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By Jonathan Crouch

The DS No4 is at its priciest in Plug-in Hybrid form. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 50

DS used to make quite a speciality out of its Plug-in Hybrid models. Now, it sells only one, this car, the No4 Plug-in Hybrid. This compact premium hatch is quite ambitiously priced but you get a super-sized dose of style for the outlay and drive technology that's really cutting edge.

Backgroundword count: 125

The idea of having Plug-in Hybrid tech in your next family hatch is tempting. But if the car you have in mind is a mainstream brand PHEV model, the prospect of paying around £40,000 for it might not be. That's the prevailing asking price in this segment for cars like Volkswagen's Golf GTE and Plug-in Hybrid versions of the Peugeot 308 and the Vauxhall Astra. You'd feel a lot better though, splashing out this kind of sum if the car in question had a premium badge and a much more up-market feel. Such is the appeal of models like the Audi A3 Sportback 40 TFSI e and the Mercedes A250 e. And of the car we look at here, the DS No4 Plug-in Hybrid 225.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 299

The DS No4 Plug-in Hybrid differs a little from the previous DS 4 E-TENSE PHEV it replaces. Yes, the Peugeot / Citroen-derived 1.6-litre PureTech petrol unit and associated 108bhp electric motor are much the same, with a combined output of 225hp. But this powertrain now uses a 7-speed auto (rather than the previous EAT8 8-speeder); and, more significantly, it incorporates a much larger 17.2kWh battery offering an electric driving range of up to 50 miles. That's a decent improvement on the 38 mile figure of the old DS 4 E-TENSE PHEV, but it's still way off the top class standard, currently set by the VW Golf eHybrid at 89 miles. As before, there are two additional drive modes available with this PHEV variant - self-explanatory 'Hybrid' and 'Electric': and if you shift into 'Sport', there's a reasonable turn of speed that sees 62mph dispatched in just over 7s en route to around 145mph. That's despite the E-TENSE model's extra 200kgs of weight over its conventional Hybrid counterpart (which you rather feel when throwing the car into a corner in a way a likely owner probably never would). If you don't mind extra weight, a full-electric E-TENSE No4 variant is also available, sharing its 58.3kWh battery and 279 mile driving range with the Peugeot E-408. So everything beneath the bonnet we've seen before - and the EMP2 chassis it all sits on is very familiar too, though the French maker claims 70% of that platform has been modified to meet various specific DS No4 requirements - one of those being the need to accommodate the particularly large 20-inch wheels of top variants. These are detail differences, but a little more substance lies with the addition of certain high-tech drive electronics which, for the time being, DS has reserved for itself.

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