DS 9 Review (2022-present)

You won’t exactly find French Luxury cars lining the driveways of affluent areas, but they do have a long and rich history, and it’s this that the DS 9 taps into. Think of the brand as the luxury arm of Citroen, inspired by the elegant and innovative Citroen DS19 of the 1950s and you’ll get a feel for the DS 9’s vibe.

It’s a stylish, luxurious big saloon that’s intended to be more comfortable than sporty and, although DS did initially launch this car with a non-hybrid petrol option, almost nobody bought one, so now the whole range is plug-in hybrids (PEHVs). They’re all powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine combined with electric power, and badged DS 9 E-Tense.

We’ve tested the 222bhp version, which has recently been joined by (and will soon be replaced by) a 247bhp version, plus a range-topping 355bhp car, which gets twin electric motors and four-wheel drive. The 222bhp model gets a theoretical zero-emissions electric range of 34 miles, slightly less than the 38 miles of the 247bhp car, but more than the 29 miles you might squeeze from the 355bhp model.

The DS 9 certainly sets the right visual tone. It might look a tad awkward from some angles and there’s a whiff of Audi to the front and rear lights, but the overall effect is suitably stylish and imposing. It’s also a little bit different – the detail line down the centre of the bonnet and the jewel-effect rear light clusters, for example, are particularly appealing and unusual design touches.

Very practical – if you use it how it’s intended. This is the sort of car where the passengers are every bit as well treated as the driver, so if you can find a willing chauffeur, you can indulge in your own personal Emmanuel Macron presidential fantasy.

It’s easy to get in thanks to doors that open wide and a good-sized aperture. Once you’re in, you’ll find loads of legroom. There are also some lovely Nappa leather seats that heat you up, cool you down and give you a massage – although these, along with an Alcantara headliner, are part of the £3,000 Opera interior pack. There’s also separate climate control for the rear seats, plus a couple of USB connectors.

Up front, there’s a real sense of occasion and, even without the optional Opera pack, the front seats on top-spec Rivoli+ models offer heating, cooling and massage functions – as well as full electrical adjustment for the driver and front passenger.

In terms of boot space, the DS 9 acquits itself well, too. Big saloons aren’t always designed to be super-practical when it comes to boot space, but the DS 9 can swallow a decent 510 litres of luggage, albeit through a slightly narrow opening. Compared with the 400-litre Mercedes 300e boot or the 410-litre boot in the BMW 530e, that’s not bad. And although it’s quite shallow, it goes back a long way.

DS’s new car might be pitching itself as an alternative to a BMW 5 Series, but don’t go expecting BMW-like handling and performance – because you won’t get it. Acceleration from 0-62mph is completed in a fairly leisurely 8.3 seconds. The steering, meanwhile, is inconsistent in its weighting and feedback, while the suspension allows the car to wallow a tiny bit through corners and the eight-speed automatic gearbox isn’t exactly the most responsive when you want to get a move on.

It’s not especially sporty, then, but it’s not really pretending to be. Instead, it rides very well indeed – especially considering the rather large 19-inch wheels that our particular test car was fitted with. Plus, when you’re driving at speed, the DS 9 is ever so quiet. There’s very little wind noise, and not much fuss from the tyres, either. This, combined with a quiet and smooth drivetrain that switches between its petrol engine and electric power very seamlessly indeed, makes the DS 9 a wonderful long-distance cruiser. That said, PHEVs do tend to suffer in terms of fuel consumption on longer runs once they’re out of battery – see the section on running costs below.

You’re certainly not left wanting for equipment with the DS 9. The top-spec Rivoli+ car gets wireless smartphone charging, all-round parking sensors, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control with lane assist, LED headlights with curve adaptation and high-beam assist, plus the heated and ventilated electric seats we’ve already mentioned.

It also gets adaptive suspension that can scan the road ahead and adjust itself in advance for a smooth ride, and although that sort of technology has been available in other cars (notably Mercedes and Audi) for several years, it’s still impressive to see.

The infotainment system looks good, but it’s fiddly to find your way around and the standard reversing camera – basically borrowed from more downmarket sister brands Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall/Opel – has an unforgivably low resolution. At least the digital driver’s display is decent, and the diamond-shaped graphics are rather stylish. Plus, you can also connect to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to avoid some of the more annoying aspects of the infotainment system.

While you get quite a lot of stuff for an asking price of just under £50,000, with some of the fancy options added to our test car (such as the night vision camera or upgraded leather), the price edges closer to around £56,000. Having said that, we specced up a BMW 530e to match our test car as closely as we could and it came out at almost £66,000.

The problem is that posh plug-in hybrid saloons from Mercedes, Audi, BMW and even Volvo are well understood by the market, so buyers and finance companies – who rely on working out future residual values of models when they offer PCP finance deals – can work out the likely future depreciation of these models. And a DS? Er, not so much.

As a result, the DS 9 isn’t predicted to hold on to its value particularly well, so you won’t get very competitive monthly payments if you’re looking at finance for one… undoing all the good work of that lower purchase price. To a certain extent, that’s offset by the fact that DS admits it will only sell a handful of DS 9s in the UK every year, but it’s still not exactly a bargain.

As for day-to-day running costs, this is one of those cars that would really suit a straightforward turbodiesel. And if it had come out 10 years ago, it would have had one. Then we’d be telling you it could manage 60mpg on a motorway run. But diesel is not the technology of 2020s and, with all the clever technology in the world, the heavy batteries and short electric range of a petrol plug-in hybrid is always going to compromise it on longer runs.

If you plug a destination into the satnav, the car’s brain will do its best to manage the battery level over the course of a journey, but after several long motorway trips in the DS 9, fuel economy of 50-55mpg was about the best we’ve seen.

Of course, to get the best out of a plug-in hybrid, you need to keep journeys short to make the most of its electric-only range. Do that, and you’ll find the 110bhp electric motor is enough to whisk you around town and even up to motorway speeds, as it’ll do 87mph before without petrol-powered help. Acceleration is a bit leisurely past 50mph, mind you.

The DS 9 is too new to have been featured in any used car reliability surveys, but the powertrain and other mechanical parts are shared with several other more established models, including the DS 7 Crossback and the Peugeot 508. Neither of these has a bad reputation for reliability.

Equally, DS Automobiles as a brand doesn’t sell cars in huge volumes, so also doesn’t appear all that often in customer satisfaction or reliability surveys. However, Citroen came 11th out of 30 manufacturers in the 2021 What Car? Reliability survey and Peugeot 22nd; both brands are part of the same Stellantis group and share a large number of parts with DS models.

If you are to encounter problems with a DS 9, it’s most likely to be some sort of electrical issue related to the hybrid systems, as this is quite a complex car in that respect.

In terms of warranty, DS will cover you for three years or 60,000 miles (whichever comes first), while the battery for the electric part of the hybrid drivetrain is warrantied for eight years or 100,000 miles – that’s pretty much standard for a luxury car brand.