Changan Deepal S05 review

The interior is the highlight of the car. Not so much for its design – you’ve seen this setup a thousand times before – but the execution in here is really very good. Soft-touch materials, faultless stitching, vegan leather, comfy seats… ahh. It’s spacious too – six footers will have no trouble front or back. Even the traditional, cramped middle seat will take a willing adult for a short trip.

The problem is that virtually everything has been dumped into the screen. You get window toggles, indicator and drive selector stalks, two joysticks and four buttons on the steering wheel… and that’s it. Want to adjust the mirrors? Screen. Want to change with the temperature? Screen. Open the sunroof. Yeah… at least the air vents are still done by hand.

The 15.4in screen is a whopper and only the most graphic-heavy menus take a beat to load up. Changan has made sure shortcuts to the most used features are but one swipe away, so the lane keep and speed limit are easy to neuter if you wish.

But when the functionality is accessed through a myriad of scrolling and tapping, no amount of shortcuts will make up for it. Which is a shame because having a HUD instead of a driver’s display goes a long way to keeping your eyes on the road.

There’s only one USB port, found overlooking the storage well beneath the centre console. A couple in the back wouldn’t have hurt.

Any tricks? Gimmicks? Passing fancies?

A few. The screen can swivel 15 degrees towards the driver or front passenger, which is quite handy in practice. The front passenger seat has a leg rest, so you can recline airline-style (but not fully horizontal like a Leapmotor C10) for a cheeky nap if the mood takes you.

Oh, and there’s a games menu with a piano. Why take your eldest to that recital when you can do it right there in the car? It’s how Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 was meant to be played.

Time to be boring. How practical is it?

Headroom is cathedral-esque throughout, and legroom is good too. There’s not much foot space under the front seats for rear occupants, but the floor isn’t comically high so your knees won’t be up round your ears. And the rear bench is deep and squidgy, if a little dark – option that pano roof and let there be light.

The boot measures 492 litres, with another 28 litres under the floor and expanding to 1,250 litres with the seats down. Slightly less than you’ll find in an ID.5, e-3008 or Ioniq 5, then. The tailgate is electric, and there’s about an inch of lip to the floor.

Under the bonnet, there’s a 159-litre frunk with a drainage hole, so you can lob muddy gear in there and not worry about it rotting.

Inside, there’s a huge 13-litre storage box in the centre console – it almost needs a rail to stop you falling into it. It can be cooled down to 5°C, ideal for drinks and snacks and whatnot.

The Deepal S05 will tow up to 1,600kg with the optional towbar.