DS 7

In short

• Revealed on 28 February 2017, shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2017; built in Mulhouse, France, and for China in Shenzhen.
• Petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid engines; the E-Tense 4x4 300 has 221 kW (300 PS) and a 13.2 kWh battery for about 50 km of electric driving.
• Euro NCAP 2017: five stars, with 91 % for adult occupants.
• In France the facelifted DS 7 started at €44,700 in 2022.

DS 7 at a glance

Launch and the presidential car

DS showed the car to the press on 28 February 2017 and to the public at the 87th Geneva Motor Show a few days later. Orders opened with a limited La Première series. Diesel versions went on sale in January 2018.

Before that, the car had already had its public debut. On 14 May 2017 Emmanuel Macron chose a DS 7 Crossback for his inauguration, the first time a French president used an SUV for the ceremony. That car had ink blue paint, a bespoke open roof, French flags and "RF" badges, and a black leather cabin with lacquer trim from the Maury workshop. After the ceremony it was displayed at DS World Paris and in the courtyard of the Élysée Palace during the European Heritage Days in September 2017. A later armoured DS 7 Élysée, an E-Tense, has a wheelbase 20 cm longer and is 4.79 metres long.

Platform and related models

The DS 7 rides on the EMP2 platform of the former PSA Group. The same architecture carries the Peugeot 3008, the Peugeot 5008, the Opel Grandland and the Citroën C5 Aircross.

French Wikipedia lists three features that set the DS apart:

• DS Active Scan Suspension: a camera reads the road ahead and the adaptive dampers adjust in advance.
• DS Pilot: semi-autonomous driving in traffic, active up to 180 km/h.
• Night Vision: a thermal camera that detects animals, pedestrians and cyclists in the dark, presented as a first for a French car.

Engines and E-Tense plug-in hybrids

The conventional engines come from the PSA range: the 1.2 PureTech three-cylinder, the 1.6 PureTech four-cylinder, and the 1.5 and 2.0 BlueHDi diesels. The plug-in hybrids combine a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine with one electric motor (E-Tense 225, front-wheel drive) or two (E-Tense 4x4, with a motor on each axle).

In the E-Tense 4x4 the front motor gives 80 kW (109 PS) and the rear motor 82 kW (111 PS). The battery holds 13.2 kWh and allows about 50 km of electric driving, at up to 135 km/h. The 360 was added with the facelift as the most powerful version. Sources differ on its exact output, so it is left out of the table.

The weight range shows the cost of the hybrid hardware. The lightest DS 7 weighs 1,493 kg and the heaviest 1,900 kg, about 400 kg more. With 221 kW and 1,900 kg, the E-Tense 4x4 300 has about 116 kW per tonne. Our car rankings compare power and acceleration across SUVs.

Safety: Euro NCAP rating

Euro NCAP tested the DS 7 Crossback in 2017 and awarded five stars. It scored 91 % for adult occupants, 87 % for child occupants, 73 % for pedestrian protection and 76 % for safety assist. The test car was a 1.5 BlueHDi with a manual gearbox and a kerb weight of 1,420 kg, and the rating covers all DS 7 Crossbacks. L'argus noted that the DS scored better than the Audi Q5 and BMW X3 on safety assist (both 58 %) but behind the Volvo XC60 (95 %). More test results are collected in our car safety section.

The 2022 facelift and DS 7 prices

DS presented the updated car in April 2022. It dropped the Crossback name and became simply DS 7, as it had always been called in China. The front end moved closer to the second-generation DS 4. Orders opened in France the same month, and deliveries began in September 2022.

French Wikipedia's price table for the facelift lists these French prices in 2022:

In March 2023 DS added the Esprit de Voyage trim as the flagship of the DS 4 and DS 7 ranges.

End of production and the DS N°7

Production of the DS 7 ran until 2026. English Wikipedia names the DS N°7 as its successor. The brand also changed its markets: DS left China, where the car had been built locally, at the end of 2023. For the parent brand's background, see our history of Citroën.

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