The DS X E-Tense Concept is an asymmetrical, electric French fever dream
With 1360 electric horsepower routed to the front wheel only and one of the weirdest passenger layouts yet described to us, the DS X E-Tense promises a weird, wonderful future.
Citroen is a company that has never shied away from doing things differently. In the 1950s, when America was building ponderous, elephantine boulevard cruisers, Citroen debuted the DS, a car that is still beautiful and alien today. Happily, the French automaker is keeping the weirdness alive even after spinning DS off as its own brand, with its new DS X E-Tense concept in all its fully-electric front-wheel drive asymmetrical glory.
Right, I said asymmetrical. Not like Land Rover Discovery license plate asymmetrical, think more like ocean-going catamaran asymmetrical. It's downright bizarre and impractical, and I love it. Now, of course, the DS X E-Tense concept is just a design exercise, and it seems so very, very unlikely that it would be built, but if it did, it would have a carbon fiber body because why not?
Because this concept is an attempt to imagine what cars could be like in 2035, and in 2035 we will apparently still want things like leather and wood and real metal in our cars, of which the X E-Tense will have plenty. Particularly, of course, on the steering wheel, something which is described in the press release as "an emblematic element of automotive passion."
The X E-Tense may look like a racy single-seater but surprise, under the other, totally not obvious side of the vehicle, there is a podlike space for at least one other passenger. DS describes this space thusly: "The passenger sits in a sensual envelope, in the heart of a seat extended wing bird, ventilated and massaging, with a feather stole on the upper part." Take our money now.
The DS X E-Tense Concept is a weird, wonderful asymmetrical experiment in what cars could be like 17 years and we're pretty into it.
Also, remember when we said that the DS X E-Tense would be front-wheel drive? Sounds normal, as most, if not all Citroens are FWD, but this one will supposedly have 1,360 horsepower, which seems sort of like a recipe for hilarious, smoky understeer if you ask us and while it sounds like a terrible idea, it's one we're willing to try out.