This is a Deepal S05, a Chinese electric crossover. I met the Deepal in a residential area in the far south of the Chinese capital, Beijing. It had been raining the whole afternoon, so the S05 looked a little muddy.
What is Deepal?
Deepal is a Chinese New Energy Vehicle (NEV) brand, founded in 2022. Deepal’s main shareholder is Changan Automobile (51%). The rest of the shares are held by various Chinese investment firms.
The brand’s Chinese name is 深蓝, Shēnlán. The characters on the car are: 长安深蓝, Chángān Shēnlán, Changan Deepal. The brand sells seven models at the moment of writing. Sales have been pretty good. In August 2025, Deepal sold 22.035 cars, good for the 28th place in the brand-sales ranking, out of 108 brands in total.
The Deepal S05
The Deepal S05 is a compact crossover. Deepal launched it on the Chinese car market in 2024. It is a great-looking car, with a strong stance, short overhangs, and an aerodynamic body. It has flush door handles, wide wheel arches, darkened windows, and aero wheel covers.
There are darkened light units, darkened windows, black wheel arches, and a roof spoiler. The design is super clean and uncluttered. It is slippery too, with a drag coefficient of 0.25 Cd.
The interior of the Deepal S05
Deepal does great interiors, and the S05 is no exception. It has comfortable leather seats with Deepal-branded neck pillows, combined with black & metal trim. The owner added a set of floor mats and a lucky charm hanging from the mirror.
The drive selector is on the steering wheel column. There’s a storage box behind the screen, made-to-fit for tissue boxes. The wide center tunnel has a 50W wireless charger and two cup holders. The enormous 15.4-inch touch screen looks impressive for the segment. The screen runs on the Deepal OS operating system, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chipset.
The owner had filled the bench with boxes of apple-ginger juice. The Deepal S05’s wheelbase is quite long, so there’s a lot of legroom. The S05 also comes with an eight-speaker audio system, a 64-color ambient lighting setup, and a panoramic sunroof.
Specifications
A Deepal homecharher! The S05 is based on Changan’s EPA1 platform. The dimensions of the S05 are: 4620/1900/1600, with a 2880 wheelbase.
Deepal offers the S05 with EV and EREV powertrains. The car in the photos is the base EV model, called the Deepal S05 510 Plus. It is a single-motor rear-wheel drive car. The output of the electric motor is 175 kW (238 hp) and 320 Nm. It has a 180 km/h top speed and it sprints from 0 to 100 in 7.3 seconds.
CATL supplies the 56.12 kWh LFP battery pack. The Deepal S05 consumes 12 kWh of electricity per 100 kilometers. The range is 510 kilometers, according to China’s CLTC standard. A 30-80% fast-charge takes 15 minutes.
Pricing
The Deepal S05 510 Plus costs 115.900 yuan, and that translates to $16.3K. Yes, electric cars are cheap in China! The front looks quite sporty with a low front lip and a split-headlight setup. The color of the car in the photos is Moonlight White/Black. The S05 has been a big success for Deepal. It is the brand’s best-selling model with sales of about 7500 units per month.