Chinese EV brand Deepal to launch in Singapore in 2025

SINGAPORE – Deepal, an electric vehicle (EV) brand from China, will make its debut at the Singapore Motorshow in January 2025, its Singapore distributor Premium Automobiles confirmed to The Straits Times on Dec 6.

The Singapore Motorshow will be held from Jan 9 to 12 at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Deepal will be the 12th Chinese EV brand to be introduced in Singapore. Its first model to be launched here will be the S07, an electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), which is about the same size as the Tesla Model Y.

Deepal’s showroom will be located at 281 Alexandra Road, in the space that used to be occupied by Audi.

Premium Automobiles has two other Chinese EV brands in its stable, Xpeng and Zeekr.

Pricing details and specifications of the S07, which has yet to be approved for sale here, are not yet available.

The distributor has also not shared its plans for other Deepal models.

In Australia, the Deepal S07 is powered by a single 160kW motor, with an operating range of up to 475km before the batteries need to be recharged.

This is less powerful than similarly sized SUVs like the Tesla Model Y and Volkswagen ID.4 that have 210kW, but the operating range is comparable.

Some versions of the S07 sold in China have driving assistance features that are powered by technology company Huawei. Deepal also counts Chinese battery company CATL as its development partner.

Deepal announced in November that it will be launching its vehicles in Malaysia in mid-2025 with the S07 and S05, which is slightly bigger than the BYD Atto 3 electric SUV.

Deepal was launched in China in 2022. The brand under the Chinese state-owned company Changan began expanding abroad only in 2024, to countries such as Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan and Australia.

In July 2024, Changan announced its plans to introduce the Deepal brand across 70 countries and regions by 2025.

Premium Automobiles has been bringing in new brands as it winds down its Audi retail operation.

In September, ST reported that the German luxury brand was going to

start selling cars directly to customers

. Premium Automobiles will continue to handle the maintenance, repair and warranty claims for Audi cars.

The dealer considers its portfolio of Chinese brands to be in the premium EV segment.

Mr Lee Hoe Lone, managing director of Premium Automobiles, said the different positioning and model line-up of its three Chinese EV brands will appeal to different customers. As such, he believes that there will not be much overlap in terms of customer base.

“We will put our focus on the three brands to realise their potential,” he said, adding that he expects it will take a minimum of 12 to 24 months for the brands to gain awareness and traction here.

While Mr Lee did not elaborate on Deepal’s products for Singapore after the S07, it is likely that the smaller S05 will be among the models in the pipeline.

The more compact electric SUV can potentially be priced below the larger models offered by Premium Automobiles under Xpeng and Zeekr, which are priced between $221,999 and $409,999 with COE.

Since it launched here in July, Xpeng has registered 212 units of its G6 mid-sized electric SUV.

Zeekr, which officially launched in Singapore in August, managed to sell 65 units by the end of October.

Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said that Chinese EV makers currently have an edge, particularly in the mass-market segment, because options from non-Chinese manufacturers are limited.

On whether Singapore has the capacity to support this many EV brands, he said that it is down to whether the distributors can find a niche in the market and accept the cost of keeping the brands going if sales volumes are low.

Automotive industry consultant Say Kwee Neng believes the Chinese mass-market brands will “tear a hole in the weaker Japanese brands’ market share”, and that is where the Chinese carmakers’ growth will be.

While leading Japanese carmaker Toyota and leading Chinese EV producer BYD will lose some ground as more Chinese brands emerge, “they will still be the top dog, but other competitive brands will be nipping at their heels”, he said.