DS's new luxury electric crossover, the DS No.8, has a pretty spectacular claim - a range of up to 750km on one charge for the single-motor, long-range version with its 97kWh battery. However, it's not so outrageous a claim as it may seem…
Has this been tested on the road?
As it happens, yes, it has. You see, the DS design studio is located in the town of Vélizy, on the outskirts of Paris. From there, the DS team took two long-range single-motor DS No.8s and brought them on a long, long drive, using secondary roads rather than motorways, to see if the 750km claim really stacked up in the real world.
Where did they go?
Well, the route taken by the DS No.8s was to the town of Biscarrosse, which lies on France's western Atlantic coast, south of Bordeaux. To get there, the two EVs drove a route through Beauce and Sologne, then bypassed Poitiers and Angoulême, before going through Libourne and Bordeaux to reach Biscarrosse.
What were the driving conditions like?
According to DS, the two cars were driven on: "main roads, departmental roads, urban routes and ring roads, with temperatures ranging from 12°C in the morning to 19°C in the afternoon, and the two DS No,8s covered 750 km at an average speed of 54 km/h.”
DS reckons that those conditions are: "more demanding than those of the WLTP homologation cycle, set at 23°C and an average speed of 46.5 km/h. At the finish, the DS No.8s still had between five per cent and eight per cent battery capacity, with up to 59 km of range remaining, for a remarkable average consumption of 11.7 kWh/100 km, well below the homologated value in the WLTP cycle of 12.9 kWh/100 km.”
That means both cars could technically have covered a massive 800km in one go, if the drivers had been prepared to run the batteries completely flat.
Is this the most French journey ever?
It quite possibly is. After all, the DS No.8 is not only built in France, so too are its batteries - at the Automotive Cells Company (ACC) in Billy-Berclau, near Lilles, while the car's electric motors are made in Trémery, close to the border with Luxembourg.
When can I buy a DS No.8 in Ireland?
Soon; DS Ireland is expecting the first cars to arrive here in late January or early February.