The DS X E-Tense is breathtakingly beautiful and guaranteed to attract attention
THE French love a bit of drama – and cars don’t get much more dramatic than this.
DS Automobiles – the posh arm of PSA Group – wants us to believe that this is how we’ll travel in 2035. I can’t see it myself but fair play for making such a unique set of wheels.
It’s called DS X E-Tense and it can handle itself in a punch-up because under the bonnet it has two Formula E electric motors banging out 1,360hp. Yikes.
You’ll notice the driver sits in an open-top cockpit on the left while two passengers are cocooned in a glass canopy on the right.
Who else is thinking: tomorrow’s motorcycle side-car? Behave yourself. This is 2035, remember, so the point is you can still enjoy the thrill of driving fast if you like – or hop under canopy and be driven in autonomous mode.
The capsule, as you’d expect from DS, oozes avante-garde design.
There’s leather and feathers and a see-through glass floor and a coffee machine. And scented air con.
But unlike most cars today, there are no tablet display screens. That’s because information and films can be projected on to the glass canopy.
To top it all, Iris, the car’s personal assistant, takes the form of a hologram which floats in space in front of you. Hold up a minute. Iris? That’s just Siri spelled backwards.
As for looks, there’s no denying that DS X is breathtakingly beautiful with its asymmetric roadster design, scale-effect lights and X-shaped rear diffuser.
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It attracted more attention than a streaker at the footie driving through London the other night. Even the Rozzers came to say hello.
One lad pulled up beside me at the lights and asked: “What is that? The next Batman thing or what?”
Yes, mate. Le Batmobile.
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