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| 2022 DS 9 |
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| 2022 DS 9 interior |
The first-ever DS9 premium sedan promises to be as luxurious as the Germans in its class. With prices starting at 48,700 Euros plus additional costs, the DS9 is more costly to own than its main rival, the Audi A4, but look at it this way. If you are the sort of person who wants a premium luxury sedan but dislikes the Germans, especially Audi, then this haute couture could be your ideal pick, even though it came all the way from China.
Starting with the design, the DS9 can be precisely mistaken for an Audi A4 when you squint hard. While it was mistaken for an Audi, the back tells a different story because it almost bears a resemblance to the now-defunct Lincoln Continental. Despite its identity crisis, the DS9 still bears the haute couture elegance that most DS vehicles possess.
The haute couture elegance is also applied to the interior as well because, on the driver's side, the futuristic detailing on the dashboard gives an impression of playing a nice game of Beat Saber. When kitted with the OPERA interior, the DS9's savoir-faire comes to life. Props to the interior design team who are responsible for this futuristic attention to detail that made the DS9 engaging to look at it and to live with it.
Because it's bigger than the Audi A4, the DS9 is a surprisingly spacious luxury sedan fit for all kinds of VIPs looking for a fancy escort, not to mention a decent boot space good enough to carry some sensitive items in it.
In addition to the normal 1.6L PureTech 225 petrol engine, the DS9 can be fitted with the E-Tense PHEV powertrain where the 1.6L petrol engine is mated to an electric motor, li-ion battery, and an 8-speed automatic gearbox. The front-wheel-drive variant produces 225PS of power while the 4WD variant produces a surprisingly powerful 360PS of power and 520Nm of torque, sprinting from 0-100kph in 6.5 seconds and has an electronically-limited top speed of 250kph.
In terms of fuel economy, the front-wheel-drive DS9 E-Tense variant excels with a combined fuel consumption of 1,5 l/100km based on the WLTP scale and has an electric-only range of about 48km, provided that you don't waste its energy from playing music at loud volume.
Asked about charging times, the DS9 E-Tense's batteries can be fully charged by about an hour and five minutes when plugged in at a public charging station or less than seven hours when charging at home.
Despite being made in China, the DS9 still delivers the nearly perfect balance of comfort and enjoyment at its pace thanks to its highly sophisticated DS ACTIVE SCAN SUSPENSION that detects every movement and road condition. Couple that with its signature DS suspension setup and you got yourself a luxury car that is worth living up to its promise of sophistication and mildness. Yes, mildness because this is a surprisingly mild premium sedan to live with.
Speaking of mildness, the DS9 is armed with the most sophisticated driving aids ever equipped on a French luxury car such as the DS Park Pilot, DS Active Led Vision, DS Night Vision, DS Driver Attention Monitoring, DS Drive Assist, and many others.
Despite being more expensive to own than the Audi A4, the first-ever DS9 truly exceeds its expectations as the luxury premium sedan is capable of competing with the Germans. Not bad for a Chinese import.
Photo: DS Automobiles