What is the DS No 8? Well, it’s not an SUV, a coupe or a perfume.
This is the flagship of the DS brand, an offshoot of Citroën, which is a sister company of Peugeot, both of which are now part of the European car giant Stellantis. Yes, it’s a complex family tree.
While the Irish Times motoring team isn’t old enough to have witnessed firsth and the halcyon days of the Citroën DS5, its reputation for cutting-edge engineering and design still echoes in the automotive world. From the first day the tyres of a DS5 touched tarmac, it was destined for motoring’s hall of fame.
It was lauded not just by car nuts but by the likes of French philosopher Albert Camus.
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So why not build a brand around it? In 2015 Citroën did just that. This is no French ego trip, finally trying to keep up with the neighbours in Germany and their dominance of the premium car market. Premium cars equal juicy profits. While it’s a rule of thumb regularly breached, premium cars account for 10 per cent of overall sales but 50 per cent of profit. It’s a point the original DS boss Yves Bonnefont made numerous times during an interview with The Irish Times back in 2015.
The plan was for DS to follow the playbook of Lexus. A decade on and the brand is still fighting the good fight, but it’s still very much a niche player. It aspires to the level of awareness that Lexus has achieved. We still encounter people who know and love cars, can bend your ear for 20 minutes on the original DS without drawing breath, but know little or nothing about DS as a brand.
Amid the gridlock of new Chinese brands, DS is always in danger of getting lost in the traffic.
Then there was the ride quality. Carrying the DS moniker meant cars from this brand had to have distinctive ride and handling characteristics. The original car was a revolution. The first models of this brand were overworked: either too stiff or oversprung.
But as time passed, they started to find their mojo.
So, what of the new all-electric No 8 (number 8, as it’s pronounced): can it pin DS to the premium map? The omens are good. Too many DS models to date have carried Citroën design traits. A different grille and a dash of leather aren’t going to warrant a five-figure price hike.
With the No 8, you get a more distinctive style. The design team at DS is supposedly the largest for any brand in the Stellantis Group, which is a statement in itself.
It certainly catches the eye – and it did so on a trip up the M1 to Belfast. Passing cars would slow and hang on our c-pillar as they studied the silhouette and deciphered the badge on the back. If the craning necks in passing cars is a sign of design success, then DS has delivered.
There are deceptive design tricks at play here. The silhouette is saloon-car sleek, yet you sit high inside, and from the driver’s perspective, you get the same eyeline as many crossovers and mid-sized SUVs. It’s the same eyeline height as in the DS7 crossover, for example.
It also has a larger footprint than you’d expect, measuring in at more than 4.8 metres, which is more than an Audi Q6 E-tron, for example.
The closest car to this DS is the Polestar 4 in terms of both styling, height and dynamics. It also plays in the same space, offering up an alternative to the German premium fare.
Inside, it’s distinctive and opulent, awash with design details and backlighting. It’s a little fussy, but that’s what distinguishes it from its rivals. The front seats are comfortable and well cushioned, the rear relatively spacious, although it suffers from the same issue as most electric cars. The rear passengers sit on top of the battery pack, so their floor is raised.
To deliver design and aerodynamics, there is always a price to pay. The sloping rear roofline means the bootspace, though ample, is low and long. Shorter owners may find themselves climbing in to retrieve wayward shopping bags.
In the back seats, decent headroom has been delivered by reclining the back and lowering the hipline, which is noticeably lower than the kneeline for backseat passengers. That means you sit in the rear seat rather than on it.
DS No 8 comes in three flavours. The entry-level front-wheel drive 230hp version features a 73.7kWh battery pack, a 0-100km/h time of 7.7 seconds and a claimed range of 550km. A longer-range version delivers 245hp with a 97.2kWh battery, a WLTP figure of 750km on a single charge and 0-100km/h in 7.8 seconds. The all-wheel drive version puts out 350hp, claims 688km in range and a rapid 0-100km/h time of just 5.4 seconds.
We drove both the long-range and AWD versions. While the official consumption figure is as low as 15.7kWh/100km, we couldn’t match that – but even the AWD model returned 453km from an 82 per cent charge, and at motorway speeds we recorded figures as low as 16.3kWh/100km.
This DS can recharge at up to 160kW on DC superchargers. That is lower than some rivals, but as DS project manager Cyprien Laurentie explains, its charging curve holds that peak for longer, meaning a 20-80 per cent top-up takes 27 minutes or roughly 200km in 10 minutes.
As for performance, for a little perspective, that time of 5.4 seconds is on a par with the BMW M3s in the early 2000s. Yet even when you weigh on the throttle, it’s a smooth surge rather than the neck-snapping jolt of other EVs, which makes the No 8 easy to drive smoothly.
And that’s the essence here: smoothness. Above all else, the original DS was defined by its magic carpet ride. As the new flagship of the brand, the No 8 needs to re-enact that magic.
Overall, it does deliver the pillowy suspension setup you’d expect, especially at urban and suburban speeds. Wheel choice is important, though. The all-wheel drive we tested had 21-inch wheels and created more road noise and a slightly harder ride than the 18-inch alloys on the front-wheel drive. The smaller wheels deliver a ride far more in keeping with the DS DNA.
For all its talents, price will be crucial. It needs to pitch into battle against Polestar 4. In France the marketing line is that you get a car the size of an Audi Q6 for the price of an Audi Q4. That suggests an Irish price tag of circa €60,000. Whether it lands here for that remains to be seen.
It’s in an almighty tussle with well-established brands all chasing the same relatively small cohort of well-heeled motorists. Then there are the new Asian arrivals to contend with as well. There are buyers seeking alternatives, and DS has some history to tap that others can’t match. But pitch the price too high, and No 8 risks being left off buyers’ top five – which would be a shame.
The DS No 8 proves the French can still do style and comfort better than most. But unless the price lands just right, it could remain one of those cars everyone admires – and few actually buy.
