GWM or Great Wall Motors, has officially released an independent brand of new energy vehicles – ORA. It is the first mainstream car maker to perform brand management of the new energy car business. iQ, the first model of ORA will be launched in Chengdu Auto Show. Following the announcement of the joint venture with BMW it is another significant move made by GWM in the new energy sector.
The Vice President of GWM and General Manager of ORA, Ning Shuyong said, “Ten years ago GWM established a research group of new energy vehicles, and made layout and devotion to R&D. GWM insists on positive research and development of new energy vehicles, instead of changing from oil into electricity or making policy cars. More consideration is given to the healthy development of the new energy vehicle market after the policy retreats.”
ORA: ‘New Generation Electric Car’ of New Urban Youth
GWM has named the new energy brand ORA in a bid to commemorate the world’s famous mathematician- Mr. Euler. Mr. Euler is well known for his ‘Euler’s Theorem’ and ‘Euler’s Formula’. He has not only made great contributions to mathematics, but also moved mathematics forward into physical field, including ballistics, geostatics, hydromechanics, etc. GWM decided to name its new energy vehicle after ‘Euler’ because mathematics is the foundation of human scientific and technological innovation, and the core and premise of auto design, research and development. Those who are not good at mathematics cannot make good automobiles. ‘ORA’ implies that GWM will continue to be meticulous and insist on making good automobiles.
ORA is the combination of Open, Reliable and Alternative:
- Open means open and win-win business mode;
- Reliable means being reliable, high-quality, motivation and mileage free of anxiety;
- Alternative means unconventional, intelligent network connection and automatic drive for pure electricity.
ORA brand logo derives from the exclamation mark, which means to salute and greet to salute Mr. Euler, to greet users and the world. ORA hopes to bring surprise to people, and represents GWM’s determination to create amazing products for users at the same time.
ORA is positioned as a new generation of electric car. Different from traditional car-making enterprises and new car-making enterprises making power like changing from oil into electricity with difficult delivery and high pricing, ORA has a profound car-making accumulation and control of quality and safety which are not available in the new car-making enterprises. At the same time, it is an independent brand of new energy in traditional car-making enterprises, integrating the current leading intelligent network connection technologies.
ORA is specially made for urban travel advocating more stylish, smarter and safer ways to travel. ORA’s vision is to become a No.1 brand in electric cars. ORA’s targeted users are the new generation of urban youth who have an open, friendly, happy and confident attitude to life, who love challenges, who are reliable and responsible, who have their own value judgments about life and work, who don’t go with the flow, and who are the slash youth of new urban life.
Brand-New ME Platform Builds Three Major Models
In the past ten years, GWM has invested over 10 billion RMB to research the development of cutting-edge technologies such as new energy, intelligent network connection and automatic drive, to create an exclusive platform and products for new energy. ORA pursue “Being the best at the same level”. As the exclusive pure electric platform created by GWM for ORA, ME platform combines the advanced technology of the current intelligent network connection and makes substantial breakthroughs in space, safety and efficiency ranging from the chassis to interior and exterior decorations.
Firstly, ORA can maximize the wheelbase to greatly enlarge the back space of the car under the condition of the shortest car body at the same class. Secondly, safety is taken as the core: in terms of passive safety, the proportion of high strength steel body is over 60% and as many as 8 pieces of hot modeled steel panels are applied; in terms of active safety, the full series are equipped with 6 air bags, AEB system and L4 level driving assistance system. For the electricity safety, conventional puncture, extrusion and fall conditions are subject to strict testing, and the vehicles can be powered off within 60 milliseconds after vehicle collision.
ME platform is of lightweight design under the premise of ensuring safety. In terms of motivation, the density of the highly integrated electrical driven system used by ME platform will reach 160Wh/kg. The vehicle can be driven for about 10km per KWh based on the system efficiency up to 97%.
Based on ME pure electric platform, ORA has created three products: iQ, R1 and R2. iQ is the first model of ORA. It is positioned as a new generation of pure electric compact crossover SUV which is equipped with Farasis ternary lithium-ion power battery and BorgWarner permanent magnet synchronous motor, with comprehensive extended range of 360 Km. The overall design style of iQ is concise, fashionable and full of a sense of the future. The interior design with beauty of simplicity is favored by young people today due to its penetration design of left and right air conditioning vents, and the sense of suspension created between the center console and the leather sole. The advantages, such as big back seat space, and the design and convenience of hatchback luggage trunk, are more obvious than those of the same type of electric cars.
The R series models has the lightest and the longest extended range, the largest space, the finest workmanship and the most intelligent interconnection in the same level of cars. The lovely and retro ORA R1 is positioned as a new generation electric car due to its fashionable and individualistic, nifty and lovely design style. The space mascot ORA R2 is positioned as the more intelligent electric car due to its cute appearance and little more science fiction.
The new energy strategy of GWM started its layout and R&D as early as 10 years ago, incorporating the technologies of multiple countries around the world such as China, German, Japan, Austria and Korea, and common wisdom of modeling experts. Thus, ORA products meet global sales standards.
Distribution of New Energy and Creation of Ecosphere
According to the planning, GWM will create four platforms and four brands, and derive many products based on such four platforms by adopting three technical routes: hybrid + pure electric + hydrogen fuel.
Besides ME platform, high-end plug-in hybrid platform-Pi4 platform has been applied in plug-in hybrid model – WEY P8. Its core is to support hybrid two-axis drive technology. The front and rear axles can be completely decoupled to realize three driving models including front drive, rear drive and four-wheel drive. The hydrogen-powered XEV platform is a special platform for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Due to a certain commonality between parts and power system layout of electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles, a common platform for electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles will be developed in XEV project, so that the pure electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles of GWM can be both produced by such platform in the future. Furthermore, the joint venture between GWM and BMW will also create a new platform.
As the sole member of the Hydrogen Council in Chinese automobile brand, GWM has established a hydrogen fuel R&D center and created a hydrogen power XEV project platform. The first new hydrogen fuel car out of the platform will be launched before 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The coming automobile technology and transportation technology will pay more attention to the connection of people, vehicles, roads, social environment, and integrate management and control. GWM adheres to the principles of openness and win-win cooperation in the field of intelligent connection and automatic drive, and has cooperated with Huawei in 5G field and with Baidu in automatic drive field.
In terms of automatic drive, GWM has established an automatic driving test field in Xushui Base which is 34.6 Km away from the core zone of Xiong’an New Area. The testing environment has V2X communication network like 5G/LTE-V/DSRC, high-precision maps and differential navigation base station, covering crossroads, five-fork roads, ring roads, S bents, simulated flyovers, obstacle courses and other special roads. Urban and suburban traffic conditions can be fully simulated in more than 200 kinds of early planning application scenes.
The world auto industry is entering into an era of truly subversive innovation. GWM launches ‘ORA’ brand as its starting point and penetrates into the field of new energy vehicles in full stride. It is the choice of the times and the inevitability of historical development. GWM, which has always insisted on making automobiles steadfastly, will promise to the times that it will bring more surprises to users and the market with technical innovation.
