DS No8 Review 2025

DS is at it again, trying to make a large, swanky luxury car to tempt people away from more obvious premium choices. Its No8 does this by being nothing much like those alternatives, which might just work — or it could simply put people off. We figure out which it'll be in our full DS No8 review.

How many times have we been here before? The Citroen C6, the Peugeot 607 and the Renault Vel Satis — they were the most recent of many attempts by French manufacturers having a go at making luxury cars, each maintaining their predecessors' records of convincing more than just a few British consumers to actually go out and buy one. 

Indeed DS has been here very recently itself. No honestly, it has — with the DS 9 saloon. As far as we can determine, there are only 100 or so registered in the UK, which maybe explains why you're stuggling to recall it. Its partial successor, the DS No8, doesn't exactly have a high bar to clear but the former Citroen sub-brand will be hoping it does significantly better when it comes to attracting customers.

DS certainly isn't doing this by playing it safe. The No8 looks striking, particularly with two-tone paint finishes, plus it's a car that's hard to pigeonhole. From the side it almost looks like a traditional saloon, albeit with a coupe-like sloping roofline, while at the back it features a tailgate rather than a conventional bootlid. It rides on the high side, yet we'd be reluctant to label it as a luxury SUV.

Looking at the cars DS is targeting with the No8 doesn't clear things up either, with both the BMW i4 and the Audi Q6 Sportback e-tron among others on its hitlist. 

We should also clarify the obvious question about its name. The correct way for English speakers to verbalise it is 'DS Number 8', not inlike how you'd say the name of a particular French perfume that this car also shares its written naming convention with. 

This approach will be spreading throughout the range before too long. The when the DS 4 is facelifted later in 2025 it will become the DS No4, while the all-new DS 7-replacing DS No7 will be built on the same Stellantis underpinnings as the No8.

Known internally as STLA Medium, that architecture will be used for both a new Lancia Gamma and a yet-to-be-revealed Vauxhall, all produced at the same Italian factory as the No8. It already underpins various models including the Peugeot 3008 and the Vauxhall Grandland. 

Although we have seen a bit of a convergence of cars within the Stellantis empire starting to feel too similar, that's not the case with the DS No8. It's the least Stellantis-feeling car from the group we've driven in a while. 

Its electric drive system does feel a bit more familiar, though. We've seen the No8's motor and battery options in plenty of other Stellantis EVs. Here they range from 230PS to 350PS, with the latter, dual-motor setup allowing for a 0-62mph time of only 5.4 seconds. 

That's a decent but not exactly breathtaking stat but what's much more likely to grab headlines are the driving range figures, with the best-performing DS No8 models managing up to 466 miles on a full charge, according to the WLTP Combined cycle.

Even knocking a chunk off for what it'll manage away from lab conditions, the DS No8 remains a car that'll be able to take you a long way without using expensive public ultra-rapid chargers too often.

The word 'comfort' comes up no less than 16 times in the press release for the DS No8. To achieve it, the car doesn't use Citroen's famed and floaty hydropneumatic suspension, nor does it use air springs as are often found in other luxury cars. 

Instead the No8's dampers are of the adaptive variety and operate in conjuction with a camera that scans the road surface ahead to set them up in preparation. The setup mostly does a good job of soaking up lumps and bumps in the road, with the ride only becoming unsettled when the road surface takes a particular turn for the worse. Counterintuitive though it may seem, it's also more comfortable if you avoid selecting Comfort mode. 

Doing so slackens the suspension right off to the point it wallows uncomfortably along the road surface. With it on for too long, we fear your passengers might get sick. The dampers are better off being a bit firmer, giving more control but still with plenty of comfort. 

There is quite a bit of body roll in the corners but that's to be expected in a car that isn't really trying to be sporty. It's capable enough when pushed on a twisty bit of road, particularly in the dual-motor version, which has noticeably more traction thanks to its all-wheel drive arrangement.

The one thing we're really not sure about is the steering wheel with its X-shaped spoke layout. DS says it's inspired by the brand's most recent concept cars — and not by Charles Xavier's wheelchair's rims, as we wondered at first sight — with a design that 'breaks with established rules'.

There's a reason for this established rule — X-shaped spokes feel downright odd. You have to grasp what DS calls 'grip zones', which aren't as grippy as, you know, actual spokes. You then default to holding the top two spokes rather than adopting a more conventional quarter-to-three position. 

This is less important when you're wafting along, which is the No8's forte, helped by excellent refinement. You feel well cocooned from the outside world, with little wind or road noise entering the cabin and barely anything coming off the electric drive system.

The entry-level DS No8 FWD uses a front-mounted motor to provide 230PS and 345Nm of torque, with a 0-62mph time of 7.7 seconds. Upgrading to the FWD Long Range increases the output to 245PS with torque remaining unchanged, although the increase in weight of the larger battery results in a slightly slower 0-62mph time of 7.8 seconds. 

Those times aren't bad but in single-motor configuration the No8 does feel sluggish. There's more performance on offer from the dual-motor version, which DS refers to as AWD Long Range. This arrangement makes the No8 feel much more befitting of the premium, luxury car it aspires to be, produces 350PS and 511Nm of torque, dropping the 0-62mph time to a hot hatch-bothering 5.4 seconds. 

At full throttle, it's enough to pin you in the back of your seat and the feeling of acceleration is sustained for some time. 

The DS No8 has not yet been crash-tested by Euro NCAP although it doesn't leave you wanting for standard-fit safety equipment. Included in the package is a driver attention monitor, speed limit recognition, autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot assistance and lane assistance.

None of that comes as a huge surprise but one more unusual system is pedal misapplication prevention, which uses the parking sensors to work out if the driver has suffered from pedal confusion, reacting as necessary.

The DS No.8 can be fitted with a removeable towbar which is available as an £800 option. Towing capacity depends on the version you choose — the entry-level No8 FWD can haul 1260kg of braked trailer weight, slightly more than the 1200kg limit of the FWD Long Range. Best of the bunch is the 1400kg maximum of the AWD Long Range.

The DS No8 has an impressive 620 litres of boot space when factoring in the sizeable underfloor storage area. That's nearly 100 litres more than you get in an Audi Q6 Sportback e-tron. Should you want a bit more than that, the rear bench folds down in a 40/20/40 split. 

The provision of storage away from the cabin is merely okay. Under the seemingly floating centre console, which houses the drive selector and a curiously small cubby, there's a relatively shallow storage area beneath a sliding lid, where you'll also find a couple of cupholders. 

Legroom in the back is decent but taller passengers won't feel like they have a lot of headroom, owing to the DS No8's roofline. Mitigating this somewhat the rear seats can be reclined by up to 30 degrees. 

Visibility could be better — the windscreen and central door pillars are particularly chunky.

The DS No8's cabin is a feast for the eyes with bold trim colour choices, which include blue Alcantara faux suede or brown Nappa leather. Most of the materials have a high quality feel to them but some of the metal-effect trims feel cheap and are bordering on being chintzy. 

It all feels like it's put together properly, though, with no dodgy areas of stitching or badly lined-up pieces of trim that we could observe.

The DS No8 gets a 16.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system which reads impressively until you realise it's an ultra-widescreen unit, the far edges of which are taken up by temperature adjusters for the two climate-controlled zones. So you're left with a narrow strip in the middle for most functions, only leaving room for relatively small on-screen controls.

The touchscreen itself is responsive but switching between processes and menus can result in operational lag. Although there is a DS-specific skin used for the menus, this is the same infotainment package you will find in the Vauxhall Grandland, which cheapens the No8's premium aspirations a tad. 

The integral navigation works just fine, if not as well as Google Maps. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included as standard, should you want to use your preferred app for getting about.

DS makes a big deal out of the No8's optional 14-speaker audio system made by French company Focal. It looks especially fancy thanks to the laser-cut aluminium door trims that house some of those speakers yet while it's a solid enough setup, it's not one that had us clamouring to turn up the volume.

The DS No8 starts at £50,790 for the FWD 230PS in Pallas trim, with the price increasing to £54,690 if you want the FWD Long Range 245PS version.

Etoile specification mirrors those drive system options, costing £54,790 and £59,290 respectively. There's also the addition of dual-motor AWD Long Range 350PS increasing the price to £63,290.

For a car made from bits and pieces you'll also find in Citroens, Peugeots and Vauxhalls, that might seem like a lot, especially for those whom the DS name doesn't mean a great deal. Contrast that with the German 'big three' of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, brands that buyers tend to be happy paying a premium for. 

In the case of the No8, though, it is a fairly big premium for one of those. The Audi Q6 Sportback e-tron starts at over £63,000 — about what you'd pay for range-topping example of this DS. Away from the German options for a moment, it's worth pointing out that the cheapest Polestar 4 is £58,000. 

Thanks to its slippery shape providing an impressive range on a charge, the DS No8 should prove cheap to run, especially if you can keep it charged at home, preferably on an EV-specific electricity tariff that costs even less. 

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is now charged at the same rate regardless of how your car is powered, meaning it's £195 to tax a DS No8 for a year from its second anniversary onwards. Private buyers will also need to pay an extra £425 annually from years two to six because all versions of the No8 are comfortably above the £40,000 threshhold for the government's Expensive Car Supplement, also known as the premium car tax.

Its high list prices may cause private buyers to suck air in through their teeth but the No8 could be appealing to user choosers who fancy something different from the norm. When they're getting one as a company car and enjoying the 3% Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax rate EVs are pegged at for 2025/26, this DS becomes significantly more tempting.

DS No8: Range and charging

A recharge rate of 160kW isn't bad but disappoints when some manufacturers are managing over 300kW now. That said, the nature of the DS No8's battery charging curve means that it's possible to add 124 miles of range in just 10 minutes when its between 20% and 55%.

Should you need more, a 20%-80% top-up takes 26 minutes for the smaller 74kWh battery and 27 minutes with the 97.2kWh Long Range version when hooked-up to an appropriately powerful DC rapid charger.

When using a conventional AC domestic wallbox a 20%-80% recharge of the 74kWh battery requires 7 hours 48 minutes, while the Long Range alternative needs an additional 60 minutes for the same increase in energy.

According to the WLTP Combined cycle, the standard 74kWh battery is good for up to 327 miles on a full charge, while the larger unit in FWD Long Range models makes for one of the longest-range electric cars currently available at 443 miles. The dual-motor AWD Long Range option's extra performance means the range does take a hit, although it's still very impressive at 411 miles. 

You'll have little chance of replicating any of these in real life but it should be easy enough to travel over 300 miles in the FWD Long Range No8 without stopping to charge.

The DS No8 trim structure is a simple one featuring only two levels of specification — Pallas and Etoile. 

Choose the DS No8 Pallas and standard features include:

• Heated steering wheel
• Electric tailgate
• Electrically heated and folding door mirrors
• Keyless entry/start
• Automatic windscreen wipers
• Dual-zone climate control
• Acoustic laminated front and rear side windows
• Side, front and rear parking sensors with rear camera
• Dark-tinted rear windows
• Eight-speaker sound system
• 16.0-inch infotainment system
• Wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay
• 20-inch alloy wheels

Upgrading to the DS No8 Etoile adds:

• DS Pixelvision adaptive headlights
• Illuminated front grille
• 3D LED rear lights
• Front parking camera
• Handsfree powered tailgate
• Comfort seats with neck warmer
• Extended head-up display
• Wireless smartphone charger
• Digital rear-view mirror