Changan Deepal S05 Ultra PHEV

Outside

High corner headlights & a flat front with a small roof spoiler & car-width light band finishing off the hatchback. Changan’s designers have cleverly increased the car’s efficiency & range by adding few design details to the cars exterior.

Creating a drag coefficient of just 0.25Cd, has been achieved by adding an air intake grille at the front which can be closed while driving at high speeds to reduce wind resistance. Flush door handles, an aero-optimised rear spoiler, a diffuser & streamlined side mirrors also aid the cause.

Inside

Quality as with the S05 EV is high & it also comes with a similarly sparse dashboard. Black seats are broken up with orange contrast stitching. What is different though is that the Pro model doesn’t feature a Heads Up Display only your speed illustrated on the central touchscreen, something we’re not keen on. If you want the HUD then Max provides it & it’s something we definitely prefer i.e keeping the speed in your eye line. Changan aren’t alone in doing this with even Hyundai’s latest IONIQ 3 Advance specced car doing exactly the same.

The cabin finishes made up of plenty of tactile soft touch plastics. The dashboard top & front, the doors & all of the stuff at eyeline feels very nice. Look a little closer though & there is some cheaper stuff going on lower down.

Cabin practicality

You open the doors via handles neatly hidden on the door armrests. There’s a useful opening armrest, good sized glove box, twin centre cup holders & hidden low down two USB inputs with more storage in front, plus a wireless charging pad.

Infotainment

The touchscreen controls almost all, which means that you’ll need a week or two to get used to the myriad of menus, options & general controls. However the Infotainment with a 15.4-inch screen, does have a few tricks up its sleeve, namely that it can be tilted towards the driver or front passenger for easier access. And Changan has sensibly included within the set-up a configurable short cut bar so you can at least adjust climate for example more easily.

Connectivity

Changan set our road route up on their Google based system & to be fair to them it was glitch free.  As we drive so many cars we find it much easier to utilise Apple CarPlay app’s such as Waze which is familiar to us & connecting wirelessly to CarPlay in the S05 Ultra was quick & simple.

Comfort & boot

The car’s 4,598mm length doesn’t look massive to the naked eye, but it does come with a very spacious interior with loads of front & rear head & legroom. There’s easily enough room or four adults & five for shorter journeys as the centre rear seat sits quite high.

The boot is larger than the S05 electric at 558 litres, with 1,310 litres if you fold down the seats & an extra 60 litre hidy-hole at the back of the boot floor.

Safety

Charging

The Deepal S05 Ultra PHEV is compatible with DC rapid charging at up to 55kW, allowing a 30-80% battery charge in 15 minutes. AC charging can be done at up to 11kW.

Warranty

Driving modes

Comfort & ride

We headed off from Birmingham towards Coventry & the Ultra like its electric sibling is quiet in the cabin & comfortable on decent tarmac. When we reached more rural roads the tarmac was worse & the Ultra wasn’t as accomplished, we think because the damping isn’t working as well as it could.

A looping route took us around Leamington Spa & into Kenilworth & at lower speeds the Ultra is an excellent companion.The on-board driver safety whilst there, isn’t as intrusive as others come with & remarkably we drove the whole route without interruption.

As far as dynamism goes the Ultra tends to wallow in & out of bends rather than take them on & the light steering doesn’t offer the driver any feedback. It’s very much par for the segment although the MG HS does this better.

City driving

Motorway

After lunch we headed out on a different route that was more motorway biased & again like the S05 Electric the Ultra is set-up to make driving on UK motorways nice & simple. Selecting Adaptive Cruise Control will enable easier control on Smart motorway sections & we’ve no doubt longer journey’s with the ample space on board would be comfortable for four.

The power on offer comes in a bit more slowly than in the electric S05 but nonetheless, it’s good enough to enable overtaking of slower moving traffic.

The Max’s 20” wheels though proved annoying at motorway speeds with a lot of road noise entering the cabin. This really was the only let down.

Pros

Excellent build quality & attention to detail in the cabin which is also generously sized. Overall driving range is good. Comfortable in most situations.

Cons

Competent on road manners but it’s not exciting. Pro’s lack of a speedo in front of the driver is something we don’t like. Looks wise it’s as vanilla as the other cars it competes with.

Verdict

The addition of an S05 PHEV was a logical step for Changan & gives it another string to its bow. It’s up against competitors such as the MG HS , BYD Sealion 5 DM-i & Jaecoo 7 SHS, which means it’s got to work hard to stand out. Build quality wise we think it’s better than these & on the road about the same as the Jaecoo & BYD, but we think the MG is a nicer car to drive. If the leasing prices are attractive we see no reason why the Ultra PHEV won’t be popular & we’d suspect the Max version offers more appeal for company car drivers as well.

3.25/5