The first edition of the Piemonte Meets China – Turin Automotive Design Award (TADA), was held during the 2025 Turin Motor Show. This award celebrates the stylistic excellence of Chinese car manufacturers and their connection to Turin, the city home to many design studios of brands born in the shadow of the Great Wall.
Changan Deepal S07
Changan Deepal S05
Among the winners, the Changan Deepal S07 won “Best Exterior Design” while the Changan Deepal S05 received the trophy for “Best Human-Centric Intelligent Integration.” Jakob Pettersson, Changan Deepal Exterior Design Director, commented on the double recognition: “I am very pleased that Changan has received these two awards. They are a tangible sign of our work. This achievement comes a long way and demonstrates how our commitment to the Turin design center has borne fruit. We started many years ago with the intention of building a long-term strategy, and now we are reaping what we have sown. Our success is born from the union of China’s technology and expertise in electric vehicles with Europe’s excellence in design: for us, the bond between Changan and Turin is unbreakable.”
Changan actually opened its design studio in Rivoli (Turin) in the early 2000s. “At first, it was a small facility,” Pettersson recalls. “Then we gradually grew, and now we’re finishing work on the new headquarters, a large and functional space ideal for hosting our designers.”
According to Pettersson, Changan has a different approach than other manufacturers, and this allows it to create cars with a personal and recognizable style. This is demonstrated by Deepal, for example, a brand that rests on three pillars: new technology, customer needs, and respect for nature.
Changan Deepal S05
Changan Deepal S07
“The design of our cars doesn’t come from nowhere,” says Pettersson. “We have general concepts that we want to adhere to across all the brand’s models. It’s not a question of specific stylistic elements, as other manufacturers do, but of inspirational ideas. We have a showcar that we use internally and that shows us the direction we need to go. It represents the brand’s values in terms of proportions, attention to detail, and the emotions it must convey. Every Deepal car, whatever it is, must remain faithful to the showcar. This is how we will build our history and our destiny.”
