DS has been a dominant force in Formula E, winning both the drivers’ and team’s titles in seasons five and six. To celebrate this success the French brand has turned its Formula E racer into a supercar – the DS E-Tense Performance Concept.
While just a concept (although it will be sold as an NFT) the E-Tense Performance takes the unique DS electric powertrain from the Formula E racer and fits inside this striking-looking sports car. According to the company, the dual electric motors produced a combined output of 600kW of power and a massive 8000Nm of torque.
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These race-proven motors are so powerful that they are able to have 600kW of regeneration capacity, which means the braking hardware on the E-Tense Performance is largely for show – all the stopping power can be generated by recovering energy from the motors.
This state-of-the-art powertrain sits inside a supercar-like carbon fibre monocoque with a unique suspension layout that the company claims has been developed with real-world driving in mind – not racetracks.
As DS Performance director, Thomas Chevaucher, explained this prototype will be used as a test bed for possible future models to benefit from the brand’s Formula E experience.
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“Our objective is to apply the experience acquired in Formula E and the expertise that we’ve taken from our international titles to a project which predicts the high-performance electric car of tomorrow,” Chevaucher said. “It is a laboratory that we will use to analyse the behaviour of components and to develop them with a view to future manufacturing. 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.”
While the E-Tense Performance Concept won’t be a production model the company will test the prototype with Formula E drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa.
Elements of the design will also be carried across onto future DS models, so while you won’t see the E-Tense Performance on the road, it will inspire the next generation of electric vehicles from the French firm.
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