DS E-Tense Performance Concept Revealed As High-Performance Laboratory

DS Automobiles is a premium electric vehicle that has motorsports to back up its claim, garnering Formula E championships within two consecutive seasons. The French luxury marque under the Stellantis Group takes its expertise in performance electric vehicles and came up with this – the E-Tense Performance Concept.

An evolution of the DS E-Tense Concept from 2016, the E-Tense Performance Concept is pegged to be “a very high-performance laboratory, intended to accelerate the development of technology for the next DS Automobiles designs.”

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The DS E-Tense Performance Concept features a carbon monocoque chassis with a drivetrain taken from a Formula E single-seater. It has two electric motors (front and back) for a total output of 815 horsepower (600 kilowatts) and 5,900 pound-feet (8,000 Newton-meters) at the wheels.

But those aren’t the best part. The DS E-Tense Performance Concept features a regeneration capacity of 600 kW. DS said that only regeneration will be used for braking, though it still has a braking system with discs and pads for safety.

Of course, the battery is the crucial part of this concept car, jointly developed by TotalEnergies and its subsidiary Saft. Apart from the acceleration and regeneration of up to 600 kW, the partnership developed an immersive cooling system for cells, at odds with current technology.

“The idea is also to find solutions to lower costs, make them easier to manufacture and explore implementations in production models. The next generations of the E-TENSE range will benefit from these developments,” said Thomas Chevaucher, DS Performance Director.

The new DS E-Tense Performance Concept will also be a design study for DS Automobiles.

Starting this February 2022, Formula E champions Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa will take turns at the wheel of the E-Tense Performance for its development. The real-world performance data will be revealed afterwards.