What is Changan? Complete brand, model and tech guide for UK car buyers

On the east side of Birmingham, five nondescript buildings sit around a little green. This is Chinese car maker Changan’s powertrain test centre – and it’s been in the UK since 2010. 

About 100 engineers here have undertaken powertrain R&D on nine-in-10 Changans on sale globally. Given that the company built 2.6 million units last year, “that’s a lot of vehicles,” Changan UK managing director Nic Thomas tells us. 

Changan is one of those Chinese companies you might never have heard of, even though it was founded in 1984 and claims to be the country’s first passenger-car maker. Operations are not just in the UK: there’s a design centre in Turin, Italy, with 300 staff and a satellite studio in Munich, Germany, for sister brand Avatr. 

“As early as 2001, Changan decided that to be a global automotive player, it needed to be a global company,” says Thomas. “We've got facilities in the US and Japan, but Europe has been the focus for a very long time – it’s Changan’s second home.”

More investment – up to 2 billion Euros (£1.74bn) – is set aside for the region. One priority is vehicle assembly here by 2030. Thomas confirms assessments are under way. “We need somewhere with a great supply chain and a great overall cost base,” he says, which probably makes eastern Europe the favourite.

Having product development in Europe helps the company work around the clock, enabling so-called ‘China speed’. And the UK commercial roll-out will proceed at lightning pace, following the official launch a month ago with the Changan Deepal S07 EV. 

That’s a big crossover, designed in Turin, and which costs £39,990 for a spacious five-seater that can travel an underwhelming 295 miles on a charge. The domestic suspension set-up was deemed too soft for us, so the UK team recalibrated it, along with the touchscreen menus and driver-assistance systems.

A smaller brother, the S05, is scheduled to join it by the end of this year. Both will run electric and hybrid powertrains; Changan doesn’t plan any solely combustion drivetrains. Although the Chinese equivalents run range-extenders, the European powertrains will be plug-in hybrids, co-developed in the Midlands “with a serious EV range and a petrol engine to back you up,” says the UK boss.

“There will be a third smaller SUV coming by the end of next year, and then we’ll keep adding products. We’ll have a suitable range of six to eight vehicles in the near future to cover multiple customer bases. We can offer all sorts of different cars.”

Thomas has been with the company for two years. Its UK technical centre is well established, with dealer sales staff, as well as service technicians, going through initial training. Aftersales care – or the lack of it – will break plenty of Chinese wannabes, but Thomas is determined that won’t happen to Changan. 

“We have a team ready to deal with any issues, driving to dealers to fix problems on site, plus over-the-air updates,” he says. The company will use two brands in the UK, Changan Deepal and German premium-chasing Avatr. Deepal is a standalone brand in Australia, but the UK will go to market as Changan Deepal, with the suffix used in the same way VW has ID or Hyundai Ioniq.

“To me, Changan stands for stand-out modern design, high quality and really usable tech – at very affordable pricing. Everybody wants to be premium. Not Changan,” adds Thomas.

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