Set to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, the first serious sports car from Citroen's standalone luxury brand aims to marry performance and luxury with responsibility.
The responsibility in question is of the environmental nature. The DS is a plug-in electric vehicle that uses technology leveraged from the brand's involvement in the emerging Formula E racing series.
The car outputs 402hp which is channelled exclusively to the rear wheels -- this is an unusual approach as many electric supercars tend to be four-wheel drive -- for a 0-100km/h time of 4.5 seconds.
The car can hit a top speed of 250km/h (155mph) and, DS claims, can manage 360km on a single charge. Those figures won't give Tesla many sleepless nights. Its Model S P90D manages the 0-100km/h dash in 2.9 seconds and can travel 490km before a recharge is needed.
But performance is only one ingredient of the supercar recipe and it's in terms of design, attention to detail and levels of craftsmanship that the DS more than holds its own.
Finished in a mirrored ametrine green and with a chrome-plated central spine, the car's lines apper even sharper thanks to the omission of a rear windscreen -- with digital sensing and camera technology providing a clear rear-view instead.
DS claims that the interior took over 800 hours to concieve, test and create and features design elements referencing luxury watches, such as wrist strap details on the seats and sculpted steel for the dashboard binnacle.
BRM Chronographers created a bespoke watch to go with the car that can be worn by its driver or removed and integrated into the dashboard instead. To underline its sporty character, the car has a calfskin and soft leather helmet pouch that fits to the rear of the driver's seat and was created by Moynat. When not at the track, the pouch can be used as a bag.
The final touch is an air-conditioning system that also filters particles and pollutants out of the cabin so that the air is as fresh as it is cool.
The DS E-Tense will be officially unveiled on March 1 when the doors of the Geneva Motorshow open to the world's motoring press.
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