to fix at an early stage of development.
There’s far too much “that’ll do” for this to be a credible contender in what is going to be a very hard-fought sector of the market, despite its attractive five-year/unlimited mileage warranty.
And even if the Funky Cat undercuts the Cupra Born and VW ID.3, it faces strong competition from the Fiat 500 and Peugeot e-208 and MG4, which are cheaper and go further on a full charge.
We’re told that the Chinese are coming and that they’ll learn quickly. Frankly I’d rather wait until that happens before putting my shirt on an Ora, funky or not; I felt distinctly un-grooved by this First Edition example.
The facts
On test: Ora Funky Cat First Edition
Body style: five-door, battery electric family hatchback
On sale: now
How much? from £31,995
How fast? 99mph, 0-62mph in 8.3sec
Range: 193 miles (130 miles on test)
Charging: maximum 100kW with 80 per cent charge in 31 minutes, full recharge on 7.4kW wallbox takes 7 hours
Weight: 1,540kg
Battery size: 48kWh net usable
Efficiency: 4.02mpkWh on test
Motor/transmission: permanent magnet synchronous motor, single step-down gear, front-wheel drive
Maximum power/torque: 169bhp/184lb ft
CO2 emissions: zero in use, well to wheels 30g/km
VED: zero
Warranty: 5 years/unlimited mileage
