Remember Great Wall’s Volkswagen Beetle clone? Well, it’s finally got a name: meet the 2022 Ora Punk Cat. Yeah, Punk Cat. Let that sink in for a second.
Great Wall, the same brand that’s come up with the LEMON platform as well as another EV named the Ora Good Cat, decided to let folks on the internet decide on the name. The result is this: the Punk Cat.
From teasers, it was already clear that Great Wall was using the 60’s Beetle as an inspiration. Now that they’ve shown it in full, it shows just how blatantly it copies the beloved bug.
The overall shape aside, the Ora Punk Cat carries traits such as the round head- and taillights (they’re lit with LEDs though), a two-tone paint job, and even chrome bumpers.
Inside, it’s even wilder with teal, tan, and lavender making their way to the color palette. It’s also very caricature-like in its retro execution. It does have a giant center screen—something all too common in Chinese cars nowadays, and a rotary knob gear selector.
Ironically, Great Wall still hasn’t revealed any mechanical details on the Punk Cat—what motor or battery size it would have.
However, given the underpinnings is shared with the Ora Good Cat, expect something along the lines of a 145-horsepower, 210 Nm of torque electric motor driving the front wheels. Range for the Good Cat is pegged between 401 to 501 kilometers depending on the battery size, something that the Punk Cat would likely get as well.
This is what the last generation of VW Beetle should have been, a retro style EV, had they had the foresight to remedy the line, seeing peoples lackluster response to the last gen's Golf internals.
ReplyDeleteTurning classic bodyshells into retro style EVs seems to be all the rage in America right now (with the plethora of off the shelf Tesla parts), if Great Wall prices it right it will surely undercut the market with a totally new car with comprehensive warranty. It may look like a knockoff but it the styling is actually decent, especially the creative interior.
If I have the choice to buy a samey compact crossover EV or something like this, despite not being a "princess", I'd take this. Bravo to the engineers.