Changan Deepal S07 promises to be human-first

Changan might be the latest entrant into the passenger car market in Europe, but it’s far from new, having launched its first car back in 1984. The focus then was on the domestic market, but since then it has opened design studios in Turin and Munich, a research and development centre in Birmingham, UK and is currently considering a European production facility.

Beneath the Changan umbrella sit a number of brands, including Deepal, which has now added the UK to its list of markets. It’s all overseen by Klaus Zyciora, former head of design for the Volkswagen Group and the lead designer of the electric VW ID models, or rather those prior to the new ID Polo revealed in Munich recently. He did try to retire when he left VW, but when design runs through your veins it’s hard to leave and an offer from Changan clearly made it impossible, at least for now. 

Chatting with him at the UK launch of the new Deepal S07, he says he’s been blown away by the way things work in China. He says it’s all so much faster, decisions take days or weeks rather than months or years and the way consumers adopt new technology is equally fast, forcing automakers to constantly innovate. It’s a pace that he seems to be enjoying and one that he thinks will eventually force change in the approach taken by OEMs in Europe. He is concerned what will happen if they don’t.

Where just a few years ago the Chinese auto industry seemed to be emulating its European counterparts, Zyciora sees a few major areas where it could be the other way around. One is the desire among consumers in China to have more space in the back seats, something that for years forced European OEMs to make long wheelbase versions of many of their models for that market. Skoda set the benchmark for this in Europe with its Superb, but now the Chinese car companies are bringing models with more legroom in the back than most of their European rivals and Zyciora predicts that as happened in China, consumers will demand the same.

Another key area is the human-centric approach, or as Changan’s marketing team calls it, “human first in everything we do.” Admittedly it’s hard to apply a definition to what is human-centric, we are all different after all. One person might want everything in a touchscreen, while another might prefer physical controls. Autonomous driving, something that Zyciora sees as commonplace in China, can allow for more quality time in a car, but for others the concept of human-centric is the joy of driving. These are all conundrums that Zyciora feels makes the current era the most exciting period of car design and development he has yet experienced in his career.

Getting back to the Deepal S07 and the human-centric approach is echoed by Jakob Pettersson, Changan’s director of Deepal design.

“We always start with the user's need, regardless of technology,” he says. “You're always going to choose to create the need for the user, not for the technology itself. Creating the maximum value for the user has to be the way we design cars.”

Pettersson says that the technology by itself is complicated, so instead they try to make it easy to use and fun. The fun factor is definitely present in the new Deepal S07, which has a Tesla-rivalling light show with choreographed exterior and interior lighting and a soundtrack to match. Then there’s the pivoting touchscreen, a really nice touch, which contains all the usual systems and controls, but it also has some interesting modes. 

These include a Nap Mode, which automatically reclines the driver’s seat, adjusts the climate control, plays relaxing music and even sets a twenty minute nap timer. There’s a Camping Mode, unusually in today’s world where even an ashtray is no longer standard equipment, a Smoking Mode, which opens all the windows and then there’s Bonfire Mode. This simulates a campfire on the screen and as well as being able to add fireworks to the show you can add logs to the fire, which then increases the temperature of the heated seats. Is this fun or is it just gimmicky? Again, human-centric means different things to different humans.

Looking at it a different way, these are the things you want to have when the car can drive itself. Self-driving at various levels is more popular in China than in many other parts of the world, but Pettersson says they keep it mind when designing their models.

“We're always thinking of how to add more value if you can drive without driving yourself,” he says. What can you do while not driving, how can you use that time? I don’t know the details of when more of the technology will be introduced in the UK and Europe, but in the industry, you always think ahead as you want to be prepared when the future comes.”

If it means a feeling of luxury then admittedly the interior design team have achieved that. Pettersson says the interior was inspired by yachting, not just in the styling with the curve that wraps around the IP into the doors like a Jaguar, but also in the materials themselves. For humans who want to be able to feel quality, the S07 appears to achieve that, although it will take a bit longer to really know. If quality is measured in space, then naturally there’s loads of it, particularly for those in the back seats.

Exterior design is a bigger topic, especially when it comes to Chinese vehicles and on this occasion I’ve left it to the end. Pettersson says that within Changan, the emphasis is on giving each brand its own identity.

“You can make a case that many Chinese cars are copying each other, that many look similar,” he says. “We are inspired not by other Chinese brands, but we take our inspiration from nature and from other things.”

That includes the shark nose, a design element he describes as being “unique for Deepal”. Presumably he means unique within Changan. The lighting signature is a better example and has been inspired by star constellations. There are other elements that are unique too of course, but it’s impossible not to see generic similarities in the overall design, not just to Chinese rivals either because there appears to be a bit of a Volkswagen ID4 belt line rising up along the C-pillar.

The problem here isn’t whether a design is good, bad or even indifferent, it’s the perception. If the industry and even more importantly, consumers, feel that all Chinese models look the same, then what does that mean for brand loyalty, or are those days gone? The fact that the Deepal S07 is being compared in the looks department to models like the Lotus Eletre could well be a selling point for it, or not depending on your view of the Eletre of course, but does it have its own clear identity? This human is not convinced.