Deepal EV scores five star safety

This fresh machine has raised eyebrows with a surprising rating by safety experts.

COMMENT: Anyone who thinks the new Deepal electric SUV is the pinnacle of vehicle safety needs to drive it for a few kilometres.

It won’t take long until you’re bombarded with beeps and warnings alerting you to things you weren’t doing wrong … but the car’s computer brain determined you were doing wrong.

Deepal scored a five star safety rating through ANCAP. Picture: Supplied

Yet this car just received the maximum five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) that is the government-backed authority on vehicle safety.

ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg said it’s the latest of a number of newcomer brands that “continue to impress in meeting the high safety standard Australian consumers and fleet buyers expect”.

I’m not sure anyone would yearn for the unwarranted warnings and interventions that this and many other brands – often car makers relatively new to Australia – can bark at you when you really don’t want them.

MORE: 2024 Deepal S07 EV review

2025 Deepal S07. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

The Deepal is certainly not alone.

A very brief drive in this and many other cars is enough to reinforce that ANCAP needs a reboot.

Sure, the Deepal performed impressively in ANCAP’s physical crash tests, with a 95 per cent score for Adult Occupant Protection.

But its real-world performance of active safety systems – to help avoid a crash – need serious attention.

Such poorly calibrated systems encourage you to turn some of the latest ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) off by delving into the touchscreen menu.

Hopefully you get it done before more beeps …

Lane keep assist systems are a common source of complaint across dozens of brands.

They can steer when you don’t want them to and fight driver inputs when trying to weave around a cyclist or adjust for a wayward car.

Driver attention monitoring systems also need serious attention.

Look at the centre screen for too long – seemingly simple tasks, such as adjusting the ventilation, can take longer to navigate in the various menus – and the car can beep at you telling you to concentrate on the road.

Sometimes there are six long beeps.

MORE: Deepal, XPeng and Zeekr EVs compared

2025 Deepal S07 electric car. Photo: Supplied

If it still thinks you’re not concentrating you can get another 15 shorter beeps.

If you’re lucky you’ll get all 21 beeps back-to-back in an infuriating symphony.

Yet these systems have all been approved and ticked by ANCAP, which evaluates them in controlled environments to specific tests.

The Deepal scored 78 per cent for its Safety Assist systems.

The driver distraction and fatigue monitoring systems each scored the maximum “pass” rating.

Perhaps it’s time ANCAP tests these systems with real drivers on real roads.

I doubt they’d score a “pass” then.

ANCAP says it is evolving the way it evaluates these fast moving electronic aids

It can’t come soon enough.

Originally published as Deepal EV scores five star safety