It’s been three years since DS pulled its sophisticated hatchback, the DS 4, from sale before shifting its focus towards crossovers to capitalise on the never ending SUV boom. But the French carmaker is bringing back the DS 4 as an ultra-stylish crossover that’ll go up against the Audi A3 and BMW X2.
DS knows how to make a good looking car, just look at the surprisingly stunning DS 7, but the DS 4 is arguably its most stylish product to date. Though it’s now morphed into a crossover, given that it sits a little higher than before, the DS 4 is still more hatchback than SUV.
The front end doesn’t look all that different to the DS 9 saloon, albeit with bold LED daytime running lights that run vertically down to the bottom of the car before bending 90 degrees at the base to form an L-shape. The rest of the car is completely new, adopting a silhouette that seems to mix the proportions of a hatchback with a crossover. There’s even some shooting brake in there, complete with a sloping roofline.
One of the reasons why carmakers are moving over to crossover body styles for their hatchbacks is that it allows them to easily store batteries underneath the passenger compartment. However, the DS 4 won’t be going electric. Instead, it gets a mix of three and four-cylinder petrol engines, with outputs range from 129bhp to 223bhp, plus a 128bhp Blue HDI diesel. That being said, there’s a 1.6-litre plug-in hybrid on the cards, which offers up to 31 miles of electric-only running.
Inside, the DS 4 gets a suitably luxurious interior, with the seats, dashboard and centre console being wrapped in leather. There are also two displays, one for the infotainment system and a digital instrument cluster, and there are even physical buttons for the climate settings.
As the name suggests, the DS 4 will sit between the DS 3 and DS 7, so expect a price tag somewhere in the region of £25,000 to £29,000 when sales open later this year.
Keyword: DS 4 reinvented to take on the BMW X2 and Audi A3