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By Jonathan Crouch

This all-electric version of the DS No4 compact premium hatch takes its French brand into a new segment. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 38

The DS brand enters family hatch segment of the EV market with this car, the No4 E-TENSE. There's familiar Stellantis Group full-electric engineering here, but in this case it's been packaged with quite a lot more Gallic flair.

Backgroundword count: 128

The DS brand has yet to bring us an electric car to sell in significant numbers. But it might have done so here with this model, the DS No4 E-TENSE. It's the French marque's third EV. The small quirky DS 3 E-TENSE compact crossover hasn't attracted much of a following. And the flagship DS No8 E-TENSE saloon is a rare sight on our roads. This No4 E-TENSE model could be different. In reality, it's merely re-packaged Peugeot E-408, but the re-packaging is really rather appealing. Strangely, the car the DS No4 is merely a facelift of, the DS 4 launched in 2022, didn't come in EV form. Now that the brand can offer a car in this segment, how will this one fare? Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 222

There's just a single E-TENSE powertrain option. It features a front-mounted electric motor with 213hp and 343Nm of torque. Energised by 58.3kWh battery that's a fraction larger than the 55.4kWh unit fitted to an equivalent Peugeot E-308. Which perhaps explains why the No4 E-TENSE model's EV range figure of up to 293 miles is 14 miles more than its Peugeot counterpart. With the extra weight of this EV variant, you won't have quite the same sharp handling as an equivalent combustion version of this No4 could offer. As on the E-308, expect ride quality to be better than it is on most other compact EVs of this size (and far softer than in the equivalent equally closely-related and rather over-firm Vauxhall Astra Electric); you certainly won't be clumping over speed humps and crashing through pot holes in the way we have with some recent small EVs we've tested. And DS has kept wind noise and tyre roar at reasonable levels, so you can get the refinement benefit of that near-silent powertrain. There are three drive modes - 'Normal', 'Sport' and 'Eco'. In 'Sport', 0-62mph takes 7.1s en route to 99mph. Steering wheel paddleshifters allow access to three available brake regen settings, though even the fiercest of these doesn't deliver the abrupt off-throttle 'one-pedal' style of retardation you'll find in some EV rivals.

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