Deepal S07: A Standout in Nepal's EV Market

Amongst the myriad of electric vehicles that have flooded the Nepalese automotive scene in recent times, the Deepal S07 has managed to garner significant attention. An EV that looks like the Urus from afar, houses a single screen that controls the entire car, and claims to rival the Tesla Model Y—all at a price that is not appalling for a car with this many features. Is it too good to be true?

There are many things you can do in the Deepal S07. There is a baby care mode, which allows you to check on your child/children in the back seat without having to turn around. There is a camera inside the cabin that gives you a wide-lens view of the cabin displayed on the center display.

You can turn on camping mode, which adjusts the AC so that you can spend a long time in your car comfortably. In fact, you can take it up a notch and switch to nap mode. This mode plays soothing music, adjusts the seats, and even allows you to set an alarm so that you can take a nap. These too are controlled via the 15.6-inch center display.

At one point, I got bored and began fiddling with the numerous features on this display and ended up at a virtual campfire where I dragged fireworks out of the trunk and watched them explode. Promptly afterward, I found myself in a virtual snow cabin where I was greeted by a snowman; to complete the illusion, the ventilated seats automatically blasted cold air onto my back.

This was before I spent 3 minutes trying to figure out how to adjust the outside rearview mirrors of the car. Another 7 minutes were spent learning how to adjust the air-con vents to my liking. It turns out you have to double-tap the vents (a 3D image displayed on the screen) to turn them on or off, and you can drag your fingers to customize the direction of the airflow of each vent.

Conducting this orchestra of features is all done with your finger via the center console display. This was both a frustrating and rewarding experience. Frustrating when I accidentally locked the rear passenger touch panel and thought I damaged it, but rewarding when I accidentally stumbled onto a setting that helped me figure out that I had just toggled the child lock mode on for the rear panel.

As you might have already figured out, all the features in the car are controlled via the center console display. Need to adjust the headlights? Display. Music? Display. Choose driving modes? Display. Activate the power tailgate? Display.

This display-centric system allows the Deepal S07 to have a very minimal interior cabin. You will not find a single knob or switch on the dash, not even interior door-handle levers to open the car. Instead, you get a seamlessly integrated button that you simply push to unlock the door and step out. There is no speedometer either; instead, you get a Head-up display with AR Navigation reflected onto your windscreen.

Although minimal in terms of knobs and levers, they have not skimped on the material quality of the cabin. The seats are made of perforated synthetic leather. The driver seats get 6-way power adjustment with lumbar adjustment, and the front passenger seats get 4-way power adjustments. Both get ventilated seats.

You get suede-like material on the wireless phone charging port, which comes with a cooling vent for when your phone inevitably heats up. Soft-touch material on the dash and armrests, faux wood on a section of the door panels, and beautiful stitching throughout complement the orange and black interior color scheme. The only plasticky bits I found were on the glovebox and under the dash.

The rear seat passengers are also spoiled for space. The long wheelbase, longer than that of the Tesla Model Y and 1 mm short of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, makes it one of the most spacious rear cabins out there. While I did enjoy driving the Deepal S07, I wouldn’t mind stretching out in the back with the massive panoramic moonroof screen opened.

The features and tech crammed into the Deepal S07 are impressive. Truth be told, the Deepal S07 experience was consistent in that respect. It began the moment I walked up to the car. The sleek, sporty design has a wonderful flow. The front is sharp, aggressive, and futuristic. So much so, that they named their front LED DRLs Star Petal.

The side profile is characterized by the slightly sloping roofline, massive 20-inch alloys, door handles that fold in flush with the panels and sporty black cladding on the bottom. At the rear, you get more sharp elements in the form of a spoiler with an integrated LED tail light, and an LED taillight strip that runs across the tailgate and wraps around the sides. They too get a name, Star Flame.

Long story short, the S07 is a looker, especially in the stunning Sunset Orange exterior color that I was driving. The cosmic yellow is also a head-turner, but I think it grabs a little too much attention for my liking.

As always, regardless of how good-looking and feature-filled a car is, people like you and I will evaluate its standing in the automotive world based on how it drives. Before we get to that, let me give you a few numbers and specifications.

The Deepal S07 has an NMC battery with a 66.8 kWh capacity which powers a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor that sends 99 kW of maximum power and 320 Nm of peak torque to the rear wheels of the car. More importantly, you get a WLTP range of 410 km, a number that felt fairly accurate during our test drive. If you get to a DC Fast charger, you can charge from 30% to 80% in 35 minutes, which is a great plus.

Another very important positive is the RWD system. While we are more accustomed to a FWD system, driving an RWD feels more fun. It feels more balanced, and even when you are pushing the car at higher speeds, it does not feel perturbed. Combined with the weight shift to the rear when accelerating, you get better traction, which means you get off the line quicker, and everything feels a lot more composed.

On long straights and easy sweeping turns, the Deepal S07 feels very confident and in control. There is a fair bit of body roll, which is to be expected from a car of this size, but it still isn’t enough to cause too much trouble.

Furthermore, the Deepal S07 is packed with an impressive array of safety features. It includes Integrated Adaptive Cruise Control (IACC) with Car Follow, Stop & Go, Front Collision Warning (FCW), Automatic Emergency Brake (AEB), Lane Keep Assist (LKA), Traffic Jam Assist (TJA), and Lane Departure Warning (LDW).

Additionally, it features Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Lane Change Assist (LCA), Rear Collision Warning (RCW), Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA), Rear Cross Traffic Braking (RCTB), and Door Open Warning (DOW). The Driver Fatigue Monitoring System (DMS), Front Auto High Beam (FAB), and Safe Distance Warning (SDW) further enhance the vehicle's safety profile.

While most of the features did not feel too intrusive, and you did get the option of switching them off, the Driver Fatigue Monitoring seemed a little too exuberant. Take your eyes off the road for an instant, and you get a stern talking-to from the system.

There were times when I laughed out loud; it alerted me that I was, in fact, tired because it mistook my gaping mouth during laughter for a yawn. It isn’t a deal-breaker at all, and complaining about it would make me a petulant child. But I didn’t enjoy it.

Overall, the Deepal S07 will knock you off your chair. It is a great car to look at, and it drives superbly. The range is one of the best you’ll get in the market, and it is accurate. The feature list is absolutely insane, but it does make you wonder how often you would use all of these features.

To be honest, having a single central screen to control everything—from mirror adjustment to AC controls, music, headlight operation, driving modes, and pretty much everything else in the car—isn’t my preferred option. It is distracting, and it feels like it requires more effort than necessary.

I don’t mind a few switches and knobs in the cabin if it makes life a little easier; I much prefer it. This could be one of the reasons that might intimidate new buyers who aren’t very tech-savvy. If you’re the type of person who sends "Good morning" emojis on WhatsApp Groups and posts AI renders of you as a fearsome emperor on Facebook, I am going to take a wild guess and say that navigating through the system might be frustrating.

Nevertheless, at Rs.74.99 Lakh, you get your money’s worth (in Nepal). Don’t get me wrong, it is expensive, but it will turn heads, and you will always feel like you are driving a premium car, which is the whole point of shelling out so much money.

The Deepal S07 is a car that deserves your attention if you are in the EV market to purchase a car and are lucky enough to have it come under your budget.