DS 7 Crossback E-Tense 4x4 Review — A Worthy Alternative to the GLA or X3?
The DS name has a long history under Citroen, for a while it was the ‘posh’ range that came with more comfort and performance, but for a couple of years, it’s been becoming its own brand. DS aims to provide stylish and upmarket products that serve as an alternative to BMWs and Audis. So, does the new DS 7 Crossback E-Tense 4x4 live up to these hopes and is the Ultra Prestige kit worth it?
From the outset, there’s no denying that the DS 7 Crossback E-Tense looks great inside and outside. It’s a well-proportioned SUV with larges amounts of storage space as you would expect. There’s even a false boot floor that may be removed to give it more depth, while most of us will keep it there to store the charging cables. After all, this is a plug-in hybrid model and the cables need to go somewhere so why not out of sight?
However, it does shake up the traditional expectations for an SUV with the engine DS has chosen to equip it with. We’d expect a minimum of a 2-litre engine for a car of this size but the DS 7 has a 4-cylinder 1.6-litre petrol engine with an 8-speed automatic gearbox, it does have four-wheel-drive though. Also, there is an 80kW electric motor which is def from a 13.2kWh battery. Despite the engine’s diminutive size it still packs 200hp and 300 Nm of torque while combining it with the electric motor will give you 300hp and 520Nm of torque.
During our week with the DS 7, we did a lot of mixed motorway and city driving to get a full impression of what it was like to live with and it performed outstandingly in all conditions. One minor gripe was potholes, which it struggled with a little, but that’s true of most cars so we won’t fault it for that. Although we would expect better from a car that is fitted with ‘DS Active Scan Suspension’ — a system that checks the road ahead and adjusts the suspension accordingly.
Despite this, the DS 7 Crossback E-tense 4x4 is a remarkably high-quality product that’s quiet, refined and comfortable while packing a decent amount of performance. This statement is even more true when using electric power alone and makes us wish DS would offer it in an all-electric powertrain.
The cabin features DS’s usual craziness but it is much more toned down compared to the smaller DS 3 Crossback. It features a decent-sized touchscreen with a few shortcut buttons underneath but many of the things you might use daily like climate control are a little hidden in the settings. Meanwhile, the information on the instrument display can be changed with an intuitive scrolling button on the wheel which could’ve been implemented with the touchscreen for easier adjustment of settings.
We drove the Ultra Prestige model of the DS 7 Crossback E-Tense 4x4 which starts at £56,075, our model had a few optional extras though which rose the price to a little short of £60,000. Honestly, we don’t think DS is asking too much here for what you get from the DS 7 and it certainly lines with its rivals at Mercedes, BMW and Audi while lacking the stigma attached to those brands. The cost of our model is however almost twice as much as the base model petrol variant of the DS 7 so make of that what you will.
According to WLTP figures, the combined fuel economy figures come out at an eye-watering 166.2mpg to 235.4mpg but don’t expect to see that on the road. We suspect the testing involved a lot of electric-only driving as we saw an average consumption of about 52.6mpg over the week we tested it in mixed-use. While the rated electric range of 40miles turned out to be more like 25miles with normal use. Still, this is very competitive with other plug-in hybrids and quite impressive for an SUV of this size.
Overall, the DS 7 Crossback E-Tense 4x4 is a great all-round SUV that’s quiet and refined to drive while maintaining practicality and good performance in most normal driving situations. We have also heard that if you take it off-road with the right tyres you can also get some incredible driving out of it, although we didn’t have a chance to test that ourselves. It’s also very practical and the electric-only range of up to 40miles will certainly help you to reduce your carbon emissions with local driving while saving petrol for when you need some more oomph.
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