Changan Deepal S07 Review 2025

The Changan Deepal S07 is the car that launches this storied Chinese brand in the UK. Changan can trace its roots back more than 160 years and has been making cars since 1984. It’s used this experience to create a fairly decent electric SUV for a sub-£40k price tag. It’s far from perfect but is better than some key rivals — read about its strengths and weaknesses in our full Changan Deepal S07 review.  

The Changan Deepal S07 is yet another new Chinese electric SUV competing in an ever-expanding market. It has no end of rivals, from fellow Chinese models such as the Leapmotor C10 to the ever-popular Tesla Model Y and the likes of the Volkswagen ID.4 and Ford Explorer.

So, what sets the Changan Deepal S07 apart? Design is one attribute, reckons the firm. It was styled in its Italian studio and does look sleek from certain angles, although despite its chiselled surfaces, it’s ultimately still rather forgettable. Softer lines are the order of the day for the smaller Changan Deepal S05, due in showrooms in early 2026 — looking less divisive could bolster its eventual popularity.

The interior is more impressive, with a high-end appearance and tactile feel. It’s spacious in the rear, even for taller adults, although drivers may be less impressed by the front electric seat’s lack of adjustability. Of course, it’s touchscreen-heavy which is bewildering at first, but handy shortcuts and reasonably logical menus will help you slowly figure it all out. 

Deciding which Changan Deepal S07 suits you best is simple — there’s a solitary model with just one electric motor and battery combination. Performance is swift with a 0-62mph time of 7.9 seconds, although we'd happily trade some of that urgency for improved energy consumption.

Where the Changan Deepal S07 really stands out is in terms of pricing. It costs just £39,990, with everything included — even down to metallic paint and a choice of interior colour schemes. Many rivals cost more and the sub-£40k price means it escapes the punitive Expensive Car Supplement. With a seven-year warranty thrown in for reassurance, it’s an interesting overall package, albeit one that’s not yet as well-rounded as it could be.

Changan Deepal S07: Range and charging times

The Changan Deepal S07 has a big 80kWh battery, but ‘only’ a 295-mile WLTP EV range. This suggests efficiency could be better — after all, the Volkswagen ID.4 with a 77kWh battery has a 340-mile range. But according to the dash readout, we averaged a respectable 3.6mi/kWh during our busy day-long test drive. The standard heat pump should help in winter but the jury’s still out here.

Disappointingly for such a large battery the Deepal S07 has a sub-300-mile range, suggesting efficiency could be better. Rapid charging speeds are anything but, with 93kWh better described as ‘tepid’. Charging from 10-80% using such a connection takes a yawning 48 minutes.  

Changan hasn't officially quoted charging times when using a 7.4kW domestic wallbox charger, although a sensible guesstimate would be in the 13-14-hour ballpark for a flat-to-full recharge.

Changan is proud that the Deepal S07 has been given a UK makeover at its swish engineering facility in Birmingham, where it's had a presence here since 2010). When they drove a Chinese-spec model on British roads, the engineers knew changes were required. Cue a rapid overhaul that included retuned steering and UK-specific dampers. 

At first, it feels unconvincing. The standard 20-inch wheels give a firm, jittery quality to the ride, particularly at motorway speeds where it can be stiff and unyielding over expansion joints. There’s also noticeable tyre noise as speeds rise — it’s very obvious above 50mph — although that's partly down to the double-glazed front side windows which do such a good job of eliminating other noise.

The steering takes some getting used to as well. It’s overly light and there’s little on-centre positivity which, combined with a snatchy response to inputs, means you have to concentrate at first. It doesn’t have the firm, confident progressiveness of, say, the Skoda Enyaq or the Volkswagen ID.4. There’s also a sense of the car rolling in response to inputs on its soft springs, although again, it’s something you subconsciously get used to. 

Where the Changan Deepal S07 does fare better is on more challenging roads. Surprisingly, it responds well to press-on driving, remaining stable and assured on twisting roads. You can push harder and it doesn’t degenerate into soft, uncontrolled wallow, which facilitates confident progress. Here the ride does a decent job of shrugging off rougher roads. 

Sure, a Ford Explorer is better to drive and the Changan's steering is still too artificial, despite grippy Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tyres, but the UK-specific tuning of the Deepal S07 means it fares better than some of its Chinese rivals on more typically-UK roads.

The Changan Deepal S07 has a single 218PS electric motor driving the rear wheels — that's your only choice when it comes to power. Acceleration from 0-62mph takes 7.9 seconds and top speed is limited to 112mph. The healthy 320Nm of torque helps to offset the 2073kg kerb weight. 

There isn’t an abundance of surge but it’s positive enough in everyday driving. The accelerator pedal can be a bit sharp, particularly in Sport mode, but it’s generally fluid enough. Traction is excellent too, with none of the wheel-squeal and over-reliance on dim-witted traction control systems that can afflict some Chinese EVs. 

As it’s mounted way out back, you can’t hear any whine from the electric motor. What’s more obvious is the slightly odd musical chimes that faintly play whenever you’re in motion. You almost don’t notice them at first — it’s as if the radio is on its lowest-possible volume, tuned to a vanilla station — but they're there whenever you’re moving. It mysteriously stops as soon as you come to a halt, before starting again as you creep away. Maybe there’s a setting buried deep in the infotainment to adjust it.

There's immediate reassurance here, with Euro NCAP awarding the Changan Deepal S07 a full five-star rating in 2024. Better still, it has a quite superb 95% rating for adult occupant protection, plus 87% for child occupant, 74% for vulnerable road users and 77% for safety assist. 

There’s a boggling array of standard driver assistance tech, which we won’t bore you with here. A couple of highlights include an orange blind spot warning logo that flashes into the head-up display, making it particularly visible and useful. Plus a speed limit warning that instead of beeping and bonging, actually says out loud that you’re exceeding the limit. It’s curiously less irritating than a warning chime... And thankfully easy to turn off by swiping left on the touchscreen.

In fact, the Deepal S07's driver assistance systems are generally unobtrusive. The lane-keep assist can actually be left on and will only occasionally fight you. This is in complete contrast to the truly terrible system on the Leapmotor C10, for example. Again, this is thanks to extensive UK-specific development. 

The Changan Deepal S07 can tow braked trailer loads of up to 1500kg. Interestingly, its only option is an electrically retractable tow bar, costing £800.

However, as this takes the price over £40,000 and thus into Expensive Car Supplement territory, we can’t imagine anyone choosing it. Best investigate dealer-fit options if you’re planning on towing with one.

The Changan Deepal S07 will see taller drivers going straight for the electric seat controls when they first get in — and then being surprised that the seat doesn’t go low enough for them.

This raised seating position means some will be aware the top of the windscreen is a little too visible in their eyeline than they’d like. The seat base is also too flat — as though an extra range of up/down adjustment at the front of the cushion is missing. The steering wheel has decent adjustment, though. 

The button-free interior is commonplace these days. You’ll get in and be overwhelmed by all the menus in the single central screen at first. Two quick tips are swiping down from the top to call up app shortcuts including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto while swiping left for shortcuts to disable ADAS functions.

A row of shortcuts at the bottom of the screen appear configurable too, although we only had an entire day with the car, so stood no chance of figuring this out. 

With the gearlever moved to a Mercedes-style column stalk, the centre console is open-plan. There’s a wireless smartphone charging pad covered in a nice, grippy Alcantara-style material. A cooling slot helps stop your phone overheating when using it which we found worked well.

On the doors, instead of handles, there are electric release buttons, which could be bigger and more prominent. At least the electric window switches operate in conventional directions unlike those in the Leapmotor C10. 

There isn’t a conventional wiper stalk, so you mastermind wiper controls through the touchscreen. This sounds a nightmare, but there is a button on the end of the indicator stalk for a single quick-wipe and the washers. These automatically calls up the touchscreen shortcut menu when pressed, so you can alter settings. Not ideal but better than it could be. 

In the rear, the Changan Deepal S07 is very impressive. There’s lots of legroom, with plenty of kneeroom and space for feet under the front seats, which you’d hope for, given how high they're mounted.

The bench itself is particularly plush and supportive, plus it’s nicely finished elsswhere in the back — no second-rate materials for the top of the rear doors here. A touch-sensitive panel in the middle gives rear climate control access plus there's even a button to raise and lower the rear sunblind. 

Changan has quoted several different figures for the Deepal S07's boot space, from 445 litres to 510 litres with the rear seats in use — the latter figure is the one shown on the customer website. It looks decent and well-shaped, while an electrically-operated tailgate is standard. No figure has so far been quoted for when the 60/40-split folding rear seats have been lowered.

There’s also what’s claimed to be a 125-litre frunk. It sounds super-large and at the launch Changan showed an image f three children happily sat in it. We were therefore surprised when we popped the bonnet and noted that, while wide and useful, the space was rather on the shallow side. Still, it is useful for stowing charging cables as there’s no space under the boot floor for them. 

The Changan Deepal S07 is very nicely finished inside. The materials and assembly have an almost-premium feel, with tactile seat upholstery and a nice-to-hold steering wheel.

You’ll struggle to find anything low-rent inside, which is bound to be another wake-up for European brands who often use lower-grade plastics in places your hands are less likely to encounter regularly. This really doesn’t feel like a sub-£40k car interior.

We could spend most of the review going through the Changan Deepal S07’s infotainment system. The best place to start is with the wow factor of its ‘sunflower’ ability to move. Just like sunflowers seek out the sun, Changan told us, so the 15.6-inch touchscreen can arc both left and right. It sounds a bit of a gimmick, but we actually found it useful. If nothing else it’s certainly a showroom talking point. 

The infotainment system is staggeringly comprehensive — and overwhelming — with multiple menus and deep-scroll levels of options within each. There are many Easter egg surprises within there, which geeks will love, but 99% of owners may never discover them. 

The touchscreen is supported by a head-up display with augmented reality (AR). It’s decent, with lots of useful icons popping up when relevant, plus the AR navigation rather cleverly beams ‘follow me’ arrows on the turning you need provided you don’t simply default to the wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connections. 

Infuriatingly though, because the driver’s seat is mounted so high, it’s hard to clearly see the head-up display, even when it’s adjusted to its lowest-possible setting. Unless we dipped our head down, it either appeared semi-distorted, or cut off the top section entirely. A pity, as there’s clearly a lot of thought that’s gone into it. We imagine that if you’re under six-feet tall, it should still be fine.

The Changan Deepal S07 costs £39,990, with literally everything you can imagine included as standard. There are no extra-cost options and you don’t even have to worry about metallic paint, as that’s thrown in. It has a range-topping specification that undercuts many of its entry-level rivals. 

Metallic paint is standard and you can pick from five colours, including regular black, white and grey, plus fancier Nebula Green or Sunset Orange. Unusually, there are three interior colours too — alongside the usual black there's white or even orange for those who want something a bit different.

The Changan Deepal S07's sub-£40k price tab means owners will escape the £425 a year additional Expensive Car Supplement VED rate between years two to six, which is a big win, and Changan assures us it’s put in plenty of effort to ensure UK servicing should be cost-effective, easy and convenient. 

If you're able to have a domestic wallbox charger installed at home then do so. This will enable you to access EV-friendly tariffs which could see your off-peak charging costs as low as 7p/kWh. In many instances this will be less than a tenth of the cost of using public rapid chargers, facilities we only advise using when necessary and not as an alternative to having a wallbox installed.

Due to their attractive 3% Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax band, electric cars are especially attractive for company car drivers — considering the wealth of equipment fitted to the Changan Deepal S07, this could prove to be a popular selection among user choosers.

The Changan Deepal S07 range is very straightforward, with just one trim and, for now, a single electric motor and battery combination. 

Standard features on the Changan Deepal S07 include:

• 15.6-inch positionable multimedia touchscreen
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Gesture recognition
• 14-speaker premium sound system including driver headrest speaker
• Battery heat pump
• Electrically adjustable front seats with heating and cooling
• Faux leather upholstery
• Panoramic glass roof
• Ambient LED interior lighting
• 20-inch alloy wheels
• Head-up display with augmented reality navigation
• Keyless entry
• 360-degree surround-view parking camera system
• Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) power output

Options are limited to just one — an electric tow bar. Even metallic paint is included as standard.