Chery Omoda E5 vs Deepal S07

What's the difference?

The Chery Omoda E5 gets solid ticks for value, practicality, performance, efficiency and a great ownership promise. 

But its suspension compliance isn’t in line with class standards and some of its safety assist features aren’t as refined as they should be. Both of which matter in a car likely to be used by families day-to-day. Its price and specification are strong drawcards and that will get it over the line for many. But we think this Omoda E5 would still benefit from some judicious fine-tuning.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Deepal S07 has the makings of a great family friendly EV, but with some quirks that really need to be ironed out.

While retaining the fundamental shape of its internal combustion siblings the Omoda E5 does away with the petrol-powered car’s huge, rear-sloping grille, replacing it with a wrap-around forward-pointing nose proudly branded with the model name and hiding a pop-out battery charging port door.

The rear is more or less unchanged save for some detail tweaks to the bumper design, with a more noticeable change being the addition of aero-inspired 18-inch rims which I for one like a lot.

Parts of the interior are markedly different to combustion Omoda models with the front of the cabin dominated by an enlarged twin-screen array, both 12.3-inch, one covering multimedia and another in front of the driver for instrumentation. 

The gearshift has also been moved to a steering column stalk which frees up additional space in the centre console.

Soft touch materials on the dash and upper part of the doors is a high quality touch often missing in this part of the market and overall this Omoda E5 has a contemporary exterior design (without necessarily breaking new ground) while the interior exudes a suitably techy vibe.

If you’re left a little underwhelmed from the bland same-sameness of so many new SUVs, I reckon you’d like the Deepal S07 in the metal. Because boring it ain’t.

It’s sharp and purposeful and full of lovely creases and angles, and it stands out on the road — especially in this 'Sunset Orange' colour.

Deepal says it was designed in Turin, Italy, but I'm not sure that matters much. I mean, being in Italy doesn’t guarantee design success – just look to the modern Lancia range for proof – but I guess it’s something for a newish Chinese brand to hang its hat on.

Inside, the design is lovely, too. I like the materials used, the extended dash and the size of the central screen (though it tilting towards you or the passenger is probably overkill). And the flat-bottom wheel is a nice touch.

I'd like to know where the air con was designed, though. It feels massively underwhelming on a piping hot Sydney day. The main outlet is at the bottom of the dash, which is perfectly positioned to chill absolutely nothing, and you can’t really change the direction of the vents, either. Or, at least, I couldn't figure out how to.

There’s plenty of space up front for the driver and co-pilot, the sleek, twin-screen dashtop array increasing the feeling of space and openness.

And when it comes to storage, there’s plenty with decent bins in the doors that have enough room for a medium-size bottle, a good-size glove box, two cupholders in the top of the centre console, a lidded (and cooled) storage box between the seats as well as a lower shelf under the upper ‘flying buttress’ part of the console unit.

For power and connectivity there are USB-A and -C inputs, located on the passenger side of the lower console, a USB-A plug in the mirror unit for a dashcam, a 12-volt socket and a wireless charging pad.

Move to the rear and at 183cm tall I have more than enough head and legroom behind the driver’s seat set to my position. That said, my legs sit up at a fairly steep angle, missing out on much support from the seat cushion.

Three full-size adults will be a short journey-only tight squeeze in the back, although a trio of up to mid-teenage kids will be fine.

For storage, again, there are bins in the doors with room for bottles, there’s a pair of cupholders in the fold-down centre armrest and map pockets in the front seat backs.

USB-A and -C jacks are onboard for power and adjustable ventilation for back-seaters is always a welcome addition.

Boot capacity with all seats up is 300 litres to the cargo cover which is appreciably less than its key competitors all of which hover around the 450-litre mark. 

That number rises to 1079 litres with the 60/40 split-folding second row backrest lowered and there’s a 19-litre frunk in the nose. And Chery deserves a big pat on the back for including a full-sized spare wheel because the Omoda E5 is the only EV on the market that does. 

And if you need to hook up that box trailer for a trip to the tip the E5 is rated to tow a 750kg unbraked trailer.

At just over 4.7m long and 1.9m wide, with a 2.9m wheelbase, the Deepal is a sizeable proposition, which means good passenger room and decent luggage space.

Starting at the boot, you’ll find 445 litres with the rear seats in place, but with the seats folded flat that number grows to 1385 litres. There’s a frunk up front, too, that holds another 125 litres.

In the back, the room is ample for full-size adults. When sitting behind my own 175cm driving position, I had more than enough knee and headroom to sit comfortably. 

There’s also a heavy pulldown divider that’s home to twin cupholders, and there are two more up front, and USB connection points galore. Bonus points for the back seat riders being able to adjust their own air temps, too.

It’s easy picking in the Deepal range, given there’s one model with just the one trim level, simply called the S07.

It’s currently $58,521 drive-away in NSW, or $53,900 before on-road costs. And that’s probably about right. You can get an entry-level Kia EV5 for $56,770, though with less range and kit, or the XPeng G6 Standard Range for $54,800, though that’s before on-road costs. The new Model Y is a bit of a jump, at $63,400 on the road.

For that you get 19-inch alloys, a fixed sunroof with a sun shade, LED lighting all around and a powered boot. 

Inside, there’s a giant 15.6-inch touchscreen that can swivel towards the driver or the passenger, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 14-speaker Sony stereo and wireless device charging.

There’s dual-zone air con, the seats (heated and ventilated up front) are trimmed in synthetic leather and there’s an interior camera with gesture control, so you can use a kind of sign language to take a photo, control the stereo or answer or hang up the phone. It's weird and makes you look like a turkey, which is why I used it once and once only, but you might like it.

The Omoda E5 is powered by a single permanent magnet synchronous electric motor in the nose driving the front wheels through a single-speed reduction gear transmission.

Outputs of 150kW/340Nm are solid without being spectacular for a car of this size and close to 1.8-tonne weight.

The S07 is powered by a single 160kW/320Nm rear-mounted electric motor and it's rear-wheel drive. That’s enough output, says Deepal, to push the S07 to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds — not bad for a two-tonne-plus SUV.

The Omoda E5 is powered by a 61kWh lithium iron phosphate battery and it can accept an 80kW DC charge which translates to a 30-80 per cent charge time of around 28 minutes.

And the Type 2 port in the centre of the nose makes charging a breeze, allowing you to park in front of a charger without having to think about which side of the car the plug has to go into. 

Connect to AC at the E5’s maximum 9.9kW capacity and you’ll be looking at a 10-100 per cent charge time in excess of 30 hours.

Official energy consumption on the WLTP combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle is 15.5kWh/100km and claimed range is a handy 430km.

Over a mix of urban, suburban and freeway running on test we saw a real-world average of 16.8kWh/100km which is roughly what you’d expect for a reasonably rapid electric SUV of this size.

The 79.97kWh ternary lithium battery delivers a claimed driving range of 475km. It is, however, set up for just 92kW DC fast charging, which means going from 30 to 80 per cent will take just over half an hour. That’s at an appropriate DC fast charger, of course. Your 7.0kW AC home wallbox will take 11 hours, or eight hours if you can draw 11kW.

Chery says the Omoda E5 will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 7.6 seconds which is pretty rapid and there’s plenty of thrust from a standing start and for dodgem car-style city manoeuvring. There’s also ample oomph for safe highway cruising and overtaking.

There are three powertrain modes - Eco / Normal / Sport - with the latter adding some extra urgency but there’s not a dramatic difference between the three. 

The column-mounted gear selector is in the style of a Mercedes lever rather than a rotary controller and it initially takes conscious effort to avoid flicking it like an oversize indicator stalk.

Once settled in, though, it becomes second-nature and its location frees up extra space for storage in the console between the front seats.  

Chery says it spent eight months on local testing and development of the suspension tune, powertrain integration and safety assistance systems and we believe the car could be better in aspects of all three.

The Omoda 5 rides on a platform designed to accommodate combustion and electric propulsion from day one and the front-wheel-drive E5 is suspended by struts at the front and multi-links at the rear.

It takes a lot to manage close to 1.8 tonnes of mass in a relatively small car. Walking the tightrope between body control and ride comfort is tricky with a beefy battery onboard and the E5’s around town ride is best described as jittery, upset by even moderately rough surfaces, although things improve as road speed rises.

The 18-inch rims are shod with 215/55 Kumho PS71 EV rubber and despite its relatively stubby sidewall we’ve driven this tyre on other cars without issue, so it’s likely not the culprit.

Steering weight can be adjusted but road feel is modest and quick cornering isn’t the E5’s forte. But it’s not that kind of car. Urban duties rather than slicing through a favourite set of corners will be its more likely primary purpose, and for that, the steering’s fine. 

Then, no matter which drive mode you’ve selected, or the level of regen braking, it’s hard to be 100 per cent smooth with accelerator and brake inputs. They can be sharp on application and lift-off.

And when it comes to assist systems, lane-keeping intervention when using cruise control is abrupt and annoying. The centring function can be switched off but, ideally, you shouldn’t have to.

And likewise, the driver attention warning is intrusive. To the point where it fired an alert at times where I was looking directly at the road ahead. Again, it can be turned off (which is what I’d do 100 per cent of the time) but the calibration could be better.

Physical braking is by vented discs at the front and solid rotors at the rear and three levels of regen braking are available. Snag is you have to work through multiple screen options to get to the point where you can adjust it. Wheel-mounted paddles would be far more effective but the bean counters must have won the arm wrestle with engineering.

Once you apply the most aggressive regen level, even it is relatively low-key, so no i-Pedal-style single-pedal driving here.

In terms of miscellaneous observations, strategic inclusion of acoustic glass on the EX grade seems worthwhile as the mild highway wind noise we noticed on the BX wasn’t apparent in the top-spec model.

And the lack of a conventional dial for audio volume control is a miss. Far safer to quickly adjust a dial than sliders or buttons (even on the steering wheel).

Interesting to note Euro NCAP is lining up to make inclusion of physical controls for things like audio volume, turn signals, hazard lights, wipers and the horn mandatory for a maximum five-star safety assessment from 2026 onwards. 

Binging, bonging safety systems aside, the Deepal S07's drive experience is relatively peaceful.

It can feel heavy, and isn't dynamically perfect through tighter bends, and even in the city the suspension - which does a good job ironing out most road imperfections - can clang over sharper, bigger stuff, especially if you're too enthusiastic with a speed bump.

But provided you're not asking too much of it on some twisting pass, and you're gentle enough over really big bumps, the S07 behaves much as you'd expect a big, wafty electric SUV might.

That is, with a smooth flow of power, steering that isn't overly direct, but not overly sharp either and with comfort the order of the day.

There are some annoying quirks, though, that would seem easy enough to iron out. The safety systems are often intrusive – and other Chinese brands can get them to be far less annoying – but I also found the tech and user interface annoying and fiddly, which again would be easy enough to fix.

Handing out a low score for a five-star ANCAP car seems harsh, but bear with me.

All the major bases are covered, the standard spec including auto emergency braking (AEB) with car-to-car and 'vulnerable road user' (pedestrian, backover, cyclist, motorcycle) detection, blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warning, lane keeping assist and more. And there are front, front side (chest), side curtain and front centre airbags.

But the single biggest drawback of the Deepal experience has to be the most annoying, infuriating active (crash-avoidance) safety systems I’ve ever come across. Honestly, it has to be experienced to be believed.

For one, whenever I wear sunglasses it gives me an “occlusion” warning, which I genuinely had to Google, but that’s nothing compared to the driver attention monitor, which seems rigged to go off if you so much as blink, sending chimes binging and bonging throughout the cabin, increasing in number like a bomb about to go off.

And if you have to turn them off every time you get in, you have to wonder if they have any business being there at all.

So yes, it wears a maximum five-star ANCAP rating from assessment in January this year, but it’s a tree falling in the forest, kind of vibe, like if a car has every active safety system known to man, and you want to switch them off every time you get in, is it any safer than a car that doesn’t have any systems at all?

Chery covers the Omoda E5 with a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which is ahead of the mainstream market norm, with a separate eight-year/unlimited km warranty for the drive battery; again, ahead of the pack.

You’ll also pick up seven years roadside assist (if you service the car at a Chery dealership) and the brand’s seven-year capped-price servicing program is super-competitive. 

The scheduled service interval is 12 months/20,000km, which is shorter in terms of time than many EVs which stretch the interval to two years. But each workshop visit averages around $227 and that’s sharp.

The S07 is covered for seven years or 160,000km, while the battery is covered for eight years or 240,000km.

Servicing is required every 12 months or 10,000km, and the brand’s capped-price servicing program covers the first seven services (or eight, if you include the initial 5000km check-in, which is free), for a total $2981.43 (or an average of $426 per paid workshop visit).