New Ora ES11 2021: Great Wall's electric sub-brand reveals retro Nissan Leaf rival and new battery with up to 405km range

Great Wall’s electric sub-brand, Ora, has revealed a new car and new technology alongside its Haval sister brand’s new SUVs and the diesel version of the Great Wall Cannon ute at the Chengdu motor show.

The new car is not quite as long but slightly wider and taller than the Nissan Leaf, with dimensions measuring in at 4235mm long, 1825mm wide, and 1596mm tall.

It sports bold styling with a grille-free retro look, channelling cars like the Volkswagen Beetle and Mini Cooper. The ES11 represents another product that Great Wall hopes to woo younger buyers with in the future, alongside the Haval ‘Big Dog’ off-roader and its Wey Tank 300 spin-off.

Drivetrain details on the ES11 were not revealed, but its smaller sibling, the almost Kia Soul-looking R1, gained a new battery option packing a whopping 405km range in a city-sized package.

When queried on the Ora brand and the chance of Great Wall electric vehicles making it to Australia, the brand’s local representative, Edward Mason Jeffries told CarsGuide: “We’ll always look at it and study it, if there’s an opportunity to bring that kind of electrified product here, we’d be keen. It has to be right for the Australian market though.”

“The guys at Ora have some good technology being developed,” he said. “The right car with the right battery, at the right size… Something Nissan Leaf sized? We wouldn’t be afraid to bring something like that here.”

Great Wall’s Ora sub-brand uses battery technology from its own battery development brand, Svolt.

The Svolt brand made a notable splash earlier this year for also developing cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries, which it says give “longer cycle life, better safety and higher energy density” as well as addressing the issue of cobalt in mass produced battery cells. The raw material is scarce, expensive, and often controversially sourced from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The battery supplier says this new “L6” battery will support electric vehicle ranges of up to 880km and is set to power a “high-end” Great Wall Motors product next year. The brand said it also received a mass order for the new battery from an as-yet-unnamed European manufacturer.