The DS E-Tense Performance concept has won an innovation award for its style and technology at the Chantilly Arts & Elegance event in France.
Praise for style and tech
First unveiled in February this year, the supercar concept is an evolution of another one of the firm's show cars from 2016 and features underpinnings developed by DS's Formula E racing team.
To date, the concept has covered more than 3,000km in testing as well as recording a 0-100km/h time of two seconds flat, and the judges at Chantilly commended its "technology and stylistic biases" - not surprising given that it's both more powerful and quicker-accelerating than a Formula E car.
Though the E-Tense Performance is a handsome thing with a "surface for expression" (or, in other words, a screen) instead of a grille, it's really what lies under that flip-effect painted skin that impresses.
Formula E technology
The concept's powertrain consists of two electric motors front and rear together developing 815hp and a staggering 8,000Nm of torque. Storing the energy is a compact battery mounted low and in the middle of the car for better weight distribution. It uses, the company says, "an innovative chemistry and an immersive cooling system for cells, at odds with current technology," and is encased in a carbon-aluminium composite housing. With a pretty hefty 600kW of regenerative braking ability, DS says that lessons learned from the concept's drivetrain may well trickle down into its production cars. So powerful, in fact, is the regenerative capacity that the company claims that the brakes on the car are redundant, only being fitted as a safety back-up.
Described as a "performance laboratory", with DS planning on becoming an all-electric brand by 2024, projects such as the E-Tense Performance and the DS Techeetah racing team have the potential to provide valuable insights when it comes to future powertrain development and energy management for road cars.
DS has competed in the Formula E series since 2015. A partnership with the Chinese team Techeetah won the company a constructor's and driver's championship in the 2018-2019 season, a feat that was repeated the following year.
The award at Chantilly came as DS unveiled a lightly refreshed version of the DS 3 Crossback - now referred to simply as the DS 3 - at Paris Fashion Week.