Automotive

DS flexes 805-hp electric drivetrain with E-Tense Performance concept

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DS has announced its latest concept car, an eye-popping 805-hp electric with a Formula E drivetrain
DS Automobiles
DS has announced its latest concept car, an eye-popping 805-hp electric with a Formula E drivetrain
DS Automobiles
The design is busy, but not in a bad way
DS Automobiles
Monster diffusers hint at serious track performance
DS Automobiles
Sadly, the only way to drive it is to buy an NFT and play a video game
DS Automobiles
Tough black hood makes it look like it's come straight out of a tuner's shop
DS Automobiles
A butched-up version of the original E-Tense concept, with a way cooler paint job and a Formula E powertrain
DS Automobiles
Aero-focused 21-inch rims
DS Automobiles
A savage front end with a 3D video playing in the grille space
DS Automobiles
View gallery - 8 images

France's DS Automobiles has caught our eye yet again with its latest hard-charging electric concept car. The flashy, color-shifting E-Tense Performance brings an 600-kW (805-hp) powertrain across from Formula E, complete with a monster regen system that makes the brakes redundant.

Formerly a premium-focused sub-brand of Citroen, DS became a standalone company in 2015 and now operates under the Stellantis umbrella with Citroen, Peugeot, Fiat, Opel, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Maserati, Ram and several others.

There's nothing particularly amazing about DS's production cars, but this brand has put out some really fun concepts, exemplified by the asymemetrical, avant-garde absurdity of 2019's X E-Tense concept, complete with spider webbing and an eye-popping semi-open cabin arrangement that placed a driver right out in the elements but gave two tandem passengers a roof and safety cell.

Sadly, the only way to drive it is to buy an NFT and play a video game
DS Automobiles

Today's effort is a little more down to Earth, based on the original E-Tense concept we first saw in 2016. That car was an elegant Lexus meets Audi arrangement, and the new E-Tense Performance looks like it's been sent to a Japanese street racer tuning shop with a fat budget and a challenge to toughen it up.

Hence the carbon-black hood, the squared-off nose, the sharp 21-inch carbon rims, and the staggering "beetle effect interference color" Harlequin-style paint job, which will look amazing no matter how many times we see it, because we are simple creatures and easily fascinated by shiny things.

Lest it become too tough, DS has laid some spider-webbing into the taillight design that looks like it might shatter if looked at too hard. As a concept, it'll certainly get looked at pretty hard.

Under the eye-catching skin of the thing, there's a two-motor, 600-kW (805-hp) electric drivetrain, taken from a Formula E car, sitting in a full carbon monocoque. Torque at the wheels, says DS, is a hilarious 8,000 Nm (5,900 lb-ft), so it oughta go a bit.

The design is busy, but not in a bad way
DS Automobiles

It'll stop a bit too, even though DS says the pads and discs are mainly for show. That's because it's set up with a regenerative braking system capable of absorbing a full 600 kW of energy. That is to say, the electric motors can brake as hard as they can accelerate, and that's plenty hard.

Any old electric motor can do the same thing; the batteries are typically the bottleneck. So the special sauce here is a juicy battery pack developed in partnership with Saft and TotalEnergies, using "an innovative chemistry and an immersive cooling system for cells, at odds with current technology – thanks to a bespoke design of Quartz EV Fluid solution."

While today's photos look like renders, it seems DS has built one too, since it says it's beginning testing within the month, which will eventually see the E-Tense Performance put through its paces on track and on the street. It doesn't seem like this thing's headed for production, but if you want to own one, you're free to light your wallet on fire and buy an NFT version of the car that can be added to racing games on the Pavilion platform.

Source: DS Automobiles

View gallery - 8 images
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3 comments
guzmanchinky
Very cool looking car. I just saw my first Lucid Air in person today, I gotta say, it looks awkward. Hopefully this car will make it to production...
DS3
That’s 600kW of regenerative braking power, not energy. How long that can be sustained is the real question, and the answer will give you the total energy that can be fed back into the battery system in a single braking effort.
Citroën, and now DS has been dithering around with these EVs for too long. Now they’re out from under the stifling Peugeot regime, it’s high time they got on with it.
Sergius
A inversão de corrente em um determinado tipo de motor, pode transformá-lo em alternador. Com isto, além de carregar a bateria o faria atuar como freio-motor.