• Good space for rear passengers
• But boot is tiny
• Ora 03 lacks clever storage

How much space is there?

Space up front is plentiful with good headroom, helped by the Ora 03’s tall roofline. There’s enough adjustment fore and aft in the driver’s seat for drivers of all heights, though it’s difficult to find a driving position where the steering wheel doesn’t block quite a large chunk of the infotainment display.

Space in the rear is good too. Though the tapered sides mean the particularly broad-shouldered might find their upper bodies a bit hemmed in, once again there’s plenty of headroom and good legroom for a small car. It’s on par with a Volkswagen ID.3 in this regard, and a little ahead of the MG4 EV.

Boot space and storage

The boot is less impressive, and it’s small for a car of this size. It’s just 228 litres in capacity, with a deep sill to hoick items over and a sharply raked rear window preventing you from carrying taller items. The rear seats do fold down easily, though they don’t leave a totally flat floor when they do. At least the tiny parcel shelf won’t be a problem to store.

Stowage for oddments on the inside is reasonable, with slim door bins, a small cubby under the armrest and a secure, grippy phone tray ahead of that equipped with wireless charging. Further forward still you have two cupholders, which are set rather low, and a large open tray for odds and ends.

Is it easy to park?

The Ora 03’s bulbous shape and small, high rear window means you’ll want to rely on its reversing camera and parking sensors. It’s not an especially large car, but it is wider than many of its competitors so you might find it slightly more difficult to squeeze into tight parking bays.

Safety

When tested by Euro NCAP the Ora’s predecessor, the Funky Cat, it scored a full five stars. While its crash scores were impressive it did particularly well in the safety assist category, aided by a vast collection of driver aids almost unheard of at this price point. It was so good Euro NCAP decided to name it the Safest Small Family Car for 2023.

The Ora 03 has adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping aids that allow it to drive semi-autonomously, as well as blind-spot monitoring and automatic parking tech. There’s also a driver attention monitor on the A-pillar that tracks your eyes to make sure you’re paying attention to the road and chides you if you look away for too long.

If ever there was a demonstration that Euro NCAP doesn’t tell the full story, though, the Ora 03 is one. Its lane-keeping aids are so intrusive that they’re borderline dangerous, constantly bleeping and tugging at the wheel to pull you back into what the car thinks the correct line should be – even if that means heading into the path of oncoming traffic on a narrow lane.

Want to turn them off? You’ll have to fiddle around with tiny touchscreen buttons. Not conducive to safety at all. GWM Ora has clearly had lots of complaints, however, as it says it’s introducing a new shortcut to turn this ’emergency steering function’ off.