{"id":126357,"date":"2026-03-17T19:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/900082778"},"modified":"2026-03-17T19:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:25:37","slug":"ds-automobiles-no8-review-chanel-should-lodge-a-complaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/ds-automobiles-no8-review-chanel-should-lodge-a-complaint\/","title":{"rendered":"DS Automobiles No8 review: Chanel should lodge a complaint"},"content":{"rendered":"
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REVIEW<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

DS Automobiles No8 review: Chanel should lodge a complaint<\/h1>\n
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The DS No8, a new electric saloon, has a name derived from a well-known luxury fragrance. But this isn\u2019t a driving experience the well-heeled will appreciate<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Will Dron with a UK spec DS No8 Long Range before his test drive<\/div>\n
DS AUTOMOBILES<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Today’s Quizle<\/h3>\n

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Q: <\/span><\/p>\n

Test your knowledge<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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I<\/span>t still feels like the start of a DS Automobiles review requires a bit of an explanation about the brand, which, given it was launched as a standalone carmaker 11 years ago, perhaps says something about how well things are going.<\/p>\n

DS began as a label for a new luxury trim within Citro\u00ebn \u2014 think what Ghia was to Ford, or later its ill-fated Vignale versions \u2014 and got its name from the 1955 Citro\u00ebn DS (saying the letters \u201cDS\u201d in French sounds like \u201cd\u00e9esse\u201d, meaning goddess), a beloved classic with an unforgettably avant-garde design and clever super-soft hydropneumatic suspension. It was then spun off as a standalone brand, retaining comfort, elegance and technology as its core values.<\/p>\n

Large sales volumes are not what DS is after, really, but even so it might have been hoping to shift more than 1,015 cars in the UK last year. Bentley managed 993, for goodness\u2019 sake, while another relative newcomer in the same space, Polestar, sold nearly 17,000, and it only makes fully electric cars. To be fair, DS only had one model on sale last year, but still.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Read more expert reviews, news and insights on cars and motoring<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The company will be hoping what it calls \u201cphase 3\u201d finally helps it gain a foothold throughout Europe, with three new models coming this year. The first is the one you see here, the DS No8, the brand\u2019s new range-topper, a high-riding executive electric saloon.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re told the name is a nod to other brands in the luxury space, which we know to mean specifically Chanel\u2019s No 5 fragrance, so DS clearly wants us to think of it in the same ultra luxury and haute couture space. Sadly the No8 falls short of that high watermark and, actually, will struggle to steal customers away from even premium brands like Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Lexus.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the design. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I recently described a Kia as an eyesore<\/a>, though a couple in the comments section disagreed vehemently. I wondered if they might have been Kia salespeople. <\/p>\n

The DS No8 is far from ugly, and there are some lovely details, but take a step back and soak it all in, and to my eyes it is a little\u2026 awkward. You can dress it up as avant-garde all you like but it\u2019s not what I would describe as beautiful. From any angle.<\/p>\n

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\"DS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The design has some excellent details but is it beautiful from a few paces away? Dron didn\u2019t think so<\/div>\n
DS AUTOMOBILES<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dron found the driving position awkward, the infotainment lacking and believes the quality of certain touchpoints won\u2019t impress drivers of other premium brands<\/div>\n
DS AUTOMOBILES<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The cabin is arguably even more problematic. The leather seats with their watch strap design look and feel exceptional, for sure, and the ones up front have not just heating, ventilation (cooling) and multiple massage functions, but also vents to blow warm air on your neck \u2014 something I\u2019ve only ever seen in convertibles in the past.<\/p>\n

And there are plenty of pleasing details, such as the illuminated light burst pattern on the attractive double-decker centre console, and the contrast stitching in the door linings. The (optional) panoramic glass roof is impressive too and has solar tinting to prevent the cabin overheating, and you notice that there are additional speakers mounted in the roof by Focal, for what it calls 3D sound. The 16in touchscreen and digital instrument panel look good, as does the four-spoke \u201cX-format steering\u201d wheel, and the Alcantara material on the dash feels upmarket.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Porsche Macan GTS electric review \u2014 power, control and caravans<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

But there are also clear reminders that the DS No8 comes from the Stellantis group and is therefore part of the same family as the Vauxhall Astra \u2014 some low-rent plastics for the door bins, which are only partly felt-lined, as well as on the sides of the centre console.<\/p>\n

On the infotainment front the touchscreen isn\u2019t as feature rich as what others are now offering. A Mercedes I tested recently (review to follow) comes with download apps for the native operating system, and the Tidal app was built in so I could simply ask the car\u2019s three AI systems (yes, three) to play songs by Queen and it did it. You can\u2019t do that with the DS except via Android Auto or Apple Carplay. It\u2019s not that the DS\u2019s system is awful, it just feels a few years behind the best.<\/p>\n

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On the road the No8 isn\u2019t as polished as it ought to be<\/div>\n
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The technology side of the car can\u2019t quite match the best, either. In Comfort mode the adaptive suspension uses a forward-facing camera to scan the road and set up the suspension accordingly, but the ride couldn\u2019t be described as any better than a decent steel spring and damper set-up. DS held the UK launch of this car in Surrey and the local roads proved fairly broken up (are there other kinds these days?) so perhaps those who planned the routes imagined we\u2019d be super impressed by the No8\u2019s trick suspension. Below 30mph it is pretty clever, true, dropping the wheels down into ruts and lifting them up over bumps, but in other modes and at higher speeds the ride is far less composed and in fact the amount of roll and pitch is unusually high, even for a luxury barge. The classic DS roots were perhaps not meant to be felt quite so strongly.<\/p>\n

Steering the No8 isn\u2019t pleasant, either, with a spongy, inert feel through the wheel and a weird synthetic feel through the brake pedal, and I found it difficult to find a comfortable driving position. I\u2019m tall and it felt like I was sitting a long way back from the front wheels. It was a bit like driving a hot rod, only less fun.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Seven electric cars with more than 450 miles of range per charge<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not notably refined inside, either. There\u2019s acoustic glass but you get that on mid-sized Toyotas these days, and while the No8 feels quite hushed at low speeds you do notice wind noise on motorways.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, let\u2019s talk about how far it can go on a charge. DS is making it available with standard (73.7kWh) and long-range (97.2kWh) batteries, offering up to 256bhp and 276bhp respectively, and with a 370bhp dual motor all-wheel drive option for the bigger pack. Officially the WLTP range is up to 466 miles on the front-wheel-drive DS No8 Long Range, which is lots, and DS has been refreshingly upfront about what happens to the range when on the motorway, going as far as to quote a highway range of 310 miles. Over a mix of roads I saw 3.4 miles per kWh in the FWD Long Range, which would mean about 330 miles in the real world.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The seats are a highlight of the cabin \u2014 high-quality and comfortable, with heating for all passengers as well as ventilation, massaging and neck warmers up front<\/div>\n
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When you need to plug in, it\u2019s not slow, but while the really high-end EVs now offer 800v electrical systems with charging at up to around 350kW, the DS No8 tops out at 160kW. DS\u2019s product man wanted us to focus on \u201csustainable charging levels\u201d, meaning how long the maximum charging level can be sustained, and claimed that the No8\u2019s 20-80 per cent in 27 min on a DC rapid charger means it can top up quicker than a Polestar 4. But 160kW is not exactly great for bragging rights at the 19th hole.<\/p>\n

At least the DS No8 is priced fairly versus rivals like the Audi Q6 e\u2011tron, BMW i5 and Polestar 4, with costs rising from \u00a350,790 up to \u00a366,290 for the dual-motor model. But it\u2019s difficult to see DS stealing many premium car owners from their usual brands based on this effort \u2014 it\u2019s simply lacking in too many areas. Which means, sadly, that DS is likely to remain in obscurity for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… feels like the start of a DS Automobiles<\/span> review requires a bit of an … was launched as a standalone carmaker<\/span> 11 years ago, perhaps … \u00e2\u0080\u0099t think so DS AUTOMOBILES<\/span> Dron found the driving position … other premium brands DS AUTOMOBILES<\/span> The cabin is arguably even …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}