Deepal S05 for Australia: Launch Date Dropped After Three Missed Windows, Still No Price

Image credit: Deepal Australia. Deepal notes an overseas model is shown.

The Deepal S05 is still coming to Australia, as far as Deepal Australia is concerned. Its S05 page still introduces the "all-new DEEPAL S05 compact SUV", still has a form that asks whether you are interested in a pre-order, and still tells you to register your interest to stay up to date. What it has stopped doing is telling you when.

That matters because this is the fourth version of the answer. Deepal Australia, the brand's local distributor run by Inchcape, has put three arrival windows on that page over the past year, and each one has passed. Today it gives none. There is still no price, no confirmed list of versions and no Australian specification. For anyone who registered interest back in 2025 and has been waiting on this car, the useful news is that you should not plan around a date, because Deepal is no longer giving one.

Where the Launch Date Went

We compared archived copies of Deepal Australia's S05 page with the live one. The wording around the arrival window has changed like this:

One loose end: a second S05 page on Deepal Australia's site, which is still live, carries the old line about an anticipated arrival in the first half of 2026. We read the main model page as the current position, and that page has dropped the date. If you land on the older one through a search result, do not treat the H1 2026 wording as current: that window closed three months ago.

Deepal has not said why the date keeps moving, and we are not going to guess. Launch timing for an imported model depends on things a buyer never sees: certification, allocation from the factory, and how a distributor wants to position a new model against stock it already has. What we can say is that a published window moving twice, lapsing a third time and then disappearing is a signal to budget for uncertainty, not for a particular month.

What Deepal Australia Has Actually Confirmed

Not much, so it is worth being precise. On its S05 page, Deepal Australia describes the car as a compact SUV, says it is "more than big enough for the whole family", and pitches it at people who want "the effortless urban manoeuvrability of a compact SUV, with the space and practicality for weekend adventures". The images carry a note that they are for illustrative purposes and may not reflect vehicles available in individual markets, and the hero image itself is marked as an overseas model.

The enquiry form asks for your details, your postcode and a preferred retailer, and then asks: "Are you interested in Pre-Order?" The retailer list runs to 23 Deepal dealers across New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. There is no Tasmanian retailer in that list today. Ticking the pre-order box is an expression of interest. The page does not attach a price, a deposit or a delivery date to it.

Everything else you may have read about the Australian S05, including outputs, battery sizes, range and a claimed certification milestone, comes from the motoring press rather than from Deepal Australia. The figures in circulation do not all agree with each other, which is a good reason not to lean on any of them until Deepal publishes its own.

Electric, Range-Extender, or Both?

This is the question that decides who the S05 is for, and Deepal Australia has not answered it. Its main S05 page does not name a powertrain at all. The older second page mentioned above closes with an invitation to be first to discover what is next with the "DEEPAL S05 Ultra Hybrid", without saying what that name refers to. It is the one hint we found across Deepal Australia's S05 and S07 pages, and it is not a specification.

Overseas, the picture is clearer, but it is not an Australian one. On Changan's UK configurator, the S05 is sold in two grades, both electric: an RWD Max and an AWD Max, the latter listed with dual motors and a 320kW combined output. The UK configurator does not list a range-extender version. At least one Australian motoring outlet has reported that both electric and extended-range versions are headed here, but Deepal Australia has not confirmed either, and a UK line-up is no guide to what Inchcape chooses to import.

Why it matters to you: a battery-only S05 would be shopped against the Geely EX5, MG S5 EV, Kia EV3 and BYD Atto 3, and would be in line for the electric car FBT exemption if it priced under the threshold. A range-extender S05, where a petrol engine charges the battery and the wheels are driven electrically, would be shopped against the Leapmotor C10 REEV instead, by buyers who want electric driving without planning a trip around chargers. Those are two quite different buyers, and until Deepal says which car it is bringing, you cannot tell whether the S05 is aimed at you.

Our directory holds two placeholder rows for the S05, an S05 EV and an S05 REEV, both marked coming soon. Treat any figures on those pages as unconfirmed: none of them comes from Deepal Australia. We will replace them with Deepal Australia's own numbers when it publishes them.

Price: None Yet, and the S07 Sets the Ceiling

Deepal Australia has not announced a price for the S05, and nothing on its site hints at one. Speculative figures based on Chinese pricing have appeared in the motoring press; they are guesses, not Deepal figures, and we are not repeating them.

What we can show is the ground the S05 will land on. The table below is the small electric and range-extender SUVs a shopper at this size will realistically weigh up, at the prices their makers publish. Note the different price bases: some brands quote driveaway, others quote before on-road costs, and the two are not directly comparable.

The S07 line is the one to watch. Deepal Australia advertises the S07, which it calls a mid-sized electric SUV, from $47,990 driveaway with 20-inch wheels. Its terms say that price applies to new S07s bought from participating retailers while stocks last, excludes premium paint ($880) and government, fleet and rental buyers, and cannot be combined with other offers. Deepal describes the S05 as a compact SUV, so it sits below the S07 in the range. A smaller Deepal that cost the same as, or more than, a while-stocks-last S07 would be a hard sell in the same showroom. That is our reading of the line-up, not a Deepal price signal, and it is exactly why the S05's eventual figure matters more than usual.

It also shows how crowded this bracket has become while the S05 has been waiting. Every priced car in that table is on sale now, between $41,990 and $49,888 on their makers' own bases. And three of them, the Geely EX5, the Leapmotor C10 and the MG S5 EV, picked up updates with more range or more power in June and July 2026, while the S05's first-half window was running out.

The Small Electric and Range-Extender SUVs We List, Side by Side

The S05 is not in the comparison below, because it is not on sale and we hold no Australian figures for it. What is in it are the rivals it will meet, plus its own bigger sibling. Pick any two.

On the specifications we list, the BYD Atto 3 EVO Dynamic belongs in this conversation too, as another small electric SUV a buyer at this size will look at. We have not quoted its price above because we have not yet checked our listed figure against BYD, so the comparison tool shows the numbers we currently list for it.

Safety, Tax and Certification

ANCAP. ANCAP's published ratings include the Deepal S07 but no S05, and we hold no ANCAP rating for the S05. Treat it as unrated. A rating for the S07 does not carry across to a different, smaller model, so if a rating is a condition of your purchase, for a family car or a fleet policy, that is a gap for now.

Green Vehicle Guide. The federal Green Vehicle Guide currently lists three Deepal records: the E07 in rear-drive and all-wheel-drive form, and the S07. There is no S05 record yet, which means there is no official Australian energy consumption or range figure to quote. At least one Australian outlet reported in January 2026 that the S05 had been approved for the Australian market; we have not been able to confirm that with Deepal Australia, and its page does not say so.

FBT and luxury car tax. As general information for the 2026-27 financial year: a battery electric car can qualify for the electric car fringe benefits tax exemption on a novated lease if its value is under the fuel-efficient luxury car tax threshold, which is $91,661 for 2026-27 (the standard threshold is $80,809). Nothing in this bracket is near either line. The catch is the powertrain. Plug-in hybrids lost the exemption for cars first held on or after 1 April 2025, and a version with a petrol engine on board should not be assumed to qualify. If the S05 arrives with a range-extender option, ask your lease provider how that exact version is treated before you sign. This is general information, not tax advice.

Warranty and servicing. Deepal Australia has not published S05-specific warranty, battery warranty or capped-price servicing terms. Ask for them in writing when they are available.

What Deepal Has Not Told Us Yet

• An arrival date. The last published window, the first half of 2026, has passed and has not been replaced.
• A price, or even a price basis, for any version.
• Which versions are coming: electric, range-extender, or both, and in how many grades.
• Specifications: outputs, battery size, range, charging speeds, dimensions, boot space and towing.
• Equipment for each grade.
• Warranty and servicing terms, and an ANCAP rating.

Should You Wait For It?

Waiting makes sense if you are not in a hurry, you like what Deepal has done with the S07 and E07, and you specifically want something a size down from the S07. It also makes sense if you are hoping for a range-extender at this size and the Leapmotor C10 REEV does not suit you, although Deepal has not confirmed the S05 will come in that form. Registering interest costs nothing, and it will get you the price when Deepal is ready to publish it.

Waiting makes less sense if you need a car in the next few months. There is no date to wait for, no price to budget against, and no safety rating to rely on. Meanwhile, the S07 is advertised at a driveaway price that already sits within the range of the rivals in the table above, and the rivals above are all in showrooms. If the S07's size works for your garage, it is worth pricing now while that offer runs, rather than waiting on an unannounced smaller sibling that may not end up much cheaper.

We will update this story and both S05 rows in the CarSorted directory as soon as Deepal Australia publishes a price, a line-up or a date. Offers we have checked are listed on our deals page.