DS No8 review

French brand's segment-bending flagship goes after Audi and BMW with plush cabin and 466-mile range, writes Felix Page

- Felix Page

The DS No8, then, is what this brand was always supposed to be.

With its not-so-distant past as essentially a vendor of posh Citroëns swept under the rug, Stellantis’s boutique French brand has aspirations of moving into the luxury market, but with this new No8 flagship is making a renewed push to lure buyers away from the German executive brands such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes. The hope is that a bespoke machine will help make the long-held dream a reality.

WHAT'S IT LIKE?

On first encounter with this genre-bending saloon-fastback-crossover, rivals don’t immediately spring to mind, but the Polestar 4, Mercedes GLC and Audi Q6 E-tron are cited as key benchmarks. DS says that while the Q6 E-tron is an example of a direct contender in terms of size, price and capability, it has priced the No8 more in line with the smaller Q4 E-tron to give it an edge when it comes to value-for-money.

The premium EV segment is a notoriously tough part of the market — particularly for a new-ish brand that’s still yet to demonstrably crack the UK in the same way that, say, Polestar and Cupra have in the same sort of timeframe. That undercutting price strategy also is somewhat counter to recent claims by DS management that it was trying to push into the full luxury sector.

The No8 indirectly replaces the plug-in hybrid 9 saloon as DS's flagship exec, and if that car's performance is anything to go by — nine sales last year, and just 139 in the four years it was available — it's going to have a tough time luring fleet buyers down the road to the diamond-clad DS dealer on design and equipment alone.

It's got more than a fighting chance on paper, though, courtesy of its more crowd-pleasing crossover-ish styling, plus some properly compelling performance and equipment attributes. But can it prove itself more than a recommendable left-fielder?