New Changan Deepal S05 2026 review: a pale imitation of the best electric SUVs

Verdict

The Changan Deepal S05 has its merits, like the impressive amount of space, bountiful standard kit list and better onboard tech than many of the Chinese cars we’ve tested to date. However, all of them are overshadowed by the sub-par driving experience, particularly the clumsy handling. We’d very much like to know exactly which roads in the UK this car was supposedly tuned on. Hopefully Changan carries out some additional chassis tuning sharpish, but even with that we feel this is a curious leftfield option in the mid-size electric SUV segment, at most. It’s not a serious threat to the best around. 

A Chinese business person, a British engineer and an Italian designer walk into a bar, they have a good time, some things happen and this is the result of their dalliances: the new Changan Deepal S05. It’s here to challenge none other than the reigning Auto Express Car of the Year, the Skoda Elroq, and numerous other talented contenders in the mid-size electric SUV arena like the Ford Explorer and Kia EV3. 

Changan may be the oldest carmaker in China but it only started selling cars in the UK late last year, so don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with the name. What’s meant to set it apart from the countless other brands that have arrived recently is that its cars are designed (at least in part) by a team in Turin, Italy, and are powered by British engineering. The company opened a brand-new powertrain R&D centre in Birmingham in 2019, and tunes cars on our roads. 

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The Deepal S05 is the brand’s second offering to Brits, following closely behind the Deepal S07 which rivals the Tesla Model Y. As its name suggests, this new model is the slightly smaller and slightly less expensive one. Although it’s not as cheap as some might expect a Chinese SUV of this size to be, with prices starting from £37,990. 

That’s not just more than the base versions of the Elroq and EV3, but the long-range versions that can go quite a bit further between charges too. This puts the Deepal S05 on the back foot from the start.

The design doesn’t do much to help it stand out from the crowd. Sure, it’s a nicely proportioned, angular and fairly smart-looking crossover, but a rather forgettable one and, to our eyes, it looks a lot like a Vauxhall Grandland.

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The simple, uncluttered interior makes more of an impression, even though at a glance you assume it’s yet another imitation of Tesla’s extremely minimalist cabins. Look closer, however, and you’ll notice the two-spoke steering wheel features proper physical buttons and controls, and while there’s no traditional instrument panel – just like a Tesla Model Y – every Deepal S05 features a heads-up display so you don’t have to keep looking at the central touchscreen to see vital driving information like your speed. 

Speaking of the touchscreen, the 15.4-inch, 2.5k display is sharp and, thanks to a Qualcomm processor, very responsive with all the menus loading quickly. Plus the infotainment system is fairly intuitive and features a customisable swipe-down control centre like a smartphone’s, with lots of big shortcut buttons. It’s easily one of the better, less frustrating systems we’ve experienced in a Chinese car.

That said, the customisation options feel almost endless with the amount of settings you can play with in this car. It’s great for the things owners will set and forget, but it can feel a bit overwhelming when you try to change anything that can’t be done on that swipe-down menu. Fully switching off the speed limit warning, for instance, has to be done in one of the numerous sub-menus. 

There are some interesting novelties too, like the touchscreen being able to angle itself either towards the driver or towards the front passenger at the push of a button. The most bizarre thing we found is that the speaker in the front of the car can be used to play messages to pedestrians and other motorists. One of the pre-programmed options is telling people to ‘get off their phones and drive safely’ which is unlikely to de-escalate any road rage situations. If for some reason you do want to go about nagging other road users, you can actually set one of the two customisable buttons on the steering wheel to activate the speaker.

The interior feels well built overall and perceived quality is good too, but we noticed the vegan-friendly leather alternative on the doors and other surfaces is just a very thin layer concealing hard plastics. Also the top of the dashboard is covered in what feels like the rubber surfacing that’s used for children’s playgrounds. 

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At least the Deepal S05 is spacious, with loads of legroom in the back and six-foot tall adults have headroom to spare. More impressive is the huge 492-litre boot which is slightly bigger than the Elroq’s or EV3’s. While there is a sizeable load lip you’ll need to hoist stuff over, it’s a big and wide load space with tie down points and just enough room under the floor to keep the charging cable out of sight. Better still, under the bonnet is a cavernous 159-litre frunk, ideal for muddy walking boots and it has a drain hole if you need to clean it afterwards.

We were hoping the Deepal S05 would distinguish itself on the road, partly because we were told it had been tested on UK roads and tuned specifically for them. We also found the bigger Deepal S07 to be one of the better driving Chinese contenders. Unfortunately, Changan really dropped the ball here, as the car loped and lumbered around the roads in the Cotswolds that we drove it on.

We can only assume the engineers set this car for maximum softness to deal with the very worst, most poxmarked roads in Britain, but the Deepal S05 is only relatively comfortable, not remarkably so. It does an adequate job absorbing the impacts from potholes and other imperfections, however, going over them sends a loud thump through the cabin. Even on smooth road surfaces the car is always wallowing around, refusing to settle. There is almost no sense of composure in how this car drives.

The ride isn’t the only problem though. You need to be very delicate with the throttle and brake pedal to drive the Deepal S05 smoothly. A hair too much pressure on the accelerator and a sudden hit of torque pushes everyone back into their seats. Performance in the standard rear-wheel-drive model quickly tails off after that and going from 60 to 70mph like you might on a motorway feels sluggish. That probably has something to do with this car weighing about 2.4 tonnes. The more powerful all-wheel-drive version shouldn’t suffer from the same stamina problem but we’ve not had a chance to drive that yet, and it costs £40k.

Similarly, the brake system seems to have been poorly calibrated, and as a result the car sharply slows if you press the pedal even a fraction too much, due to a sudden transition between the regenerative braking and physical discs.

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It doesn’t help that you appear to only be able to increase the strength of the regenerative braking when in Custom mode. Even when it’s cranked all the way up, which is done in yet another sub-menu, it takes a while for the car to slow after you lift off the throttle.

Finally, the steering is slow, vague and gets heavy very quickly as you turn the wheel, so even in Comfort mode trying to do a three-point turn feels like quite a workout. The limited rear visibility doesn’t help much in those situations either, which made us grateful for the various exterior cameras.

Hopefully, given the speed with which Chinese brands are able to update their cars, Changan can fettle the chassis on the Deepal S05 to improve the balance of comfort and stability, as well as ironing out a few of the other bugs.

The Deepal S05 features a 68.8kWh battery that Changan says is good for up to 303 miles - some way off the 350 miles the equivalent Skoda Elroq 85 offers. During our testing we averaged 3.6mi/kWh, which isn’t bad and if we kept it up would give us a real-world range of about 245 miles. But for comparison, when we lived with an Elroq 85 we managed 3.8mi/kWh, giving us a realistic 293 miles per charge.

One improvement the Deepal S05 does make over its big brother is it can charge at up to 200kW, whereas the Deepal S07 peaks at a disappointing 95kW. This allows for a 10 to 80 per cent top-up in 23 minutes, according to Changan.

There is only one specification for the Deepal S05, with every model coming generously equipped with that large touchscreen and head-up display. There’s wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 540-degree surround-view camera system, a built-in dashcam system, 14-speaker stereo, wireless charging pad, numerous driver-assistance systems and a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty. The only optional extras are a panoramic roof (£1,000) and a detachable tow bar (£600).

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