What’s it really like to live with a GWM Ora5 EV every day? How practical is it? What’s the range really like? And is it a car you could see yourself owning? We’re about to find out.
We’ve got some exciting news. We’ve been handed the keys to a GWM Ora 5, and we’re not just taking it for a quick spin around the block. We’re going to be living with it for the next three months, putting it through its paces and finding out what this increasingly popular (actually it topped the charts last month) electric vehicle is really like to own and drive. And we want you to come along for the ride.
There’s a big difference between spending a few hours with a new car and actually living with one. A short test drive might tell you how it handles, how comfortable the seats are or whether you like the way it looks. But it won’t necessarily tell you whether it fits into your everyday life, how easy it is to charge, whether the technology makes sense, or how it performs when the novelty wears off. That’s exactly what we’re setting out to discover.
Beyond the showroom shine
The GWM Ora 5 has arrived with plenty of attention, and as part of the growing GWM electric vehicle family, it gives us an opportunity to take a closer look at what modern EV ownership can offer.
But rather than simply repeating the usual manufacturer specifications and talking about screen sizes, battery capacity and acceleration figures, we want to get under the skin of this car.
What is it like on the school/sports run? How does it cope with the daily commute? Is there enough room for the shopping, the luggage and all the other stuff that seems to accumulate in family life? What happens when you take it out of town for a weekend away? And perhaps most importantly, does driving an electric vehicle genuinely make everyday motoring easier, more enjoyable or more affordable?
These are the questions that matter to people considering making the switch to electric, and more specifically the GWM Ora 5. Over the next three months, we’ll be exploring all of them.
Three months of real-world testing
Our approach is simple: we’re [the WHOLE team] going to use the Ora 5 as we would any other car. No special treatment, no carefully choreographed test-drive routes and no pretending that everyday life is always a perfectly smooth journey.
We’ll be looking at everything from the driving experience to the practical details that can make or break the relationship between a driver and their car.
Here’s just some of what we’ll be investigating:
The real-world range: What sort of distance can we realistically expect from a full charge? How much does driving style, speed, weather and the use of air conditioning affect that figure?
Charging life: How easy is it to charge at home? What about public charging stations? We’ll be looking at the convenience, the costs and the realities of fitting charging into a normal week.
Everyday practicality: Is the Ora 5 a genuinely useful everyday vehicle? We’ll be testing its interior space, boot capacity, comfort, storage and versatility.
Technology and features: Modern cars are packed with technology, but how much of it is genuinely useful? We’ll explore the infotainment system, connectivity, driver assistance features and all the little details that make up the driving experience.
The drive: From urban traffic to open roads and longer journeys, we’ll find out how the Ora 5 performs in the environments where people actually drive.
The ownership equation: Running an EV involves more than just plugging it in. We’ll be looking at energy consumption, charging costs and the broader question of whether an electric car makes financial sense.
We’ll also be paying attention to the things you don’t necessarily think about until you’ve lived with a car for a while. The little annoyances, the unexpected surprises, the features we grow to love and the things we wish were different. Because that’s what a proper long-term test should be about.
But there’s something else we’d like to do…
We don’t want this to be just another car review where we tell you what we think and you read about it. We want to know what YOU think.
If you’re considering buying this (or any other) EV, already own one, or are simply curious about the GWM Ora 5, chances are there are questions you’d like answered. Perhaps there’s something you’ve always wondered about electric cars, or maybe there’s a particular feature of the Ora 5 you’d like us to investigate.
Perhaps you want to know whether the advertised range is realistic. How long it takes to charge from a normal household power supply. Whether the rear seats are comfortable for adults. How it handles on a wet road. Whether the driver assistance technology is helpful or annoying. Or simply whether you could comfortably use it as your only car. Whatever it is, we want to hear from you.
What do you want to know about the GWM Ora 5? Send us your questions, leave a comment below or get in touch through our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube). We’ll be collecting your questions and building them into our three-month testing programme.
We’ll do our best to answer as many as we can, with proper real-world testing rather than guesswork. And if there’s something you’d particularly like us to put to the test, tell us. This is your opportunity to influence what we investigate.
An EV experience without the sales pitch
Electric vehicles have moved a long way in a relatively short time. They’re becoming an increasingly familiar sight on our roads, and more drivers are considering whether their next vehicle should be electric.
But questions remain. Range anxiety, charging infrastructure, purchase price, practicality and the simple question of whether an EV suits your lifestyle are all part of the conversation. We think the best way to answer those questions is to spend time with one.
That’s why we’re particularly looking forward to this three-month experience with the GWM Ora 5. We’ll be discovering what works, what doesn’t, what surprises us and what we’d tell someone thinking about buying one.
We’re not here to produce a three-month-long advertisement. We’re here to give our readers an honest insight into what it’s actually like to live with the car, day in and day out.
At the end of the experience, we’ll have a much better idea of where the Ora 5 fits into the real world – and hopefully we’ll have answered a few questions that you might have been wondering about, too.
So, the keys are in our hands, the battery is charged, and our three-month adventure is officially underway. Now it’s over to you.
This is gonna be a whole lot of fun
