Deepal updates Australia’s most annoying car

Responding to criticism surrounding its infuriating new electric vehicle, this brand has promised to make things right.

The SUV labelled the most annoying new car in Australia soon won’t be as annoying anymore.

The Deepal S07 electric SUV from China arrived a few months ago in our market, and was met with a barrage of negative commentary from reviewers. Customers haven’t been too happy with the car, either.

MORE: Is this Australia’s most annoying car?

2025 Deepal S07. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

The main reason for the frustration is the passive-aggressive nature of the vehicle, which we found to be one of the most incessant and overbearing examples of the implementation of ‘advanced driver assistance systems’, or ADAS, to date.

Deepal, a sub-brand of state-owned Changan Automobile, is set to roll out some software changes to address those criticisms, and the brand’s general manager in Australia, Cormac Cafolla, told this publication that honest feedback from local automotive media experts had helped push the changes through.

MORE: Deepal EV shows ANCAP safety loophole

Mr Cafolla said the distributor is working with the Chinese manufacturer to make the S07 a better car.

“In just two months, our OEM partner has shown a strong commitment to Australian drivers by responding quickly and thoughtfully to customer feedback. With Changan Automobile’s scale and expertise, we have the ability to move fast and address the needs of Australian consumers.”

MORE: Deepal, XPeng and Zeekr EVs compared.

Zeekr X, Deepal S07, XPeng G6 electric cars. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

According to the business, the changes will focus on adjusting the tolerances and settings for the driver monitoring system, which uses a camera to detect what it deems to be distracted or fatigued behaviour. In the current software, the S07 chimes incessantly, repeatedly getting it wrong. Check out our videos to see the evidence.

The audible, visual and physical warnings of the driver monitoring system will be adjusted (hopefully significantly) to “better meet Australian drivers’ expectations”. According to Deepal Australia, testing is still being done, and the software changes will be rolled out once signed off.

The brand will also adjust the adaptive and intelligent cruise control system in the Deepal S07, which was another bugbear in the existing version. In its current form, the system is overly sensitive to traffic situations and brakes heavily when the car is approaching even mild corners at pace.

The brand claims that all changes will be done so as not to impact the car’s current safety score. It achieved the maximum five-star ANCAP rating against 2024 testing criteria.

Beyond the safety systems, the brand will also act to improve the servicing requirements for the new EV model.

Initially, the S07 was required to be serviced every 10,000km, after an initial check up at the 5000km mark. Those intervals flew in the face of conventional logic for an EV, which are known to be significantly less needy in terms of maintenance requirements.

Now, however, the service intervals are set at 12 months or 20,000km, whichever occurs first.