There are more Chinese car makers in the UK now than the number of moves it takes to solve a Rubik's Cube. And plenty are still coming.
This includes Changan.
But while this is likely another brand to file under 'never heard of before', it has actually been available in Europe for the best part of two decades.
The Deepal S05 SUV is its second model to launch in Britain, following in the tyre tracks of the larger S07 which arrived on our shores in September.
The S05 is designed to appeal to family-oriented drivers who spend carefully but don't want to compromise on quality - and crucially who are open to tech.
But will it be able to use its existing European foundation to lure UK customers amidst the growing number of rival Chinese brands? Freda Lewis-Stempel test drove it in Austria's mountains to find out...
Changan seems like the latest Chinese car brand to arrive in the UK, but it's already well established in Europe. Will its S05 electric SUV sell well here? We test it to find out
Changan - the best-known Chinese brand you've never heard of
On its website, Changan traces its roots back to 1862.
Now, technically the company has origins going back that far, but that clearly isn't the origin of its car making story.
After all, the automobile itself was only patented by Karl Benz in 1886.
Changan's manufacturing roots trace back to politician and army chief Li Hongzhang founding the Foreign Gun Bureau in Shanghai.
After various iterations, post-WWII it became the Central Ordnance General Administration's 456th Plant under the control of the Ministry of Military Industry, part of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The 1950s saw the factory, now at Chongqing, build cars for the first time, with 1957 seeing an off-roader produced called the Changjiang 46.
To commemorate the occasion, it was renamed the Changan Machinery Manufacturing Plant.
In 1984 Changan and Suzuki joined together in a technical tie-up, launching the SC112 MPV and SC110 truck. Changan focused on automotive rather than military production from this point on.
From then to now, Changan rapidly expanded to become one of the largest automobile groups in China.
It sells cars under Changan, Changan Deepal (the EV brand) and Avatr brands, while there are also joint ventures with Ford, Mazda and JMC.
Changan in Europe - 'home from home'
Changan is the Chinese car maker that calls 'Europe its home from home' based on its '20-year European journey'.
This 'home from home' includes its European Design Centre in Turin (2001), a European R&D team (2010) now in Birmingham, AVATR Design Centre in Munich (2021), and Changan Europe HQ in Munich (2024).
Changan's extensive operations in Europe is what sets it apart, according to Nic Thomas, managing director of European operations.
'We've been in Europe for a long time. This is not just shipping cars over from China.
'These cars are designed in Europe, and we've been setting up the business for a couple of years to make sure that the cars are ready.
'So, the engineers in the UK have spent around three months, and that's a long time in a Chinese government, properly testing, adapting, configuring the cars for UK roads and fewer blue roads.'
Changan now operates in 16 European markets and plans a €2billion Europe-wide investment by 2030. It has local partners, local service structures, and long-term customer support.
The Changan Deepal S05 - what is it?
The Deepal S05 measures 4.6 metres long, 1.9 metres wide and 1.6 metres high.
As a compact SUV, it's around the size of the Kia EV5 and Chinese rival, the MG S5 EV.
Personally, I like the way the S05 looks.
It's a fashionable and smart crossover that looks like a cool city car rather than an off-roader wannabe.
And I'm perfectly happy that it hasn't taken on the boxy styling of many cars in this sector.
The active grille shutter, the sealed lights and chiselled profile make it into a sporty, sharp and youthful set of wheels.
What's the interior like?
The cabin is a real selling point of this car.
It's plush with vegan leather and soft touch materials, cool stitching and chrome accents and badges.
The D-shaped steering wheel, dash, seats, doors - it’s all covered and there really isn’t any sense of cheap materials in any eyeline.
The orange colourway in particular makes a big change from the normal minimal black, white, grey or beige interiors of today, and adds some sporty flare. It’s an interior with personality – and that makes a change.
Even though other manufacturers like MG have taken a step up in terms of the ‘premium’ interiors they are offering for low budget buyers, this interior is a cut-above.
As well as the quality materials, you get heated and ventilated front seats, and the passenger even gets a ‘queen seat’ electric leg rest for maximum comfort – full passenger princess mode can be activated if you want.
As a huge music fan (top three per cent of Spotify listeners worldwide thank you) I can confirm that the 14-speaker hi-fi system shines for the money too.
The 15.4-inch landscape screen, that swivels towards you, looks great and is responsive but it’s a pain to navigate through.
Changan says the infotainment is intuitive, but it definitely isn’t that.
And there are no buttons to back you up - not even for drive mode or mirrors.
You end up practically needing to pull over to do the simplest things.
It even took three people to work out that a swipe down on the top of the screen would open the sunroof up.
The boot is 492 litres which is 39 litres more than the MG S5 EV but can't touch the near class-leading 566-litre boot of the Kia EV5
Practicality - how much space does the S05 have?
The S05 delivers on space, which makes it a seriously good proposition for a family.
The boot has 492 litres of load space. This is 39 litres more than the MG S5 EV but can't touch the near class-leading 566-litre boot of the Kia EV5. It expands up to 1,250 litres with the seats down.
It also comes with a 159-litre frunk (front trunk) which blows rivals out the water - even the EV5 only has a 67-litre frunk.
Throughout the S05 there are over 30 storage compartments that can store drinks, food, gloves, hats - whatever you want. The cubby under the centre console alone is vast.
Headroom and legroom are also good for passengers front and rear; even six-foot occupants have plenty of space.
The cabin has 'Pet Mode' and 'Camping Mode' among other interior modes so you can leave your dog in the car without worrying or even camp in your car - it's very Tesla in this way.
How does the S05 drive?
Our test drive took place in Austria in the snow, ice and rain, so we were given the opportunity to properly see how it performs in the worst weather British traditionally offers.
There's an all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive option with AWD offering and the RWD drive offering.
The car will look after you - that's the baseline we got from the low-grip exercises in the AWD.
We turned ESC off for the wet skid pan, and it held its position well, until you got a fair amount of understeer if you combined anything approaching 20mph and a bit of a flick of the rear.
It was nippy through the slalom, with the nose quick to pick up your steering cues and did itself proud for the price on the track circuit, especially in Sport mode. It was settled, dependable, and surprisingly quick.
The one let down was during the emergency stop trials. The S05 comes to a halt quickly and very effectively at highs speeds in a straight line but when trying to avoid an 'obstacle' (which is luckily only in rare moments) at 40mph it tended to seize up and become quite unyielding.
You might avoid the main obstacle, but it gets set on a line, and that seems to be that.
Performance for overtaking and nipping in and out of traffic was all there - 429hp AWD and 268hp RWD
The S05 proved to be settled, dependable, and surprisingly quick on track
On the road route it proved to be a cushioned ride, but we didn't really go over uneven road surfaces because it was Austria and not the pothole riddled UK.
Performance for overtaking and nipping in and out of traffic was all there (429hp AWD and 268hp RWD), and it proved to be a very relaxing drive.
Even the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) weren't too annoying, except for the driver drowsiness monitor which did my head in because it would tell you off whenever you looked at the screen, which was a lot because it has every control within it.
The brakes in snow mode though were a bit of shock; they crunched up with a noise that will ring in my ears for months to come even just exiting a car park and stopping for the barrier... outside of snow mode though they were fine,nottosharp.
I also give Changan props for letting us loose on a winter test circuit because many Chinese car makers shy away from this sort of testing.