China is still proving itself to be the wild west of the automotive world. While some Chinese brands have invested big bucks on strengthening its own brand image by hiring foreign talent, others are still stuck blatantly copying the design of more established makes.
Joining the likes of the Landwind X7, Big General, and the SS Dolphin, is this upcoming new EV from ORA, Great Wall Motors’s dedicated EV brand.
The car will be revealed in its entirety at the upcoming Auto Shanghai, but it doesn’t take a design expert to see that this one’s clearly inspired by the Volkswagen Beetle.
ORA’s known for their retro-styling including the oddly-named ORA Good Cat, but none have copied a design so brazenly. This yet-unnamed ORA EV features several of the Beetle’s design cues such as the two circular silhouette, chrome-surround on the headlights, rounded and flared wheel arches, and circular taillights.
Inside, the ORA retro EV continues with strong nods to the Beetle along with its half-ring steering wheel and tons of chrome.
Of course, there’s one key difference, and it’s that the ORA EV will have four doors whereas the original only sported two doors; it’s worth mentioning that Volkswagen did experiment in making a four-door Beetle in the 1970s though.
As for power, ORA hasn’t mentioned anything specific, but it’s likely to share the very same platform as its other EVs. If that’s the case, it’ll use the brand’s Lemon EV platform making about 143 horsepower and 210 Nm of torque driving the front wheels.
It remains to be seen how Volkswagen will react to ORA’s new EV, seeing as how VW has no ties with Great Wall Motors, and does, in fact, collaborate with GWM’s rivals: SAIC Motor and FAW.
ORA is saying its new Beetle-inspired EV harks back “to the age of princesses” which equates to its positioning towards women.
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