DRIVING THE E-TENSE

Between drives of the regular DS 3, we also had a (very) brief go in the pre-production E-tense, the pure 134bhp battery-electric DS 3 Crossback which might sneak into showrooms before the end of 2019.

Its battery pack sits in an H layout below the front seats, the rear seats, and along a ‘transmission’ tunnel between the two, with the motor and inverter and control unit under the bonnet. That way it doesn’t intrude on interior space, save for slightly reducing the rear passenger’s foot-room beneath the front seats. Popping the bonnet shows the ‘engine’ bay to be pretty full, as usual, with the inverter and a heat pump occupying a large area beneath the plastic cover, with the permanent magnet-synchronous motor mounted lower down. Like all cars on this small new platform, it’s frontwheel drive, and there’ll be no plug-in version, though it’s almost a given that, as battery density improves, DS will offer alternative battery sizes: perhaps more range for the same weight or, almost as likely, the same range but in a lighter package.

At the moment, the E-tense’s 50kwh lithium ion battery pack adds 300kg to the weight of a Crossback, bringing it in at 1545kg. That inevitably compromises the dynamism but this is still a smooth (obviously) and responsive drive. The motor makes up to 134bhp in Sport mode, though selecting a different drive mode reduces that. The published range is 200 miles on the WLTP drive cycle.

DS has dynamic tweaks still to make, and prices won’t be announced until next month – it’ll be more expensive initially than a petrol or diesel but the intention is that whole-life ownership costs will be the same – and it otherwise feels like a well-finished thing.