The Driving
The hybrid – or E-Tense in DS marketing speak – has an 11.9kWh lithium-ion battery, which can supply up to 34 miles of zero-emissions driving in Electric mode. Petrol power, e-motor power or a combination of both is sent strictly to the front wheels via the eight-speed automatic transmission.
The Comfort
Aside from the 222bhp petrol Performance Line+, all cars get DS Active Scan Suspension. A camera looks out over that gauche bonnet-mounted sabre, scanning the road so the AI brain can instantly stiffen or slacken the damping force to optimise occupant comfort.
The Fuel Economy
During road tests on a number of mixed roads, including 10 miles of motorway, it returned 70.5mpg. Ratified carbon dioxide emissions were 33g/km. You can run on e-power alone at motorway speeds given sufficient battery charge, and there’s an E-Save mode which will hold 12 miles, six miles or all your e-power, should you need to bank it for zero emissions areas.
The Design & Interior
This is a big car – and that’s actually a good starting point. You can’t pin ambitions of luxury and comfort on something that’s too small, especially when you need to provide ample boot space and knee room for passengers in the back – which is something that the DS 9 has no problem with. It’s the interior, however, that’s the most distinctive. If you’ve been following the DS story firstly through Citroën models and more recently through its own DS badged models, you’ll recognise the high-quality finish, the use of diamond patterns, the guillochage effect, and details like pearl stitching.
The Technology
The DS 9’s central display offers all the major functions you’d expect, with support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, although this isn’t wireless. There is a wireless charging pad for your smartphone – and once connected it’s easy to hide your phone away to avoid further busy looks. While the main touchscreen works well enough, there are buttons across the bottom to give you access to just about everything you might need – climate, music, navigation, phone, and so on – and that makes things easy to get to what you want.
