Original by New Energy View (ID: xinnengyuanqianzhan)

3859 words, 9-minute read

Great Wall Motors' Ora, a brand that claims to be "a new energy vehicle that loves women more," is slapping its chairman Wei Jianjun in the face with real actions.

"Consumers may feel short-term benefits from buying cars at low prices, but for those automotive brands that have already gone bankrupt, their used car values have plummeted, almost equivalent to scrap iron, and repair services are hard to find." Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, recently made another golden quote.

His words are still fresh in our ears. Although Ora hasn't gone bankrupt, various signs indicate that this risk is significantly increasing. In fact, even without going bankrupt, if the brand declines, used cars won't be much more expensive than scrap iron. If you don't believe it, ask how many Ora 4S stores have closed nationwide, and repairs have driven many car owners crazy.

The latest news is that Ora has announced that it will stop operating its independent app and plans to migrate its functions to Great Wall Motors' unified app. This move has sparked strong protests from Ora female car owners, far exceeding the expectations of Great Wall's decision-making layer.

1. Public outrage over app migration

Ora claims to "love women more," but in reality, Ora doesn't understand women – who would get so upset just because the logo of a car brand's app is ugly?

Women really would.

Li Rui (pseudonym) from Shanghai, a white-collar worker who recently started her job, was attracted to the Ora White Cat in 2020 by its simple yet fashionable design. After comparing multiple electric vehicles on the market, she ultimately chose it as her mode of transportation.

"I particularly like the color scheme of this car. It feels like it was tailor-made for me." She happily shared on her WeChat Moments.

However, recent news of Ora's app shutdown and migration has sparked a wave of resistance among Ora female car owners.

Great Wall Motors announced that its Ora ORA app will be officially delisted and stopped operating by the end of the year. All subsequent services, charging management, and remote control functions for Ora car owners will be integrated into the Great Wall Motors app.

Image/Ora Migration App Announcement

Source/Internet Screenshot from New Energy View

As soon as the news broke, it immediately sparked heated discussions online.

Many loyal users like Li Rui expressed great disappointment. "We chose Ora not just because of the product itself, but more importantly, because of the warm and friendly community atmosphere it creates. If even that is going to disappear, it's really hard to accept." Li Rui's attitude resonated with many Ora female car owners.

'Give me back my Ora mom-born app!'

'I don't want to share an app with steel straight men!'

'Great Wall's logo is ugly!'""'Refuse to be crammed in with ugly pickup trucks...'"

Who would have thought that a simple app migration would anger so many people. Social media platforms are flooded with news about Ora's app shutdown and migration. The public relations department of Great Wall Motors probably didn't expect that the app migration would cause such an uproar.

Regarding the reason for this app migration, Ora explained that it was to "implement Great Wall Motors' 'ONE GWM' brand strategy, including a comprehensive upgrade of the five major brand car owner communities, online malls, remote vehicle control, and other functions and content within the Ora ORA app, all of which will be aggregated and migrated to the Great Wall Motors app."

Comprehensive upgrade? Aggregation and migration? Li Lin (pseudonym), a car owner from Guangzhou, said she downloaded the Great Wall Motors app to try it out and found that the one-click charging reservation function available in the Ora app was not only hard to find in the new Great Wall Motors app but also had an "ugly" page design.

Image/Ora/Great Wall App

Source/Internet Screenshot from New Energy View

'It's both complicated and ugly,' she summarized her experience with the new app.

Many users are concerned that the original service functions will be weakened or even disappear, affecting daily usage. Although Great Wall Motors has promised to integrate related functions into the main app, the inconveniences in actual operation have still disappointed many car owners.

'Can't see maintenance appointments, can't check maintenance records,' 'The new app can't connect to Bluetooth according to the instructions,' 'There's no in-car machine renewal in the Great Wall app,' 'No vehicle manual function,'... said multiple Ora car owners.

Among them, the function frequently complained about by Ora car owners is that the Great Wall Motors app has canceled the 'sign-in' function originally available on the Ora ORA app. Many car owners who have been signing in for hundreds of days on the old app have seen their thousands of points suddenly become useless numbers.

Faced with the sudden storm of public opinion, the Ora team quickly responded, promising to continue retaining the core functions of the original app and strengthening communication with users.

In fact, many female car owners chose Ora because of the 'emotional value' it provided through its previous design and promotion. No cute girl wants her 'little cat' to be with 'rough and tough' pickup trucks and off-road vehicles. From this perspective, it's not hard to understand the fierce reactions of female car owners.

2. The past and present of 'cats'

Xu Ying (pseudonym) from Shandong bought her first car, an Ora Good Cat, for 114,000 yuan in 2021. Over the past three years, this car has accompanied her on every workday commute. Although she has only driven 15,000 kilometers, Xu Ying talks enthusiastically about this car.

Image/Ora Good Cat

Source/Internet Screenshot from New Energy View

'I really like it, and it drives very comfortably,' said Xu Ying, who has already migrated to the Great Wall app. 'Except for the ugly interface, it's acceptable.' She doesn't use the app much; she mainly checks the lock status, window status, and battery level. Since she doesn't have her own charging station, she doesn't use the one-click charging reservation function, and she doesn't sign in regularly, so 'as long as the car drives well, I think the ugly app is fine.'

Xu Ying's attitude actually shows that car owners still like the Ora brand. Even those car owners who are angry about the app migration are complaining because they like the brand.

According to the official announcement, the Ora brand was officially launched on August 20, 2018. It is an independent new energy brand of Great Wall Motors, which manages its new energy vehicle business as a brand. It is also the first independent new energy vehicle brand among mainstream Chinese auto companies.

Ora pioneered the industry with its brand positioning as 'a new energy vehicle that loves women more.' Relying on its unique market positioning – small pure electric vehicles focused on female users – as well as a youthful and personalized brand image, Ora has successfully attracted a large number of consumers.

Ora's first test model, the Ora iQ, was officially launched at the Chengdu Auto Show in the same year it was established. However, due to the high price and unfashionable design of new energy electric vehicles at that time, this 'pioneer' failed.

The Ora Black Cat was officially launched on December 26, 2018, with a subsidized price range of 59,800 to 77,800 yuan. At the global pre-sale launch ceremony held in Baoding, online reservations for the Ora Black Cat exceeded 777 units in just 273 seconds.

Image/Ora Black Cat

Source/Internet Screenshot from New Energy View

The low-price strategy, online aesthetics, and female-exclusive car settings made the Ora Black Cat an overnight success. For a time, the streets of major cities were filled with the graceful figures of many Black Cats, and most of the people getting out of them were fashionable young ladies.

The success of the Black Cat catapulted Great Wall Ora into one of the hottest new energy brands at the time. Building on this success, Ora successively launched multiple models such as the Ora White Cat, Good Cat, Ballet Cat, and Lightning Cat. There were also rumors in the automotive circle that Ora would launch models like Punk Cat and Cherry Cat.

In 2021, Ora achieved a cumulative annual sales volume of 135,000 units, setting a peak for the brand. After reaching this peak, Ora began to decline due to deviations in brand operations.

Just when Ora was at its peak, the Ora Good Cat was exposed in the 'chip gate' incident. The Qualcomm chip originally advertised for the Good Cat was replaced with a less powerful Intel chip, causing quite a stir.

Image/'Chip Gate' Incident

Source/Internet Screenshot from New Energy View

'I experienced the whole incident firsthand,' said Xu Ying. After buying the car, the 'chip gate' was suddenly exposed. At that time, she also joined the rights protection group. The initial solution offered by the 4S store was to refund 10,000 yuan in charging fees, paid in monthly installments, but everyone disagreed. Later, it was changed to a one-time refund of 10,000 yuan and a lifetime warranty upgrade for the entire vehicle.

It is rumored that Great Wall Motors spent 400 million yuan to resolve the 'chip gate' incident. Later, because the profits of the Black Cat and White Cat were insufficient to support brand development, Ora simply abandoned these two models that had made significant contributions at the beginning of the brand's establishment and instead focused on the Lightning Cat and Ballet Cat models, which had higher selling prices and better profit contributions.

However, the market does not follow human will. The more you want to earn more money from consumers, the more they will vote with their feet. Due to the sluggish sales of the Lightning Cat and Ballet Cat models, some dealers have abandoned sales or switched to an order-based sales model, with a delivery period of up to two months. At the same time, in addition to incomplete models and few ready-made cars, the number of Ora dealers is also decreasing rapidly.

3. Production and sales dive, will Great Wall save the 'cats'?

Official data shows that the market performance of the Ora brand has also shown a clear downward trend.

In the first three quarters of 2024, the total sales volume of the Ora brand decreased by about 20% year-on-year, and its market share dropped from 6% in the same period last year to 4.5%. In September of this year, Ora sold 5,486 units, a year-on-year decrease of 45.25%. From January to September, Ora's cumulative sales volume was 47,200 units, a year-on-year decrease of 39.25%, making it the brand with the largest sales decline under Great Wall Motors.

There are multiple reasons for this situation. The most prominent is product quality issues. In addition to the aforementioned Good Cat chip downgrade incident, the Ora brand has had several other notable recall cases, either due to braking failures or battery pack hazards.

Many car owners have shared their experiences online, complaining about high vehicle failure rates and inconvenient repairs. Some car owners have even said that they had to rent other vehicles during the repair period, incurring additional costs. These quality issues have not only affected the normal use of cars by car owners but also severely damaged the brand image.

Controversies over after-sales service have also had a significant negative impact on Ora. Customer complaints mainly focus on poor service attitude and low service efficiency. One Ora car owner in Shanghai could not contact the local after-sales service center for several days after the vehicle malfunctioned and had to seek help through social media to get a response.

Such situations have occurred in multiple places, revealing obvious deficiencies in Ora's after-sales service network construction and personnel training. The media has also reported on the uneven distribution of Ora after-sales service outlets. Especially in third- and fourth-tier cities, car owners often have to travel long distances to find the nearest service center, undoubtedly increasing users' maintenance costs.

In fact, Ora's situation is just a microcosm of Great Wall Motors. In recent years, Great Wall Motors, Ora's parent company, has encountered significant challenges.

According to the latest sales data, Great Wall Motors sold 108,400 units in September 2024, a decrease of 10.88% compared to 121,600 units in the same period last year. The cumulative sales volume from January to September was 853,800 units, a year-on-year decrease of 1.18%.

In the increasingly competitive new energy vehicle market, technological innovation capability has become one of the key factors determining a company's success or failure. At the technical level, Great Wall Motors still has shortcomings in some key areas. For example, in terms of power battery technology, although Great Wall has cooperated with multiple suppliers to develop new battery solutions, it still lags behind the industry's leading level in terms of energy density and charging efficiency.

Regarding intelligent driving, which is increasingly attracting consumer attention, Wei Jianjun once bluntly stated, 'Great Wall's intelligent driving comprehensive level is the best in the industry.' However, this obviously has the suspicion of 'self-praise.' After all, similar statements have also been made by the relevant person in charge of Xpeng Motors, Huawei, and Baidu.

However, Xpeng Motors has deployed its 'end-to-end' intelligent driving system to the Xpeng MONA M03, priced at around 100,000 yuan, while Great Wall has only tested it on the more expensive WEY Blue Mountain, and the Ora, priced similarly to the Xpeng MONA M03, has not been involved.

Image/WEY Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Test

Source/Internet Screenshot from New Energy View

As Internet thinking continues to penetrate various industries, consumers' expectations for automotive brands have long surpassed the product itself and now focus more on the overall user experience. This means that companies must not only provide high-quality products but also build a comprehensive service system covering every link from pre-sales consulting to after-sales support.

It is worth mentioning that amid the trend of auto company leaders supporting their own brands, Wei Jianjun, the head of Great Wall Motors, seems to be closer to Tank and WEY and somewhat alienated from Ora, inevitably giving consumers the illusion that Great Wall Motors is about to abandon Ora.

The industry believes that if Great Wall Motors cannot make up for these gaps as soon as possible, it may lose more market share in the future. Especially in the field of new energy pure electric vehicles, where the Black Cat and White Cat have ceased production, and consumers are unwilling to pay for the more profitable 'cats,' while the 'cats' that can catch mice are still not produced in a timely manner, the situation of Ora's pure electric 'cats' is worrying.

Great Wall Motors needs to make careful choices and accelerate its strategic moves.