DS 3 Crossback E-Tense Ultra Prestige 2020 UK review

The DS's cabin does have a quite a materially lavish ambience. The mottled ‘art black basalt’ hide of our Ultra Prestige test car looked nice enough, albeit a little bit like regular leather that needed a going over with a wet wipe. As with so much about this car, it's different; and if you like it, you like it.

The car isn’t short of in-car technology, either, assuming you can get on with its layout and usability. I must admit I struggled. The 3 Crossback comes with a bank of rather chichi, stylised switches on the centre console for its electric windows, parking brake, child locks and drive modes. Trouble is, they all look very similar and aren’t labelled that clearly, so you don’t always find the one you’re after at the first attempt. The infotainment console looks equally contrived and over-stylised, and even the digital instruments see few opportunities wasted for design flourish to take precedence over clarity and readability.

The car is, at least, pretty simple to drive, and broadly pleasing with it. Performance feels authoritative, and although it isn’t quite in the league of some affordable EVs, it remains strong enough to give the car a useful turn of pace on the motorway and when overtaking on A-roads.

There are several drive modes to choose from (Sport makes for the best accelerator pedal response), but only two trailing-throttle energy regeneration regimes – ‘D’ and ‘B’. Other EVs allow you to cycle regen modes more widely and cleverly; and if the DS did allow you more freedom on that score, it might make the power in its 50kWh battery go a little further. As it is, electric range is respectable although not outstanding. Even at motorway speeds, you’ll rarely get less than 150 miles on a charge; and if you stay around town and keep your speeds down when outside of urban areas, 180 to 190 looks possible.

The 3 Crossback’s particular chassis tuning was clearly an attempt to deliver supple ride comfort with minimal compromise to body control and handling precision. On UK roads, it’s not the greatest success. While evidently stiff anti-roll bars keep the car from rolling hard when cornering and maintain reasonable handling accuracy, that high lateral stiffness makes for poor close body control over even slightly uneven roads, as permitted by that slightly long-travel, gently damped suspension. The ride also has a tendency to thump over mid-corner bumps and is quite noisy over coarse surfaces.