CarBrandLogos archive · Ora · 2018

OraBlack Cat (R1)

A tiny electric hatch priced for buyers who had never owned a car.

Photo: User3204 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Ora history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Ora Black Cat (R1), then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Great Wall created Ora as an electric-only brand for the cheapest end of the Chinese market, and this was its most important car. Launched as the R1 and later renamed, it was a small five-door on a dedicated electric platform, with a front motor, a single-speed drive and a price that competed with used petrol cars rather than new ones.

2019 Great Wall Ora Black Cat · User3204 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

The styling drew notice, a soft, round, retro-flavoured shape that invited comparisons with several European city cars, and it sold well enough to make Ora one of the higher-volume electric brands in China at the time.

In production

It did not survive the economics. When battery raw material prices rose sharply in 2021 and 2022, cars sold at this price stopped making money, and Great Wall withdrew it in 2022 in favour of larger, more profitable models.

At a glance