GWM ORA kickstarts year with 1,000 Funky Cat sales

GWM ORA UK has handed over its 1,000th ORA Funky Cat to a customer in Exeter who chose a ‘First Edition+’ variant from City West Country.

Toby Marshall, managing director, GWM ORA UK said: “We are thrilled to kick off 2024 by celebrating a significant sales milestone, with 1,000 ORA Funky Cats now on UK roads. Having launched just over one year ago with a single model variant in our line-up, we’re delighted with our progress so far. In 2024, we will continue with our ambitious growth plans, scaling core retail infrastructure and introducing new products to the UK market.”

Having started sales in late November 2022, GWM ORA has predominantly focused on creating a strong network of trusted retailers in its first year of operations. So far, the brand has established 30 points of representation across the UK

GWM ORA said it now plans to open one new retail site a month on average in 2024, to help support steady volume growth and increase brand awareness.

GWM ORA parent company Great Wall Motor (GWM) has also posted strong sales growth across global markets, with 1,230,704 vehicles sold in 2023. This represents a 15.29% YoY growth, with the brand exceeding 1,000,000 units sold annually for eight years in a row. Overseas market sales reached a record high for GWM, with 316,018 units sold, returning a YoY growth of 82.48%.

Great Wall Motor (GMW) recently announced it was to transition from a ‘house of brands’ to a ‘branded house’ architecture across Europe. In the UK market, this will mean GWM will adopt a phased approach to the implementation of the new brand strategy, with a focus on introducing a new naming convention for GWM ORA products. GWM ORA’s launch model, ORA Funky Cat, will adopt the model name ‘ORA 03’ from mid-January, with additional models to follow this same convention.