DS Brand’s X-ETENSE EV Offers Glimpse of Future

PSA Group’s DS premium brand releases the first renditions of how it sees its product designs looking by 2035.

The futuristic images of an all-electric car echo the aerospace luxury concepts of some of the major U.S. car brands seen in the 1960s with low, sleek profiles and opulent interiors.

Dubbed the DS X E-TENSE, it snubs the prospect of a shared, characterless mobility future with an owner’s car that PSA claims is in the same revolutionary mold as the original Citroën DS that caught the motoring public’s imagination in 1955.

Special features include a cabin accessed by a gullwing door trimmed with a carbon-fiber and leather weave, a pyramidal single driving seat that adapts to the driver’s build while its reclined position helps keep the car’s center of gravity low, a prominent steering wheel in a combination of leather, wood and metal that incorporates capacitive senses to monitor the driver’s efforts.

There’s even a see-through electrochromatic panel for the two passengers to inspect the road surface.

Technologies include full connectivity and a fully autonomous driving mode, while the electric powertrain features two front-wheel-mounted motors with peak power stands at 540 hp, a figure that rises to 1,360 hp in circuit mode. Its carbon-fiber chassis sits on springs and torsion bars, while traction, grip and deceleration are controlled by an advanced active system conceived to cope with any road surface.

“As a carmaker, DS Automobiles has its roots very much in the 21st century, and we are currently embarking on a fresh chapter of our history with the launch of a second generation of all-new models,” DS Automobiles CEO Yves Bonnefont says.

“It is no secret that we are already thinking in terms of our next-generation cars and given the revolution that has started to rock our industry, our development work is focused primarily on energy efficiency – whatever its source – and on driver assistance for more comfort and safety.

“We already know more or less what our model lineup will be in 2025 so, to keep pushing the envelope, we decided to set ourselves another internal challenge which was to give life to the car of our dreams,” Bonnefont adds. “The time setting for this dream needed to be sufficiently distant in the future. We consequently chose 2035 as the year in which to set our creation.”