DS No 8 Review & Prices

The DS No.8 is the flagship electric car from the wannabe luxury brand. Big French cars often have a tough time in the UK market - this car’s predecessor, the DS 9, sold just 139 units over its four-year existence - but DS is hopeful that the new electric-only No.8 will improve on those numbers a bit.

With striking styling, a posh-looking interior and an up-to-date electric powertrain, it’s a bit like one of those Vertu phones - eye-catching, exclusive, not as practical as the alternatives, but technically capable of what conventional rivals can do.

It’s difficult to pigeonhole the cars this No.8 will be cross-shopped against, but similarly stylish EVs of around the same price include the Polestar 4, Volkswagen ID7 and BMW iX3. It’s impossible not to throw the Tesla Model 3 Premium in the mix, too.

The No.8 looks like nothing else on the road - in a good way. It’s a bit like a jacked-up coupe, with a sloping roofline making quite a change from more conventional saloon or SUV alternatives. At the front you get a bold grille flanked by sharp LED headlights and daytime running lights, while there are also hidden rear door handles, good-looking alloy wheels and an optional two-tone paint finish that extends down to the bonnet.

DS No.8: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 328 - 446 miles
Efficiency: 4.2 - 4.6 miles per kWh
Battery size: 73kWh/97kWh
Max charge speed: 160kW
Charge time AC: 10 hr 30 min - 13 hrs 45 mins, 0-100%, 7kW
Charge time DC: 27 mins, 20-80%, 160kW
Charge port location: Rear left
Power outputs: 230hp/245hp/350hp

Inside the cabin you get an excellent first impression too, thanks to an interesting mixture of materials and flashy design. Some parts - like the backlit starburst pattern on the centre console - verge on the gaudy, but the way the screen is integrated and the general layout all strike a nice balance. It doesn’t feel overtly minimalist like a Polestar 4, but neither is it as tech-heavy and oppressive as a BMW iX3.

Sadly not all of the materials live up to their premium looks. While some are excellent - like the buttery-soft leather seats or the metal panels on the doors - others just feel plain cheap. The headliner and sunvisors in particular are the same material you’d find on a £20,000 Vauxhall Corsa, and they feel scratchy and nasty.

Space isn’t too generous either. The front seats are super-comfortable armchairs, but in the rear it’s only ‘okay’ for six-foot adults and not what you’d expect from a car this size. The sloping roofline limits headroom, and as we found out when picking up friends the hidden rear door handles aren’t very obvious - and are a real nightmare if you have long nails.

The boot is a lot better, at 545 litres in capacity - and unlike the Polestar 4 or Tesla Model 3, it’s a hatchback rather than a saloon, making it much easier to load big or bulky items in.

There are three powertrain options - you can opt for a basic model, a long-range version, or a dual-motor performance variant. The middle is the standout, as it can do up to 446 miles on a charge - a seriously impressive number, though the BMW iX3 manages 500 miles in official tests.

It’s better to get the long range version than the dual-motor car because the DS No.8 is not in any way sporty. Even if you put your foot down, it reacts calmly, and the controls are all light and easy rather than sporty and firm.

Sadly, that doesn’t translate into pillowy comfort over bumps like it did in DS models of old. The No.8 is a bit too firm on a rough road, and the brakes are quite grabby making it difficult to drive smoothly. Top models get clever active suspension that scans the road ahead, but even that doesn’t fix things.

Verdict

The DS No.8 is definitely a looker, and if you can find a really good deal then you might enjoy its plush interior and exclusivity. But despite this, and the super long-range variant, there are much better models available. A Polestar 4 is cheaper but feels more special inside, while a BMW iX3 is much better to drive and goes even further. The DS No.8 just doesn’t do a good enough job of feeling posh for its price tag.

You can check out the latest DS No.8 deals, as well as DS No.8 lease deals on Carwow. You can also browse the latest used DS models from our network of trusted dealers, and when it’s time to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

The DS No.8 starts at just over £50,000, meaning every model pays the expensive car supplement on the first five years of road tax. It can get expensive very quickly, too, with the long range model costing nearly £55,000. If you want the posh Etoile version, you’ll need to cough up another £5,000 on top of that. Tick all the boxes and the DS No.8 becomes a £70,000 car.

That’s quite difficult to justify when the Polestar 4 costs around £50,000, the BMW iX3 from £53,000, and a Long Range Tesla Model 3 Premium comes in at less than £45,000. And even on the top-spec DS No.8 you still need to pay extra for a sunroof, a premium stereo or ventilated seats. It just feels a bit stingy.

The DS No.8 is quiet and refined, but a bit too bumpy on UK roads - and no fun to drive

In town

The No.8 has slightly jacked-up suspension and a raised seating position. It’s not quite to the level of a proper SUV such as a Peugeot 3008, but it gives you a bit of a better view out than you get from a low-slung saloon or estate car.

Visibility at the rear is compromised, though, thanks to that sloping roofline, and the rear window lacks a wiper. Even the steering wheel is annoying - the spokes are in the wrong place for where you naturally hold it, and when you’re twisting it a lot for low-speed manoeuvres it never feels natural. The suspension copes okay with bigger bumps but thumps over poor surfaces like failed tarmac.

All the controls are light and it’s easy to modulate the throttle, but the brake pedal feels quite spongy and the brakes themselves are grabby, so it’s not easy to stop smoothly. You can alleviate this a bit with the adjustable regenerative braking, though - there are three levels, controlled simply by steering wheel paddles. Or, press a button next to the gear selector for full one-pedal driving.

On the motorway

At higher speeds, the suspension smoothes out quite a lot and you can sit back and relax in the No.8’s excellent, comfortable seats. It’s very quiet even at motorway pace thanks to laminated glass and lots of insulation - and of course, there’s no engine noise to worry about.

The adaptive cruise control works well, operating smoothly and without fuss, and for such a big car the No.8 is even pretty efficient when travelling faster.

On a twisty road

The DS No.8 isn’t built to offer a thrill-a-minute on a twisting back road, and so it doesn’t. The steering remains too light and doesn’t weight up as you go through a bend, so you don’t have much of a concept of where the front wheels are or what they’re doing. Most models are front-wheel drive, too.

The BMW i4, Polestar 4, or even the Tesla Model 3 are all much more fun to drive - and offer a greater turn of pace, too. For a car as big as the DS No.8, the 230hp you get from the base model isn’t very much, and means acceleration is modest.

A big, useful boot, but rear passenger space in the DS No.8 is poor for a car this size

Passengers up front in the DS No.8 have a pretty good time. It’s a shame that the seats aren’t electrically adjustable as standard (it’s a £50k car, remember) but they’re very comfortable and come with adjustable lumbar support as standard.

There’s a decent amount of storage, too. The door bins are big and even the glovebox is a good size - often on French cars it’s half-sized due to the location of the fusebox. There’s a wireless phone charging pad up top, with a cupholder behind it and a large under-armrest storage bin.

The other two cupholders are a bit awkwardly sited underneath the wireless charging pad, and it’s here you’ll find the two USB-C ports too.

Space in the back seats

For such a big car, space in the rear of the DS No.8 is disappointing. A six-foot adult can’t stretch out behind a driver of a similar size, and there’s not much room under the front seats to slide your feet either.

Headroom isn’t great thanks to the sloping roofline, and the centre seat is high and narrow so it’s not much good for carrying three abreast either. If you were buying the DS No.8 hoping for palatial rear space, you’d genuinely be better off with a Tesla Model 3.

Boot space

At 545 litres, the DS No.8’s boot is a really good size. It’s slightly smaller in overall capacity than the Tesla Model 3 (594 litres) but much more useful thanks to the wide hatchback opening, which allows easier loading of large or bulky items. The rear seats go nice and flat, too.

The Polestar 4 (526 litres), Volkswagen ID7 (532 litres) and BMW iX3 (520 litres) all come close, but the DS has them beaten.

The DS No.8 has a unique interior style and tech that works quite well, but some of the materials really don’t live up to the luxury billing

The avant-garde exterior styling translates to a really handsome interior in the DS No.8. It’s a long way from the Scandinavian ultra-minimalism of the Polestar 4 or the screen-heavy tech-fest that you’ll find in the BMW iX3.

What you get is a wide stripe across the dash which contains a narrow but neatly integrated infotainment screen and driver information display. There’s a strip of shortcut buttons underneath, but no physical climate controls - they’re dealt with in the screen, though handily the temperature toggles remain on display the whole time.

There are lots of different materials, leather and aluminium in interesting colours. Compared to the monochromatic interiors you’ll find on most alternatives, it’s a very nice place to sit.

At least initially - because there are some real problem areas. The steering wheel is the first - it has four spokes positioned as if they were specifically trying to be awkward. It’s not comfortable to hold as it forces your hands to adopt some pretty odd angles.

Then there’s the changeable material quality. High up on the dash all feels well, but things like the aluminium-look surrounds for the air vents are actually just painted plastic. Parts-sharing is rife within Stellantis, and for things like the column stalks or gear selector it’s perfectly fine - but a £50,000 DS using the same sunvisors and headliner material as a £20,000 Vauxhall Corsa feels very stingy.

The infotainment works pretty well, though. It’s quite menu-heavy and the actual display area isn’t as large as you think because the outer portions are always used for temperature controls - but it’s responsive, clear, and has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity.

We spent a week with the smaller-battery, front-wheel drive DS No.8, which has an official range of 328 miles. After more than 500 miles, we saw a range between charges of around 250 miles - an efficiency figure of about 3.6 miles per kWh. For reference, a Tesla Model 3 will easily do 4.0 miles per kWh, but that’s a smaller, slipperier car. The No.8’s economy isn’t bad for the size of car.

The larger battery operating at the same efficiency would result in a 350+ mile range - not quite the advertised 446 miles, but pretty impressive. A BMW iX3, despite its 500-mile range on paper, will do about the same.

The DS doesn’t charge particularly quickly, though. It tops out at 160kW, which means lengthy top-ups on the move if you’re in the big-battery model. Where the BMW iX3 can charge from 10-80% in about 20 minutes, the DS will need around 35 minutes for the same.

As a full EV, the DS No.8 pays the lowest rate of company car tax, but the same isn’t true as a private buyer. Because all versions cost more than £50,000, you have to pay the expensive car tax supplement in years two-six of ownership, which is a hefty additional fee.

Euro NCAP score (2025): 4/5

Adult occupant: 76%
Child occupant: 85%
Vulnerable road users: 80%
Safety assist: 65%

The DS No.8 scores a fairly disappointing four stars in Euro NCAP testing, largely due to its ‘Safety Assist’ category. A lack of occupant detection in the rear seats, poor rear pedestrian protection and a limited driver monitoring system, as well as some poor results in autonomous emergency braking testing.

It’s not unsafe in a crash, but the Tesla Model 3, Polestar 4 and BMW iX3 all scored five stars. All versions of the No.8 get adaptive cruise control and the usual suite of safety tech, and you can add fancy stuff like night vision if you want - but that's definitely not an essential.

The DS No.8’s three-year, 60,000-mile warranty is par for the course when compared to alternatives, but you can get much longer cover shopping elsewhere. The Kia EV6, for example, has a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty, while the Toyota bZ4X has up to ten years of cover.

French cars haven’t typically fared too well in reliability in the past, but the 2026 Driver Power survey has several of them in the top 10 cars to own, including many with which this DS No.8 shares its underpinnings. That’s promising, though DS is unlikely to sell enough No.8s for this car to appear in the survey under its own steam.