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Changan is the latest Chinese car brand to launch in the UK, doing so with a new £39,990 electric SUV that has been engineered in the UK and designed in Italy.

The Changan Deepal S07 will be in the first of the 20 new Changan dealerships this month and will be followed into showrooms later this year by a smaller Deepal S05 model, which will be revealed at next week’s Munich motor show.

Ex-Nissan executive Nic Thomas is Changan’s UK managing director and told Autocar that the British engineering in the brand’s cars would shine through in how they drive.

“You will see the difference versus some of the other cars that are coming to market,” he said.

Based in Chongqing, Changan can trace its roots back to being a trading arm of the Chinese government back in the 1860s but moved into cars in the 1950s when it started manufacturing Jeeps under licence. Its first own-brand cars followed in the 1980s.

In 2010, it laid the groundwork for a global launch of its models with a UK R&D centre in Birmingham that's home to 100 engineers. This is seen as crucial in ensuring its cars are ready to launch in the UK – as is a design centre in Italy that's home to around 300 designers. 

Work on the Deepal S07 from the UK engineering team included a full rebuild and redesign of the suspension in just three months to make it more suitable for UK roads and driving tastes, plus extensive calibration work on the automated driving assistance functions to better tailor the software. 

"Our software works really well and has been properly tailored to provide a customer a really usable experience," Thomas said. 

The Deepal S07 is a Tesla Model Y-sized crossover that will be sold in just one, fully loaded trim level. It's rear-wheel-drive with a 215bhp, 236lb ft motor and an 80kWh battery that’s good for a 295-mile range. 

While Changan is launching with the Deepal S07 as an EV, a plug-in hybrid version is also set to follow as part of plans for the brand to offer a full range of powertrain options across its line-up.

Deepal is a sub-range of models under the Changan brand, but while in China there are saloons as well as crossovers under the Deepal badge, the range in the UK is set to include only crossovers.

The Deepal S07 is the largest planned for now and the Volvo EX40-sized Deepal S05 is next to follow. Smaller models are also planned that will be priced in the £20,000s.

There's another Changan sub-brand of lower-cost models called Nevo, and these will be launched in the UK also under the Changan badge in the future, which will be the entry point into the brand.

To that end, Changan models will be either a Changan Deepal or a Changan Nevo. 

A third sub-brand, Avatr, exists as a joint venture between Changan and battery maker CATL. Thomas confirmed this brand does have European plans of its own but will exist under different leadership and not be sold in the same showrooms as Deepal and Nevo models.

Changan was the fourth best-selling car-making group in China in the first half of 2025. It has already exported models to the likes of South East Asia and the Middle East before a recent launch in Norway started its European push. The UK launch is one of several others planned into major European markets over the next few months. 

Thomas, the first commercial employee for Changan in Europe when he joined in January 2024, said that the European and UK market preparation had been more than 18 months in the making and included a “contracted and stocked” parts warehouse at East Midlands Airport; work with CAP on residual values to get to what’s claimed to be a best-in-class figure of 47%; work with Thatcham on insurability; and a banking partner.

“We’ve done the things we need to do to make sure that before we deliver a car to a customer. We’re actually ready to look after that customer and are ready to look after the dealers with all the services they then need to look after the customer,” said Thomas.

An initial 20 dealers should be followed by another 25 later this year, with a goal of around 100 targeted in total by Thomas across around 25 different dealer groups.

The likes of Ancaster, Parks, DM Keith and Stoneacre have been signed as dealer partners.

Thomas said Changan doesn't require dealers to give the brand its own bespoke showrooms to ensure that investment costs were kept low, and they can continue to work with other brands in the same space for aftersales. 

“We’ve got a lot of dealers with a legacy brand who will divide a showroom in half and spear them out [for new car sales] but then they’ve still got the aftersales work coming through,” he said. “We believe our products stand up against anybody and are happy to have the opportunity for people to look across and say: ‘What’s that?  We’ll take one of those, please, at least for a test drive.'”

Vehicle quality and customer service are big differentiators for Changan in China, said Thomas, with JD Power ranking Changan as the number-one brand in China for initial vehicle quality. “We need to bring the same level of quality to Europe,” he said.

To that end, Thomas said Changan won't be pushing for quick short-term volume gains that could undermine profitability and residual values.

"The message from China is to build a quality business for the long term," he said. "Do not rush to market. Don't push the product before it's ready. Get it right by adapting to the local market. Build a local team that understands the market. Get the elements in place to deliver quality customer service. That's a very, very clear message from the top.

"Our ambition is not limited. We expect to be one of the leading global automotive companies. We're investing more than $10 billion in new products to support globalisation and new factories."

Thomas said the long-term plan was to be in the top 10 car brands in the UK but didn't put a timeframe on that goal. He believes the focus on quality is what "differentiates us from other new entrants".

European production is possible for Changan in the future too, said Thomas. 

European car makers are betting that advanced technology and their long-standing leadership on design will give the cars displayed at next week’s Munich motor show an edge over formidable Chinese competition.

Munich is shaping up to be the biggest European motor show since the Covid pandemic for new model launches, as European car makers try to rejuvenate a sluggish market. 

However, the Chinese are also at the event in force as they look to increase an already booming market share.

No fewer than 14 Chinese car makers will exhibit at the Munich event, starting on 8 September, compared with 10 European brands, according to data from market researcher Inovev.

Korea's Hyundai and Kia are returning to the event, but the Japanese are absent. Stellantis is represented by Opel/Vauxhall and affiliated Chinese brand Leapmotor.

“This year, the event seems to be primarily a Sino-German battle for supremacy in the electric vehicle arena,” said Jamel Taganza, vice-president at Inovev.

According to Inovev's data, 23 new model launches are electric, three plug-in hybrid and two hybrid. 

The big launches are all on the German side, with BMW premiering its Neue Klasse platform with the new iX3 SUV and Mercedes-Benz unveiling the new electric GLC EQ, debuting the new MB:EA platform. 

Both SUVs are going big on technology that they hope can match or beat equivalent Chinese developments, including 800V platforms for rapid charging and a software-first approach to electronics and digital information. 

For example, the GLC EQ has the largest screen ever fitted to a Mercedes, at 39in wide, while BMW claims an EV range of nearly 500 miles.

The German premium brands are largely insulated from the Chinese in Europe at least, where the competition so far has mainly been hitting the volume end of the market.

That competition has been hotting up in recent months, with the share for Chinese car makers in Europe hitting 5.1% in August, according to figures from the bank UBS.

The rises of MG, BYD and Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo brands have had big impacts in Spain, where Chinese brands grabbed a massive 12% share in August, and the UK, where the share stood at 7.4%.

“The growing share of Chinese OEMs in Europe is particularly negative for Stellantis and Renault,” UBS bank analyst Patrick Hummel said in a note to investors.

While MG is absent from Munich, BYD showing off its latest PHEV the Seal 06 DM-i estate, while Omoda and Jaecoo are using the event to launch in Germany, marking a push into Europe’s biggest market after successes in the UK, Spain and Italy. Their combined share in the UK for August stood at nearly 3%.

Renault meanwhile chose Munich to launch the latest version of its Clio supermini, its biggest-selling model in the region and a key weapon in its battle to retain and build share at the affordable end of the market.

Aside from the BYD Dolphin Surf and the MG 3, small cars remain a weakness of the Chinese in Europe, and the Volkswagen Group will demonstrate in Munich what it hopes will be a future strength in the arena of small EVs.

It will show off production versions of the related Volkswagen ID Polo, Volkswagen ID Cross, Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq, albeit camouflaged, in the run-up to the first launch in 2026, with prices promised from around £22,000.

While small cars are good for keeping market share, the opportunity for profit comes from bigger models and that’s where the Europeans are under threat from the Chinese, particularly in China where competition is fiercest.

The cost competitiveness of the Chinese, particularly on EVs, is hurting global players after a prolonged period of rising prices.

“The era of pricing power for the OEMs has come to an early end,” wrote Fabian Piontek, managing director at consultantcy Alix Partners, in a new report.

The report’s data shows that profits have swelled in the 15 years since the global financial crisis through a combination of a pivot to SUVs and then rising prices following the Covid supply squeeze.

That’s now come to a screeching halt with average EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margins for car makers in Europe dropping from around 12% in the first quarter of 2023 to around 4% the quarter ending June this year.

Factors include price wars, falling ICE profits, cost inflation and US trade tariffs, according to Piontek.

European car makers are using the show to double down on their design strength – an area in which they remain globally ahead of the field as they look cement their brand advantage and keep pricing power. 

For example, Audi is showing off its new ‘TT’, the Concept C, Cupra is unveiling the Tindaya concept and Skoda is teasing a new electric Octavia estate with the Vision O.

Vauxhall and Hyundai meanwhile are reviving the tried and tested design language of the hot hatch as they unveil concepts previewing the next Corsa supermini and a new compact addition to the Ioniq EV family.

As China marches towards a possible 10% share in Europe by 2030 (Alix Partners’ prediction), it will be the models launched by European car makers at Munich next week that will be charged with slowing that growth.