Great Wall Motors powers up electrification plans

Great Wall Motors’ local electrification strategy will kick off with a hybrid Haval H6 due later this year, laying the groundwork for the Ora EV range it says could be here as soon as 2022.

The Ora brands, which sits under the GWM Group's umbrella alongside Haval, produces the intriguingly named Good Cat city car, Lightning Cat concept sedan and Punk Cat – which is a retro-inspired VW-Beetle lookalike.

“The Good Cat is already on sale [in China],” GWM marketing boss Steve Maciver said. “That’s a car on sale in China for less than the equivalent of AU$35,000 today.”

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The new-generation Haval H6

“So there may be a chance we can bring that car to Australia at a very attractive price, and that’s what we’re trying to do, but there’s still work.”

Maciver says the New South Wales Government’s recently announced EV incentives might help bring forward Ora's arrival.

From September this year, EV buyers in NSW are eligible for significant incentives in the form of subsidies and waived stamp duty, while the Government has committed to invest $171m into EV infrastructure.

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The Ora Good Cat, known as the Haomao in the Chinese domestic market, packs a single motor driving the front wheels with 107kW and 210Nm. It has two batteries offering either 401 or 501 kilometres of range.

Reports say the Good Cat includes adaptive safety technology with autonomous driving in mind. And the Good Cat isn’t the only EV under consideration, with a larger sedan called Lightning Cat also poised to take on the Model 3.

“The Lightning Cat is another one of those concepts revealed at the Shanghai Show, and it’s close to production-ready,” Maciver said. “And again we have our hands up.”

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In the meantime, the Haval H6 Hybrid will be hoping to snare market share from rivals like the popular new Toyota RAV4 experiencing supply delays.

Maciver says the H6 Hybrid will be “priced competitively” and arrive at an “upper spec” level in the H6 range, which begins at $30,990 drive-away for the 2WD Premium.

Haval will build the H6 Hybrid at its Thailand plant recently bought from General Motors, which once produced the Holden Colorado pick-up ute.

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GWM Haval has filed 199 patents on the hybrid system under the H6, which is scaleable to work as either a plug-in or pure hybrid, front or all-wheel drive and across the GWM model range.

The H6 Hybrid on its way will feature a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a Dedicated Hybrid Transmission featuring 130kW/300Nm of electric output and a two-speed motor.

This variant is claimed to hit 100km/h from rest in 7.5 seconds, achieving a combined output with a combustion engine for 180kW and 530Nm.

The H6 Hybrid can also drive on electric power alone. While the hybrid system is available for large SUVs and even pick-up utes, it is not a consideration for Australia in the meantime.