2024 Deepal S07 new car review

This Chinese EV delivers an incredibly frustrating experience on the road.

Matt Campbell

3 min read

January 17, 2025 - 7:00AM

Motoring

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It was fitting to spend time with the Deepal S07 over the Christmas break, because it’s like one of those relatives you endure during the festive season… you know the type: passive-aggressive; interesting but frustrating; practical but overbearing.

It’s not alone in those criticisms, with many new vehicles adopting overly assertive active safety systems designed to make you drive with more concentration on the road around you.

This new Chinese electric car, though, takes the cake.

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2025 Deepal S07 electric car. Photo: Supplied

It welcomes you with a number of chirpy greetings when you sit in the driver’s seat, such as: “My name is Deepal, a cute and talented little companion!”; and “My name is Deepal, your deepest driving companion!”. And then within seconds of you starting your journey, it will chime at you in seemingly dozens of other ways.

2025 Deepal S07 electric car. Photo: Supplied

There’s a driver distraction camera system which is ridiculously overbearing, and there’s a speed sign detection and warning system, which often gets it wrong, and it will also beep to tell you that you’re leaving your lane and counter-steer for you – but it’s overzealous in that regard, too.

These annoyances? Well, they get very annoying. And you need to turn them off every single time you drive the car, if you don’t like them.

I didn’t like them. And it meant I didn’t like this car at all.

It’s a shame because, otherwise, there’s a decent EV SUV hiding below the frustration-factor.

This midsize SUV is dimensionally similar to the Tesla Model Y, and like that bestseller, it has a big boot capacity, and a massive frunk under the bonnet, too. Be mindful, that bonnet takes a serious slam to shut.

There’s ample interior room, with enough capacity to fit five six-foot tall adults at a squeeze. The rear seat has the requisite ISOFIX child-seat points, three top-tethers, and there’s second-row climate control with a fan speed adjuster as well.

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2025 Deepal S07 electric car. Photo: Supplied

But weirdly, the directional air vent is singular - you can’t direct flow to both window seats, just one. The front is dominated by a huge touchscreen media system which is the control centre for everything in the car, from the aircon to the driving modes to the safety systems and your smartphone mirroring tech like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

That’s de rigueur in the modern SUV, but this one cleverly tilts towards the driver when the car is running. You don’t need to press a button to start it or stop it, either. Just jump out and it’ll even lock itself.

It drives OK, too. Only OK, though.

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2025 Deepal S07 electric car. Photo: Supplied

It isn’t fun like some of the other rear-wheel drive SUVs in the class, but it’s hardly offensive by most measures. The steering is okay, the ride is fine, and the acceleration is adequate. It’s not the quickest electric vehicle in this segment, with a 0-100km/h time of 7.9 seconds. It weighs 2073kg, so that’s to be expected.

The big question might be this: why would you choose it over any of the other cars in the segment? I mean, it has a bunch of exciting and interesting colours available, which is a plus compared to the rainbow of white, grey, black and silver offered by rivals. And it’s hardly punching above its weight for the ownership promise.

There’s a seven-year, 160,000km warranty, but the battery is backed by a longer-than-average eight-year, 240,000km warranty.

2025 Deepal S07 electric car. Photo: Supplied

But then Deepal’s importer, Inchcape, seems to have decided to make it painful to maintain, with service intervals of 12 months/10,000km, which is well and truly behind the pack – many EVs have 24-month/30,000km service requirements, and they’re cheaper to service than this, too ($426 per year).

Add to that the fact there are just four Deepal touch points across Sydney and Melbourne at launch, and it could arguably be a riskier choice to make than many of the other EVs in the segment.