Sazgar Engineering has brought some groundbreaking machines to Pakistan in recent years. Starting from a commercial rickshaw to the powerful crossover HAVAL, each of these cars has proven itself to be a competitive product. Now, the automaker is all boosted up to launch a complete EV ORA 03 in collaboration with the GWM.
Flashback to GWM
Great Wall Motors Co., Ltd. (GWM) is a Chinese automaker that works jointly with the British automotive brand Mini Cooper. GWM has five brands, including Ora, Tank, Wey (premium), and Haval (flagship model).
Exterior
Its exterior is quite inspired by the Mini, with a futuristic feel and quality build vibes, eliminating all the fancy grille, badging, and character lines. ORA 03 comes with 18-inch wheels, adding a bulky look to the car. It looks like a city car with a compromised manual boot space, not suitable for longer routes. Featuring concealed lights, defoggers, brake lamps, and parking sensors at the rear gives this hatchback a unique look from all the EVs available in Pakistan.
ORA 03 Interior
Surely, this small car has the cabin space you would ask for. With decent legroom, headroom, and the panoramic roof on the top keeps the daylight flowing inside, which makes it look even larger. Its dashboard comes in four different combinations of terra rosa red, beige, all-black, and greenish-blue colors with premium upholstery and fine stitching.
It comes with a reverse dial indicator similar to that of the HAVAL Jolion, keyless start, switch off ignition button, front armrest, wireless charger, USB port, 12 V charger, 360-degree camera, adjustable steering, adaptive Cruise Control, headlight adjustment, Traction Control buttons, and electric driver seat.
Battery and Performance
What distinguishes this hatchback from its competitors is its 400 km range and fast charging capability. The OEM is providing a 7 kW charger that helps charge this machine in 6 to 7 hrs., whereas, with a commercial charger, it gets up to 80% in 30 to 40 minutes. Having a 47.9 kW Lithium-ion battery makes it durable in the long run.
GWM ORA 03 Price
This hatchback is available in CBU models at 8.9 million PKR, and its delivery time is 3 to 4 months.
Ora 03 is a starter electric car best suited for family drives within the city with a quiet but effective performance. We are sure this will turn upright for the Pakistani market.
Cars are getting expensive and EV are further steps ahead of conventional ones. How come one can afford such cars with negligible charging facilities across country and floating financial scenario. Very one is bringing such EVs from China, MG , Haval , and this one, DFSK etc and all are waiting for customers. All making money 💰 and trying to take roots but situation is FLUID and uncertain with diminishing hopes.
This car comes with three battery sizes, this one with the 47.8kWh battery is the base version. The standard come with 59.1kWh battery and the GT (mentioned in the video) comes with the range topping 63.1kWh battery.
The standard and GT both have over 500KM of driving range. If we are realistic, that means that the base version available here in Pakistan can manage around 320-350 Km of range. However both the standard and GT versions would do over 400KM easily in real world conditions.
But unfortunately here in lies the rub. We are cheated from getting the over 50kWh battery versions in Pakistan because of the very arbitrary battery limit that has been made part of Pakistan’s EV policy for some strange reason. (Any EV with battery over 50kWh is taxed at a very high rate)
If that was not there, even the MG 4 EV would be cheaper and we would even get the more upscale versions of the MG 4 EV like the MG 4 XPower; The small hatchback EV you use to embarrass Audi Etron GTs! 🤯😎👌
*https://youtu.be/f2ikVe8IhPE?t=366
But alas, Pakistan’s outdated EV policy is the culprit in this story. If that was a proper policy without this very arbitrary 50kWh battery limit, we would easily get the standard and GT versions of the Ora 03 within the 1 caror mark and even the MG 4 would be well below that.
One last clarification from the PW video about the usual claim that lithium batteries are very expensive. No they are not! In 2010 the average per kWh battery cost was $1200 (per kWh). In 2022 per kWh battery pack cost had come down to $132. That is HUGE! And just this year alone (now that battery development is seriously picked up and in gear) the industry leaders such as CATL and BYD etc. have predicted that battery prices will come down by, at least, a further 50% (from their 2023 prices).
So at the end of the day our own EV policy is a serious limiting factor. If pure EVs are not the way forward for now for Pakistan, even EREVs (EVs with engines that only act as generators for the EV system) will be out of price range for us because, as batteries have become cheaper, standard EV sizes have shifted to 50kWh and over. Thus making them too expensive to import. Also I don’t think our outdated EV policy even recognizes EREVs. 🤔
Pakistan’s EV policy needs to be updated by people who actually know what the heck it is they are doing; not based on the biased “recommendations” of our local (going on thirty years now) obsolete ICE car assemblers with the right “approach”.