Changan Deepal S07 review

Following on from the success of M&S’s Colin the Caterpillar cake, it wasn’t long before other supermarkets caught on to the trend and started producing their own versions. In a way, the new Changan Deepal S07 is comparable to one of those spawned variants of the caterpillar cake. 

In fact, it looks like its designers have been keeping a very close eye on the Tesla Model Y, giving the S07 a multitude of Tesla-like features, including the ability to turn the infotainment touchscreen into a bonfire. 

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. You see, the S07 has been designed with value for money in mind, costing the same or, in some cases, less than rivals including the Kia EV6 and Skoda Enyaq, while offering loads of standard equipment and a healthy electric range. 

So, is that enough to give the S07 what it needs to beat those rivals and the best electric SUVs? Read on to find out… 

What’s new

- September 2025: Deepal SO7 launches in the UK. Electric SUV with 80kWh battery, 295-mile range; 215bhp electric motor drives rear wheels only. Seven-year/100,000-mile warranty. Just one version available

Every Deepal S07 comes with the same 215bhp electric motor, powering the back wheels. As a result, on paper, putting your foot down will get you from 0-62mph in 7.6sec, which is faster than both the Kia EV6 Air and Skoda Enyaq 60 but a fair bit slower than the Tesla Model Y. 

In the real world, the S07’s acceleration feels more leisurely than its official figures suggest, but there’s more than enough power to get you up to motorway speeds without issue. 

The electric motor is fuelled by an 80kWh (total capacity) battery and that gives you an official range of 295 miles. That’s short of the Model Y Rear-wheel drive’s 311 miles, but that car will cost you more to buy. Meanwhile, similar-priced versions of the EV6 and Enyaq come with smaller batteries and fall short when it comes to range. 

Around town, the S07 rides quite nicely, remaining controlled and soaking up all but the largest potholes without any thuds. As speeds increase, though, the S07 becomes less settled, developing a constant fidget that sends a vibration through the wheel and moves you around in your seat. 

It never gets so bad that it’s uncomfortable, but the more settled Audi Q6 e-tron, EV6 and Enyaq will all be better companions on a long drive. 

They’ll handle better, too. You see, while you have enough grip to tackle a country road safely, the S07 leans more than its rivals through corners and its steering is very numb. Indeed, even in Sport mode, you never really know what the front wheels are up to and that doesn’t give you much confidence to press on. 

Speaking of driving modes, you have three to choose from – Eco, Normal and Sport – and they’re the only way to change the amount of brake regeneration that you feel when you lift off the accelerator. Refreshingly, when you do need to use the actual brake pedal, the S07’s is easy to regulate, making it easier to smoothly slow to a stop than in rivals including the Cupra Tavascan. 

You’ll notice more road noise at motorway speeds than you will in the S07’s rivals, while standard-fit double-glazing helps to reduce the amount of wind noise that you hear as you drive along. 

“Being a big electric SUV, it’d be unfair to expect the S07 to handle really well, but even in normal driving, I think it could do with more feelsome steering.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

Sitting in the Deepal S07 feels very similar to the Tesla Model Y, with the high driving seat making you feel almost as if you’re looking down on the dashboard. Indeed, even if you put the seat in its lowest position, you still feel like you’re sitting high in the car. 

It does, at least, line you up well with the steering wheel and pedals. Plus, it’s quite easy to tailor the driving position to your preference, thanks to an electrically-adjustable driver’s seat (including lumbar support) fitted as standard. 

Forward visibility is good, thanks to a driving position that lets you see over the bonnet and slim windscreen pillars that don’t impede your view at junctions. Rear visibility isn’t quite as impressive, with thick rear pillars limiting the view when you look over your left shoulder and the large headrest blocking the view of your blindspot on the right. 

Luckily, you get blindspot monitoring and cameras that show you a feed on your left or right, when you indicate, helping to reduce the issue slightly. Parking, meanwhile, is made easier by front and rear sensors and a 360-degree camera. 

A lot of the S07’s interior tech takes its inspiration from the Model Y and, as a result, you won’t find a driver’s display behind the steering wheel. Instead, your speed, remaining charge and everything else useful is shown to you on the infotainment touchscreen. That means you have to take your eyes off the road to check simple things. 

Luckily, to get around that, Changan has also given the S07 a large head-up display. It’s a definite improvement over the Tesla and clearly shows you things like your speed and sat-nav instructions right in front of your eyes. 

Infotainment is fed to you on a 15.6in touchscreen that dominates the dashboard and can even electrically swivel from left to right. While that’s likely not a feature that you’ll use all that often, it is useful for keeping glare off the screen when the sun is blaring through the panoramic glass roof.

The graphics on the screen are sharp and all the buttons are large, making them easy to identify and press. You also get plenty of standard features, including built-in sat-nav, DAB radio and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring. 

The problem is that the screen often didn’t respond to our prods, unless we gave it a fairly hard press. That’s not ideal when you control absolutely everything through the touchscreen – including your lights, windscreen wipers and air conditioning. Even with the handy shortcut menu that appears when you swipe left on the screen, it makes everything way more distracting and difficult while you’re driving along. 

There’s no denying that the S07 has plenty of showroom appeal, with soft touch vegan leather on every obvious surface and even some wooden trim on the doors. You can even choose to have the interior in three different colours – including orange – at no extra cost to add a little extra pizazz. 

Once you start tapping around, however, the materials aren’t as impressive as they seem. You see, the soft materials on top of the doors and dashboard aren’t all that squishy and the fake wood trim is actually a fairly cheap-feeling plastic. It’s fair to say that rivals including the Kia EV6 and Tesla Model Y feel plusher inside. 

“I was quite impressed by the quality of the S07’s 14-speaker standard stereo, with even loud songs sounding crisp.” – Jack Mortimer, Content editor

There’s plenty of space in the front of the Deepal S07, so even those measuring six-feet tall will have more than enough head and leg room to get comfortable. Better still, the wide interior means that you won’t be rubbing shoulders with your front seat passenger. 

Front storage is generous too, giving you a pair of large door bins, a decent glovebox, a cubby underneath the centre console and a deep, cooled cubby within the front armrest. You also get a pair of trays to store your phone on, one of which houses wireless charging with a cooling function. 

In the rear, even your tallest friends won’t struggle for leg room, the S07 just about matching the spacious Kia EV6. Head room, on the other hand, isn’t as impressive. Indeed, due to the sloping roof line, anyone measuring over six feet tall will find that their head is touching the rooflining. 

You’ll be able to fit three people sitting abreast with few issues and the flat floor means plenty of space for the middle seat passenger’s feet. Like the outer seats, head room will be the limiting factor, with the middle seat actually being raised slightly. 

At 510 litres, the S07’s boot is bigger than the EV6’s but smaller than that of the Cupra Tavascan, Skoda Enyaq and Tesla Model Y. Even so, it’ll be more than enough for a big food shop or a couple of buggies. The useful square shape and lack of load lip makes it easy to lift bulky items in, too.

When you need more storage space, you can split the rear seats in a 60/40 configuration and fold them flat, but that’s less versatile than the 40/20/40 split that you get in the Model Y. 

“You don’t get any space below the S07’s boot floor, but I found that the 125 litre frunk more than made up for that fact. It’s bigger than you get with most rivals and is genuinely useful.” – Dan Jones, Senior reviewer

As a cash purchase, the Deepal S07 will cost slightly more than the entry-level Kia EV6 and Skoda Enyaq, but both of those rivals come with smaller batteries and less equipment. If you want to match or beat the range, you’ll need to go for much higher trim levels or the Tesla Model Y, all of which will cost you more. 

Given the price tag, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Changan has had to skimp when it comes to standard kit, but that isn’t the case. In fact, every model comes with 19in alloy wheels, LED headlights with automatic high beam, an electric tailgate, dual-zone air conditioning, heated and ventilated front seats and adaptive cruise control. 

Less impressive is the 93kW maximum charging speed, which is way below that of the EV6 and Model Y. As a result, those rivals will charge from 10-80% in a much shorter time than the 35 minutes that it’ll take the S07 to get from 30-80%. 

Both the Changan brand and the S07 are too new to have featured in the 2024 What Car? Reliability survey. Should anything go wrong, you get a generous seven-year/100,000-mile standard warranty, matching Kia, while the battery is covered by a separate eight-year/120,000-mile warranty. 

One of the worries when buying from a new brand is that, should anything go wrong, you’ll be left high and dry waiting for parts to arrive. To prevent that, Changan has already established a large parts warehouse in the Midlands and is working with various dealer groups to make servicing less of a hassle. 

When it comes to safety, the S07 was awarded the full five stars by Euro NCAP and had impressive scores when it came to protecting adults up front and children in the rear. To help prevent an accident happening in the first place, you get plenty of standard safety equipment, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert and rear collision warning. 

“We’re yet to see how reliable the S07 is, but I find it encouraging that Deepal has already sorted an aftersales network and offers a long warranty.” – Claire Evans, Consumer editor