Category: funky cat

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Chatting with the Dealer

Had a chat with a dealer today about the Ora Funky Cat.  They actually had some Ora people in providing some information.

The long range version of the Funky Cat and the GT version are coming to the UK soon.

As we know CarPlay is on its way. However, he did give me this info, which was that CarPlay works 99% of the time.  However sometimes it causes the display to go black. This though also causes the driver dashboard to go black as well. It’s this reason why they have delayed the release.

Also said this would be a dealer update and not an OTA update.

Also, the new Lightning Cat or Big Cat (the next Ora) will be available next year but they currently have models in Birmingham undergoing testing. 

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Funky updated

The Funky got taken to the dealer earlier this week, and as a result they gave Funky  two software updates. One was to deal with the motor overheating yellow turtle fault, the other, well not sure, but suspect it was the Gridserve charging issue.

I’ve not seen any other Funky Cats in the wild, so it was quite intriguing to see so many at the dealer (don’t think this counts as the wild). 

I was a little apprehensive driving Funky home, but everything was fine and I had no problems.

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The Yellow Turtle

Well that wasn’t such a nice experience.

Drove off to Sand Bay and as we drove through Worle, I had a fault with the Ora Funky Cat.  The reduced power warning light came on. Lost all power to the drive train. Pressing the accelerator didn’t work. I crawled to a halt, but managed to stop safely on the side of the road.

Turned the power off waited a few minutes and set off again. As soon as I slowed down for a junction it came on again and I lost power. 

Managed to crawl home, stopping and powering off.  Of course when the RAC arrived it had gone and didn’t come on during our test drive. I wasn’t sure though what to do about it.

This is the entry in the manual.

Reading on the web, it was apparent that this was down to the motor overheating.  However the motor would only generally overheat either climbing a steep incline or thrashing it on the motorway. I was doing neither of those things. I then read on the web that there may be a software issue where when the motor overheats, the coolant doesn’t do the job.

Spent some time sorting out an appointment for the Funky.

Yes I know it is meant to be a tortoise…

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Also not working

When I was considering an electric vehicle, I was concerned about where I could charge the car. Having failed to use the chargers at Queensway in Worle, I had seen that there electric charging points in the Carlton Street Car Park in Weston-super-Mare.

You can imagine my disappointment when I headed into town to to park at the Carlton Street Car Park and use their charging stations and they weren’t operational. There was no indication why they weren’t working, and no information on if and when they would be operational again.

So, I drove round to Tesco and parked in their car park instead.

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Couldn’t get them to work

When I was considering an electric vehicle, I was concerned about where I could charge the car. I had seen electric charging points around Weston, including some in the Queensway shopping centre in Worle, next to Aldi.

On a shopping trip I had planned to use these charging points. They did not work with my contactless debit card. However, despite downloading an app, I couldn’t get them to work. 

Having spent too much time trying to get them to work, I gave up and headed off to park in a “normal” space.

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Charging in Bristol

Drove to Bristol. Parked at a Health Club and Spa to charge the car. Checked with reception if I needed to register my car, I didn’t. I then went to plug the car in. I couldn’t get it to charge, so moved to the second charger, this time it worked.

I had some jobs to do, so I did those before heading back to the car. I didn’t do a full charge, but drove off to Cabot Circus.

I had intended to top up my charge using their charge points, but they were all full. So, I had to park in a “normal” space. I had sufficient charge to get home.

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Emergency Steering Function doesn’t work

Finally worked out why I was getting alerts with my Funky. I had the Emergency Steering Function enabled. This feature will ensure that you don’t drift off the road.

Well let’s just say it doesn’t work. Well it does work, just that it doesn’t work with the roads I drive on. After doing some “testing” I found that the system wasn’t getting confused with the lines (or lack of lines) on the road. It was also inconsistent.

So now I am turning it off when I start driving. I was also frustrated to see that despite switching it off, the car doesn’t remember that setting, so I have to turn it off every time I get into the car.

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First time charging

Drove to work today in Funky and at work set the car to charge. This was not as simple and as easy as I thought it was going to be. I think this was partly as it wasn’t as simple as plugging in the cables and the car charging. However I got there in the end. I didn’t though manage to get to a 100% charge.

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It has arrived

After much thought my new car has arrived. It is a GWM ORA Funky Cat First Edition.

I had been thinking about making the move to electric for some time. In the end I went with a GWM Ora Funky Cat. I will be writing about my experiences with it and publishing them on the blog.

This is a fully electric car and I chose the red and black model.

I’ve never driven an electric car before. The Ora Funky Cat is an electric car, so is also an automatic. Also I’ve only driven an automatic once before, and that was a hire car in Scotland back in March 2006 and that was a (huge) Volkswagen Passat estate. The Funky Cat also has an electric parking brake, so no handbrake. 

It was with some trepidation that I sat in the car and drove off…