DS

DS E-Tense is the premium brand prototype conceived by the French manufacturer's experience with Formula E

Since its launch in 2014, DS Automobiles has placed electrification at the heart of its strategy. The first premium manufacturer to participate in Formula E, the French brand took advantage of the successes achieved in this 100% electric championship to support its research and development work towards more sustainable mobility.

Since 2019, DS Automobiles has started to present a 100% electrified line, having become from 2020 the brand with the lowest CO2 emissions in Europe. This transition is accelerating and from 2024 onwards, every new model created by DS Automobiles will be exclusively 100% electric.

To maintain a leading position in the electrification market, DS Automobiles draws on the experience of DS Performance, its competition division, with the development of a prototype that aims to test different innovations to be integrated in the brand's future creations.

“Our objective is to apply the experience gained in Formula E and the experience we have brought with our international titles to a project that foresees the creation of a high-performance electric vehicle in the future. It is a laboratory that we will use to analyze the behavior of components and develop them for future manufacturing. The idea is also to find solutions to reduce costs, make them easier to produce and apply them in series models. The next generations of the E-TENSE range will benefit from these developments,” said Thomas Chevaucher, Director of DS Performance.

The DS E-Tense Performance prototype features a carbon chassis with mechanics taken from a Formula E single-seater. under any weather conditions.

The drivetrain is composed of two electric motors that produce a combined power of 600 kW (250 kW at the front and 350 kW at the rear), corresponding to 815 hp of power and a torque of 8,000 Nm sent to all four wheels. Taken directly from DS Performance's developments in the world of Formula E, these two electric motors deliver exceptional performance. With an unprecedented regeneration capacity of 600 kW, the drivetrain of the DS E-Tense Performance prioritizes the best possible use of energy. Although physically the DS E-Tense Performance maintains a traditional braking system with discs and pads, only the regeneration system is used for braking.

The battery is one of the fundamental elements of this ultra-high performance laboratory called DS E-Tense Performance. Compact, it is housed in an aluminum and carbon composite structure, designed by DS Performance, and is placed in a central rear position. The battery in the DS E-Tense Performance was inspired by electric single-seater racing and was jointly developed with TotalEnergies and its subsidiary Saft. Resulting from a research work by this partner, it hides an innovative chemistry and an immersive cooling system for the cells, breaking with current technologies, thanks to a custom design of the Quartz EV Fluid solution conceived to measure. This battery translates into acceleration and regeneration phases up to a maximum of 600 kW, allowing the exploration of new avenues for future generations of series vehicles.

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