Yet another new standout Chinese-made EV is making it’s way to Australia in 2025, part of a continuing wave impacting Australia’s car parc.
2025 seems set to continue the trend that began last year with the advent of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, as new Chinese auto brands hit our shores and now they are notching up even higher ratings in the safety stakes.
For a decade, Chinese EV models have been making their way onto Australian roads.
From a patchy start in the early 2010’s, the latest batch of Chinese EV models are now ranking among the best with ANCAP awarding them five-star safety ratings
Last year three of the latest electric cars from new Chinese brands have been awarded five-star safety ratings, as the first cars roll into Australian showrooms.
The Leapmotor C10, Zeekr X and XPeng G6 have earned top marks from ANCAP, based on testing conducted in Europe to the latest and most stringent criteria. And now another new brand has gone one better.
A new vehicle for Australia
The new Chinese made EV, Deepal S07, is a battery electric SUV. The Deepal S07 achieved a score of 95 per cent for Adult Occupant Protection, matching the Toyota Camry as the top scorer for its physical protection and safe restraint of adult occupants against current 2023-2025 criteria. To date, 37 models have been star rated against these requirements.
Contributing to this record score were unblemished injury risk scores for the driver in the side impact (T-bone) and oblique pole crash tests, and the front-seat passenger in the frontal offset (head-on) crash test.
According to ANCAP, the design and structure of the Deepal S07 also demonstrated good performance with a low risk of serious injury to occupants of ‘opponent’ vehicles in a crash. A minor deduction of 0.86 points out of a potential 8.00 point penalty applied for the assessment of vehicle compatibility in the frontal offset crash test.
Turning to collision avoidance capability, the S07 is fitted with a full suite of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane support systems. A combination of “Good” and “Adequate” performance was seen, with mixed results in some of the more advanced AEB Pedestrian test scenarios. A “Marginal” performance report was recorded for the AEB Crossing scenarios where the S07 showed limited auto-brake performance when crossing the path of another vehicle.