There was a time, not so long ago, when a Chinese car was little more than a punchline with four wheels and a questionable crash rating.
Twenty-five years back, the pinnacle of Beijing’s automotive ambition was the Lubao CA6410 - a Frankenstein’s monster that grafted the snout of an Austin Montego onto the rear of a Maestro, powered by a Toyota engine and held together by little more than hope.
How times change. Today, the joke is firmly on the establishment. After two decades of frantic economic expansion and a ruthless, laser-eyed focus on electrification, the copycat era has been consigned to the scrapyard. The traditional logic suggested that if you bought Chinese, you were buying on price alone - the automotive equivalent of a supermarket own-brand digestive. But the new wave of metal landing on our shores suggests otherwise.
While they remain aggressively priced, the budget label no longer fits. In terms of tactile interior quality and - crucially - driving dynamics, some of the latest exports are now hounding the heels of the European, Japanese, and Korean elite. The plastics are soft, the screens are gargantuan and the waft is becoming wafiter. factor is becoming standard.
The era of the cheap and nasty import is ending. And the era of the genuine contender has arriving.
Below, we’ve curated the cream of the current crop from China.
Best for: All-round ability
China’s oldest domestic car maker has arrived in the UK under its tech-focused Deepal sub-brand. And its first offering is genuinely impressive.
In some respects it is unlike other cars on this list, in that its battery tech is merely okay, but its chassis and the way it gets down the road is genuinely impressive.
The Deepal S07 is a mid-sized electric crossover pitched directly against heavyweights like the Tesla Model Y and Skoda Enyaq. It was designed in Turin and developed in Birmingham, and that European flavour is evident in both its broad-hipped styling and its well-polished on-road manners.
Power comes from a single 215bhp motor driving the rear wheels. While a 0-62mph time of 7.9sec means it lacks the aggressive, up-and-at-'em thrust of some EV rivals, its chassis provides a remarkably mature blend of settled ride comfort, credible isolation, and low-speed agility.
Inside, the cabin is roomy, solid-feeling and discreetly upmarket. It is dominated by a 15.6in 'sunflower' infotainment screen that can physically pivot to face the driver or passenger. Changan has also cleverly circumvented the usual touchscreen usability woes with a highly customisable shortcut bar that puts your favourite controls at your fingertips.
Its 445-litre boot is slightly small for the class and its 240-mile real-world touring range is merely average - but as an overall package it is a highly compelling, gripe-free package.
Read our Changan Deepal S07 review
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