Hardly a month seems to go by without a new Chinese car manufacturer announcing its arrival on the UK market and it’s pretty likely that very few car buyers in Britain will have heard of Changan, dismissing it as “just another of those Chinese brands.”
The launch of Changan and its initial Deepal S07 car is, however, more significant than it looks. Not only is this one of China’s oldest and largest automotive manufacturers, it is a brand that has been in Europe, and the UK, for a long time – just not selling cars.
Changan arrived in Europe almost a quarter of a century ago when it opened a design studio in Turin, choosing Italy as the country is renowned as the spiritual home of the best car designers. The UK has always been equally renowned for its automotive technical excellence and so a research and development centre was set up in Birmingham in 2016.
Both have not just contributed but taken major responsibility for the Deepal 07 and its successors, allowing Changan to claim with some justification that its products will be rather more European than those of most of its Chinese rivals.
So who or what is Changan?
Changan describes itself as China’s oldest passenger car manufacturer, having been producing them since 1984. The company itself, however, is much older, dating back 163 years to 1862 and the setting up of a military supply facility called the Shanghai Foreign Gun Bureau.
Soon renamed the Suzhou Arsenal, the company moved to Nanjing and quickly became one of China’s foremost military manufacturers, with more than 1,700 employees. It was considered so important by the Chinese Government that when in 1937 Nanjing came under threat during the second Sino-Japanese War, the whole operation was moved to Chongqing – today the largest city in the world, said to be the size of Austria with 36 million inhabitants, remains Changan’s home.
By the mid-1950s, activities had been expanded beyond defence into other industries and, in 1959, this saw one of the company’s entities, Chonqing Changan Arsenal, making the Changjiang Type 46, described as the first production vehicle in China.
The real change, however, came in 1984 when Changan signed a technical tie-up with Suzuki. This saw the launch of the first Changan vehicles, the SC112 MPV and SC110 truck. From this point, Changan focused on automotive rather than military production.
The progress since then has been rapid as Changan expanded to become one of the largest automobile groups in China. Cars are sold today under the Changan, Changan Deepal and Avatr brands, while there are also joint ventures with Ford, Mazda and JMC.
Changan has become a global player in the process. Today, the group has 39 plants around the world, employing around 145,000 and exporting to some 103 countries. Annual global sales are now more than 3 million, with the Deepal and Avatr brands accounting for 85% of them.
Until now, however, Changan has not sold cars in Europe – but the launch is currently underway with the start of UK sales following launches earlier this year in Germany and the Netherlands.
A European design centre was established in Turin, Italy in 2001 and now employs more than 300 designers. It was followed by a UK research and development facility in 2010 employing 100+ engineers, and Changan’s European models have been created in these facilities.
The latest move has seen a second design studio opened in Munich, Germany for Changan’s forthcoming Avatr ‘sports luxury’ brand. Plans for manufacturing in Europe are also progressing rapidly, no doubt encouraged by the recent imposition of tariffs on Chinese exports, and a European Changan plant is expected to become reality in the near future.
When did Changan launch in the UK?
Changan as a UK commercial sales operation is launching in September 2025 – the company has been in Britain, however, almost 15 years. The research and development centre set up in 2010 moved to a site close to Birmingham airport in 2015, when £22 million was invested in building a new test centre.
What models does Changan have and what else is coming?
Changan has two brands that it plans to sell in the UK – Deepal is launching now and its more upmarket sibling Avatr is expected to follow in a year or so.
The first Deepal model is a mid-sized electric SUV, the 07. Initially, it is only available in single-motor rear-wheel-drive form with a driving range of up to 295 miles and a five-star Euro NCAP rating. In line with Changan’s sales structure, the only option available is an electric towbar, and so the car is priced at, not from, £39,990. It also comes with a seven-year warranty, with eight years on the battery.
Before the end of 2025, the Deepal 07 should be joined by a slightly smaller sister, the 05, and both vehicles will later be offered with both full-electric and range-extender powertrains, small petrol engines acting as generators for the battery.
Changan believes that the internal combustion engine has a role to play in future products, while the company also has plans for smaller cars with hybrid engines to cover a range of price points.
Where can I try a Changan car?
One aspect that Changan shares with its Chinese rivals is an intention to establish a traditional UK dealer network, and quickly.
So far, more than 30 outlets have been agreed with ten major dealer groups around the UK. The first Changan showroom opened in Birmingham in September, and the company aims to have more than 60 sites by the end of 2025.
What’s particularly significant about this company?
Changan may be a virtually unknown company in the UK, but this is very much not the case in China or indeed globally, prime aspects of the group being the scale of its operation and the long history, outstretching virtually all rivals.
Seemingly late to the party in the UK expansion of Chinese brands, Changan is actually following a determined path of preparation before launch, believing that establishing a European infrastructure before selling any cars is the best course of action.
What makes Changan different to the rest?
In a UK market currently dominated by new Chinese names, Changan stands out from its rivals in the importance of its British operation to the entire company. Not only has Changan been in Britain since 2011, its UK presence has involved much more than being an assembly and distribution hub for products created entirely in China.
The Birmingham R&D centre now employs more than 100 engineers working in five separate buildings. These buildings house high-tech testing and development hardware for everything from electric motors to hybridised engines and full vehicles. Several engines have been designed from clean sheets of paper in the UK centre and have been employed in Changan’s models across the world, including in China.
The R&D centre is currently expanding to also house training facilities for the UK dealer network, alongside a major parts facility established at the East Midlands Airport in Derbyshire.
Changan states that the hardware of the Deepal 07 and 05 has effectively been created in the UK, but the look of the cars is equally European-sourced, from the design centre in Turin.
While other Chinese brands are aggressively representing themselves as new kids on the block Changan claims that its buyers will now see the results of something around two decades in the making.
Summary
On the face of it, Changan has rather more going for it than many of its rivals, especially the ones from its home market of China – the company has been around longer than those competitors, and the only reason it’s following them onto the UK market is through several years of preparation and ‘Euro-proofing’ its product.
With such qualities, it’s easy to see Changan becoming a major player on the UK market – if it can meet the challenge of persuading potential car buyers to look at its products at a time when they are more than spoiled for choice.
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