- Handsome styling attracts lots of stares
- Excellent cabin quality and practicality
- Loaded with standard equipment
- Infuriating driver monitoring and lane assist systems
- Massive touchscreen takes a while to learn and almost everything is controlled by it
- Strange and expensive service schedule
Without a doubt, the theme for 2025 in the Australian motoring landscape will be newness. Why so? Because there’s a flurry of Chinese brands on their way to trying to make a success in the land Down Under. Last year, we saw brands like Smart, Xpeng and Zeekr launching here, and so far in 2025, brands like Geely are also confirmed for an Australian arrival. One such new arrival brand is Deepal, which announced its local presence late last year and now we’ve had the opportunity to test its first product in Australia. Should you buy a 2025 Deepal S07? Let’s find out.
What’s a Deepal, you ask? Imported into Australia by Inchcape – the same company that imports Subaru and Peugeot and recently cut Citroen from the local market – Deepal is a sub-brand from Chinese company Changan Automotive, which is a standalone company but also partner to Ford and Mazda in the Chinese market. Deepal has nothing to do with those brands – except for Mazda using one of its products as the basis for the Chinese market EZ-6 – and is on a global expansion path with the S07 as its bread and butter model for now, though more models like the L07 sedan are on their way.
How much does the 2025 Deepal S07 cost to buy?
For now, there is just one 2025 Deepal S07 model in Australia, and it’s priced from $53,900 plus on-road costs (or around $58,500 drive away, depending on location). In China, a plug-in hybrid version of the S07 exists and that could be added to the Australian range at a later date.
Deepal S07 standard equipment:
- 19-inch alloy wheels with a tyre repair kit
- Dusk-sensing automatic all-LED exterior lighting
- Rain-sensing automatic wipers
- Panoramic glass roof with proper sunshade
- Rear privacy glass
- Keyless entry and start
- Heated and auto-folding mirrors with auto-dipping in reverse
- Electric tailgate with kick-to-open functionality
- Tri-zone automatic climate control with rear vents
- 10-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat with memory
- 4-way electric front seat adjustment
- Heated and ventilated front seats
- Heated leather-wrapped steering wheel
- Synthetic leather upholstery
- 15.6-inch touchscreen that tilts towards the driver or front passenger
- Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
- Satellite navigation
- AM/FM radio
- 14-speaker Sony sound system
- 2x USB-C ports, 1x USB-A port
- 40-watt wireless phone charger (with fan)
- 64-colour LED ambient lighting
- Virtual reality head-up display
- Inbuilt dashcam
S07 safety equipment:
- Seven airbags (including a front centre unit)
- Auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection
- Lane keeping assistance with lane departure warning
- Adaptive cruise control with adaptive lane guidance and traffic jam assist
- Traffic sign recognition
- Intelligent speed limit assist
- Blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert (with braking)
- Safe exit assist
- Auto high beam
- 360-degree camera
- Front and rear parking sensors
While the Deepal S07 is yet to be tested by ANCAP for crash safety, it was tested by Euro NCAP in 2024 in achieved a five-star rating with scores of 95 per cent for adult occupancy protection, 87 per cent for child occupancy protection, 74 per cent for pedestrian detection and 77 per cent for safety assistance.
S07 colour range:
- Comet White
- Lunar Grey
- Eclipse Black
- Nebula Green
- Celestial Blue
- Cosmic Yellow: $880
- Sunset Orange (featured on our test car): $880
The S07’s interior is available in either black or orange.
S07 options:
- 20-inch alloy wheels: $1,100
There are quite a few rivals to the S07, including the top-selling Tesla Model Y (from around $61,000 drive away), Kia EV5 (from $56,700 drive away), Toyota bz4X and Subaru Solterra twins and the Skoda Enyaq.
We consider the entry level EV5 Air to be the S07’s closest rival, which is actually just under $2,000 less to buy than the S07, though the Deepal does feature a lot more equipment like a panoramic sunroof, larger central screen, electric tailgate, tri-zone automatic climate control and more speakers. The Kia counters with a few features like a massaging driver’s seat and live services, but when it comes to standard equipment, the Deepal is better value for money.
How far can the 2025 Deepal S07 travel on a charge?
For now, just one variant of the S07 is to be offered in Australia and it uses a 79.9kWh ternary lithium battery that gifts it with up to 475km of claimed range (WLTP). Deepal claims consumption of 18.6kWh/100km and using a DC fast charger, it can be charged at up to 92kW for a claimed 10 to 80 per cent charge time of approximately 50 minutes – AC charging is rated at up to 11kW for a zero to 100 per cent charge in around eight hours. The single S07 variant in Australia – for now – uses a single 160kW/320Nm motor located on the rear axle.
In our testing, we achieved a good energy consumption rating of 15.6kWh/100km, which is less than a lot of the EVs we’ve tested and less than Deepal’s claim. That’s perhaps because of the S07’s single motor layout or that it is a generally efficient EV. The EV5 features quite similar 160kW/310Nm outputs for its single electric motor – though it’s front-wheel drive and not rear-wheel drive – and a lesser 400km (WLTP) range from its smaller 64.2 kWh battery, though buyers can upgrade to the Long Range EV5 Air and its 555km of range from 88.1kWh. As for charging times, the EV5 can be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 36 minutes, or 14 minutes quicker than the S07.
What is the 2025 Deepal S07 like to drive?
Based on parent company Changan’s ‘EPA’ platform, the 2025 Deepal S07 is – in most respects – quite a comfortable car to drive. It’s not firm and sporty, nor is it soft and luxurious, rather, it treads a fine line and it settles reasonably quickly after larger bumps, though can feel a touch fiddly over constant bumps. In our opinion, an EV5 strikes a better balance, though the Model Y feels heavier than both.
Thanks to the rear-wheel drive layout, the S07 can be reasonably fun to drive, though the stability control is quite quick to shut down any antics. Its handling is solid without being sporty, with reasonable feel through the steering wheel, and it feels nicely nimble too thanks to its quick steering. Body control – sometimes a problem with EVs thanks to their weight – is positive.
With 160kW of power and 320Nm of torque on offer, the S07 is no rocketship, but it does offer reasonable pep that we think will satisfy most buyers. Deepal claims a 0-100km/h time of 7.9 seconds – 0.6 seconds quicker than the EV5 Air – which is fine for the target market. What isn’t fine, however, is the Deepal’s active safety assistants, namely the infuriating driver attention monitoring, the speed limit assistance and the lane keeping assistance, which all need retuning because they are far too intrusive.
The driver monitoring constantly beeps at you if you’re looking anywhere but straight ahead, while the speed limit assistance incorrectly reads speed signs to think you’re speeding and then constantly ding at you and the lane keeping assistance can be dangerous at times because it constantly pulls you to where it thinks lanes are. Badly tuned systems like these really detract from a lot of modern cars’ driving experiences and what’s worse is – in the case of the S07 – how difficult they are to switch off and that they don’t stay turned off the next time the car is switched on.
How practical is the 2025 Deepal S07?
The interior of the S07 appears to be quite cookie cutter from a quick first glance – a massive centre screen, high transmission tunnel and lots of synthetic leather throughout – but look closer and there is an appreciatively higher level of detail than we’ve seen from cars like the Model Y. The materials used on the dashboard are nicely padded, and even though the leather used on the seats is synthetic, it feels good and not typically hot in temperature like a lot of synthetic trims are. Unlike a lot of EVs, the lovely panoramic glass roof has a proper blind to shield occupants from the hot Australian sun and in our experience, the climate control works well – especially the fan mode, which swivels the air direction.
Centre of the cabin is a huge 15.6-inch touchscreen that tilts to the left or right – you can set it how you want it – and controls the vast majority of the S07’s features. Screen quality is good – though not to the Model Y’s level – and there are a number of shortcut tabs at the bottom of the screen for features like temperature control, demisting and even the rear wiper. But at first use, the system can be overwhelming because of the sheer amount of functions on offer and that the menus aren’t that intuitive to use. Functions like switching on the headlights can take three or four screen presses and that would be fine if automatic mode – for example – switched the car’s lights on in rain, but it doesn’t, so you need to do it yourself and that takes your eyes further off the road.
There are still quite a number of cool functions to the S07’s screen, however: it can be set to privacy mode, bonfire (or snow) modes, constant cabin mode, camping privacy mode and it even has a cabin camera to take selfies. These functions give the S07 a genuine USP, if you’re wanting such functionality from your car – though the “Hi Deepal” voice control functionality is not great. Like the voice control, we wish the driving position had more refinement – the driver’s seat is too flat and needs under-thigh angle adjustment, while the seat itself is too pronounced as well. The huge head-up display is helpful as the only speedometer is on the screen, though polarised sunglasses render it useless.
The S07’s cabin is practical, however, with a big box underneath the central armrest, a second tray underneath the centre console, door bins that can hold larger bottles, a big glovebox and reasonable cup holders in the centre console. The 40-watt wireless charger features a cooling fan, though doesn’t provide an raised portion to account for the bulky cameras on modern smartphones, so this writer’s iPhone 15 Pro Max didn’t charge well.
The rear seat of the S07 is excellent – it’s comfortable, spacious and well featured. The floor is completely flat and both leg- and headroom are pretty good, even for taller passengers. There are two ISOFIX points and three top-tether points for child seats, while the door pockets can hold medium-sized bottles and there are also map pockets, a separate climate zone, one USB-C port for charging a device and even a touch controller to move the front passenger seat and open or close the sun blind.
The boot of the S07 measures 445-litres with the seats up and 1,385L with them folded. The boot itself isn’t too large for a mid-size SUV, it only features two hooks for hanging bags off and the under-floor storage is shallow as well. Not only is a Kia EV5’s boot 68L larger but it is far more practical because of its handy storage features. But the S07 does have the biggest front boot we’ve ever seen: measuring 125L, it will happily swallow a carry on suitcase and unlike a lot of EVs, is more than just storage for the charging cable.
What warranty covers the 2025 Deepal S07?
Deepal Australia covers its new cars with a seven-year/160,000km warranty and an eight-year/240,000km warranty for the battery, as well as 12 months roadside of assistance. That sounds positive but any Deepal used for commercial purposes (including ride sharing services) is instead covered by a paltry one-year/120,000km warranty. The S07 also has strange service intervals: the first one takes place within six months or 5,000km (whichever comes first) and then once-yearly or every 10,000km further after that, so at 18 months/15,000km and so on. The full 7.5-year/90,000km capped price servicing program costs $2,891.43 (or around $425 per year).
In comparison, the Model Y is covered by a four-year warranty, while the Kia EV5 is covered by a seven-year/150,000km warranty and both are covered by an eight-year/160,000km warranty for the battery. Tesla doesn’t quote service pricing but an EV5 costs $2,431 over seven years/90,000km (or $347 per service, which is not only cheaper but more convenient than the Deepal).
Should I buy a 2025 Deepal S07?
Based on our first experience of the 2025 Deepal S07, we think it’s worth consideration if you’re after an electric mid-size SUV. That’s because it’s well priced, loaded with equipment, features a good quality and spacious cabin, is handsome to look at and is offered with a great colour range. It’s also efficient based on our testing, and even though its performance is nothing special, it’s definitely got more than enough spunk for most buyers.
But there are still some improvements to make to the S07 to make it more competitive: the overzealous active safety systems need refinement as they currently add stress to each drive and disabling them is difficult, while the peak charging speed is nothing special and the service and warranty program is bizarre (if you’re planning to use it for anything but private use, you only get a single year of warranty, for example). But the Deepal S07 itself provides another good option to consider for an electric SUV and we’re keen to see what the company has in store for the future.
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