The Changan Deepal S07 is a 2030-esque 'spaceship' on wheels. But does its plush cabin redeem its overcomplicated tech and iffy ride quality?
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The Changan Deepal S07 is a 2030-esque 'spaceship' on wheels. But does its plush cabin redeem its overcomplicated tech and iffy ride quality?
“It looks like a spaceship!” said the gent outside the mini market, some 20km outside of Cullinan. When I whooshed in, I clocked him chowing down on a Pieman’s. He has since forgotten all about the pastry he was once clutching. He circled the ‘spaceship’ once. He asked what a Deepal was. I told him it was a Changan. “An electric one”. He looked at me, slightly puzzled. “Changan?” I nodded before he walked off without another word.
Just one of many well-warranted strange encounters during my stint with the Changan Deepal S07. I’m used to attention grabbers, but this, for a car that’s an unknown quantity, is pretty rare. It’s undoubtedly the 2030-esque styling that does the heavy lifting here, also something I couldn’t quite do justice in these photographs. On several occasions, I’ve just found myself staring at it. It’s oddly meditative. But this brings me on to my hypothesis… It’s a blueprint of near-future mobility packaged and priced for 2026. PhD level discernment that…
On the road, the S07 has little in the way of theatrical torque surges. It’s cool, calm and linear, with modest power figures of 160kW and 320Nm produced from the 80kWh battery and rear-axle electric motor. It’s an easy, familiar drive with a drive selector stalk mounted on the steering column, with the most unconventional aspect being the one-pedal drive for battery recuperation. Strangely, though, the one-pedal operation is contingent on whether you want the Augmented Reality projection on the head-up display. I can’t see a direct relationship between these features, but switching AR off also makes the one-pedal drive disappear. Possibly an unintended oddity? That’d be my guess.
On the ride quality side of the spectrum, it lacks that same forward development and refinement that’s evident, especially inside the cabin. The driver-to-car connection is sparse with a sanitised, light steering feel. Show it a corner, and physics makes it squirm thanks to that 2,100kg kerb weight. On a perfectly tarred blacktop, it’s compliant enough, and that’s certainly a positive. But, on a less-than-perfect municipal backroad, the ride quality is, to be charitable here, a work in progress. The chassis struggles to absorb even slight municipal neglect, and while it’s not undrivable, I expected more from a car that’s R4,100 shy of a million bucks.
And inside, my futurist theory holds up. Maybe it’s preconceived inklings stemming from Changan’s abrupt prior departure from South Africa that left me slightly taken aback by an interior that is… this impressive. It’s by no means ostentatious or drowning in screens. There is one, but we’ll get to that. It feels spacious, and the surfaces feel premium. The design looks considered, and there’s a deliberate architecture to the flow. Heck, Changan talks about golden ratios, and I believe them. The dashboard flows into the door panels. On the wood-trim armrest is a button for opening the door, purely because a conventional handle is too garish, and there are sleek toggles for opening the windows. It’s almost dignified, and this from a brand most South Africans are still learning to pronounce. It’s Chang-an, if you were curious…
But the “minimalism” concept is also what, ironically, overcomplicates things. Remember the screen? Changan embedded near every car function within the central infotainment system, and here I mean everything. The stalks are for bare basic operations. The rest are all centrally located. Activate wipers? Repeatedly prod some screen menus. Get a speed readout? Glance at the screen. Mirrors too. Yes, yes, mirrors are a set-and-forget situation, but it’s nonetheless frustrating. Then there’s no dedicated driver display, and instead, all information is projected onto the heads-up display. Aesthetically, it’s great for that intended sense of minimalism, but the projection is angled too high up, and the contrast simply isn’t enough to make easy visibility possible in all driving conditions. This is worsened when donning a pair of sunglasses. It can likely be adjusted on the screen, but I just about figured out how to adjust the side mirrors…
At R995,900, Changan’s Deepal enters a price point that inevitably invites a measure of scrutiny. Yes, electric vehicles command an inherent premium with government levies and surcharges, but positioned at the upper end of the price spectrum for Chinese cars, and given that EV adoption still hovers under 2%, widespread adoption in the immediate future looks less than likely.
Images: Deon van der Walt
Then again, there’s the look of the thing. It had onlookers craning their necks, pedestrians grabbing their camera phones, and a gent outside a convenience store halting progress on his Pieman’s. It really is sensational to look at, and in a market like South Africa’s, which favours status first, value second, and then utility, its lines – which BTW include an Aston Martin-inspired rear ducktail – may just go a long way in drumming up interest. We’ve seen it before with the likes of the dramatically-penned BAIC Beijing X55, but then again, that wasn’t electric. Oh, and did I mention that its electric motors create a carnival-esque soundtrack as it crawls around a parking lot? That explains a lot.
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