Another month, another Chinese EV you've probably never heard of. This time it's the unforgettably named GWM ORA Funky Cat. ORA itself, is a sub-brand of the Chinese automotive giant Great Wall Motors (GWM), which specialises in affordable EVs. The 'Funky Cat' name is exclusive to the European version of this car, and you'll probably be pleased to know that there's no badge saying this on the retro-styled bodywork. 

GWM is touting ORA Funky Cat as a serious contender to mainstream rivals such as our current Best Electric Car, the Cupra Born. 

When we first saw the Funky Cat in pictures, we thought it was more of an EV supermini rival. With chrome highlights, blobby design and contrasting white roof and wing mirror covers of our First Edition test car, we think Mini. In the metal, the Ora still looks a bit Mini from the front, but the rest of the design is taller and longer. 

Other exterior design highlights from the front are the twin bonnet humps, although there's no twin cam underneath. The sides are more standard apart from some lower detailing for the doors and the upswept roof line. The most divisive part of the Funky Cat's design must be the rear styling. There are no rear light clusters for starters, with the lights instead split between the bottom edge of the rear window and the bottom of the rear bumper. As such, there's no rear wiper, which makes reversing difficult with road muck, but you do get a roof spoiler. 

In line with the premium exterior look, the interior feels equally high-end with its retro-look quilted vegan leather-trimmed seats, soft-touch duo-tone interior plastics and the Mini-like chromed switches for the heating. More modern are two 10.25in screens - one for the instruments, the other a touchscreen for the infotainment. Space is plentiful in the front and back, the driving position is good and the front seats supportive. Not so good is the tiny, shallow 228-litre boot. 

The Funky Cat is well-equipped too, but most interesting is the tech, which includes adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping aids that will allow it to drive semi-autonomously. There's also blind-spot monitoring and automatic parking tech, plus a driver attention monitor on the A-pillar that tracks your eyes to make sure you're paying attention to the road. The upshot is that the ORA scores a top five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating. 

Underneath, the Funky Cat gets a 45.4kWh (usable capacity) battery, combined with a 170hp electric motor driving the front wheels. The result is a slightly disappointing 193-mile range, which we found  more like 170 miles in everyday use. Although we were told a 'GT' version is incoming, with more range. 

When it comes to charging, the ORA should take seven hours for a full charge via a 7kW wall box. The fact it can only be topped up at a maximum of 64kW means a fast charge from 10-80% will frustratingly take more than 40 minutes.

With its 8.3 second 0-62mph figure, the Funky Cat is no ball of fire to drive - in fact on a couple of occasions it really struggled to put its power down, which we think is down to the tyres. Good thing, as it's not that sharp to drive either. The ORA's soft springing equals some body roll in corners, yet it has a disappointingly hard edge around town. Elsewhere, the steering wheel is on the big side and the steering itself lacks feel.