Official photos of Huawei-backed Shenlan S7 EV
Shenlan S7 is the electric SUV from a joint venture between Huawei, CATL and Changan. While Changan makes other vehicles on its own, its new EV brand required support from the technology and battery giants. Although the S7 has been spotted before, these are the first official photos revealing the car as well as the official name of the brand.
While Huawei is expanding its cooperation with Seres, the company’s automotive arm supports many other automakers. Huawei has many joint ventures with leading automotive brands in China and this new EV will fit right under the Avatr11 that Huawei sells through its own showrooms.
The sporty looking Shenlan S7 is a midsize SUV at 4,750 mm in length and with 2.9 meter wheelbase the car is equal in size to Tesla Model Y. The similarities in size continue with its width which is 1 cm more than that of Model Y and S7 is only 1 mm taller than the Model Y. It’s not difficult to imagine who the company sees as the target audience.
There are three versions of the S7 coming to the market - two will be pure electric and one will be an EREV. The two electric vehicles are available with either a 218 hp or 250 hp electric motor. The EREV version comes with a 238 hp electric motor and gets a 1.5-liter gasoline engine working only as a generator.
The interior is quite classy, the orange trim chosen for the vehicle in the photos is quite interesting. There is only one screen in the car, although it is rather large and it takes up a lot of room. The driver gets a tiny display sitting on the steering column and it is the large HUD that’s responsible for displaying all information.
The only two buttons visible are the scroll wheels on the steering wheel and there are window switches on the doors. The rest of the vehicle functions are controlled via the large screen. You’ll notice that the door handles are missing as well - their function has been taken over by a button in front of the window switch.
The photos reveal the new brand name as well - we can notice a couple of discrete tabs with Deepal name inscribed on them. This is the name chosen for the brand and the Shenlan S7 will be unveiled at Shanghai Auto Show next month as Deepal S7.
Huawei provided the powertrain and the controlling technology for the S7 through its DriveONE initiative, while CATL supplied the battery and Changan manufactured the vehicle. Huawei’s HarmonyOS will ensure seamless integration with smartphones and will offer a decent customer experience.
Changan did not mention anything about any adb¡vanced ADAS functions for the S7 and it’s hard to tell from the photos if it comes with LiDAR supported autonomous driving. It would be a rather big surprise if it didn’t though. The car is expected to retail starting from RMB 160,000 ($23,600) and deliveries are planned shortly after the launch next month.