By Maxime Dobremel
In the heart of the Var region, between the pine trees of Terre Blanche and the hills of Grasse, the new DS7, which has become DS N°7, sets its first wheels on the roads of Provence. Two powertrains, electric and hybrid, the same approach: to drive without ever drawing attention. Until taking the time to appreciate a completely different essence in Grasse, the one that perfumers have been distilling for a century.
Electric first
We arrive at the Terre Blanche hotel late in the morning, under a blazing sun that already beats down on the hills of the Var region. Here, DS sums up the ambition of its new N°7 in a few words: an SUV designed from the ground up to be electric, then developed as a hybrid, and not the other way around. A way of saying that silence comes first, and that the combustion engine is now just one option among many. Next-generation driver assistance systems, adaptive suspension, comfort designed for both front and rear passengers: three words constantly recur when discussing the model: technology, comfort, and refinement.
The silence that answers
The roads linking Terre Blanche to Grasse are anything but straight. They wind between the perched villages of the Pays de Fayence, climbing and descending, hugging the landscape with that typically Provençal precision that leaves no straight line for long. It's a terrain that quickly reveals any lapses in judgment.
The DS N°7 responds with unexpected ease. The DS Active Scan Suspension system, controlled by a camera mounted at the top of the windshield, reads the road a few milliseconds before the wheels make contact and adjusts each shock absorber accordingly. The result is felt more than it is explained: the SUV handles corners without any body roll, where one would expect even the slightest bit of sway, even in Sport mode where the steering firms up without ever trying to be sporty. This isn't a chassis designed for performance, but rather a powertrain that has chosen its domain: that of exceptional ride comfort.
In the electric version, the silence is absolute, almost intriguing: you have to open the door when stopped to hear the cicadas' song, which had remained outside throughout the journey. The hybrid, more common and more sedate, shares the same intention: to drive without drawing attention, neither through noise nor ostentation. Here, we're moving more towards a highly refined French premium experience than a luxury that seeks to show off, and that's precisely what distinguishes the DS N°7 from some of its more demonstrative rivals.
A rudder rather than a steering wheel
Inside, the first thing that catches the eye isn't a screen, but a steering wheel. DS has abandoned the classic round shape for an X-shaped design that, with its grip and open spokes, evokes a boat's rudder more than an SUV's steering wheel. The central section, trimmed in stitched leather on higher-end models, further reinforces this feeling of holding something sculpted rather than molded.
The 16-inch touchscreen is designed to be equally legible for both the driver and passenger, each with their own home button to access the interface without encroaching on the other's space. The 10-inch digital instrument cluster remains discreet, almost hidden, allowing the materials—real wood, brushed aluminum, and Nappa leather in a watchstrap style—to take center stage. Five interior ambiences are available, ranging from light fabrics to darker shades. The front seats, heated and ventilated on higher trim levels, feature a system that gently warms the neck, designed for both urban driving and long journeys. The panoramic glass roof is 40% larger than the previous model. DS 7adds extra light without ever weighing down the interior thanks to advanced thermal and acoustic treatment.
There remains the sound, a subject on which DS has not compromised for ten years. The partnership with Focal, signed in 2016, finds one of its most accomplished expressions in the N°7: fourteen speakers distributed even in the roof, a 690-watt amplifier, and above all, a soundstage adjustment that can focus on the two front seats or open up to the entire cabin, with three-dimensional spatialization intensity adjustable at the touch of a finger. You end up forgetting that it's a car: the engine noise disappears, only the sound remains—precise, enveloping, almost like that of a listening room.
The Perfume Route
In Grasse, DS N°7 crosses another, older road. The Fragonard house has been crafting perfumes there for a century, and it too travels the world to harvest the flowers that compose its fragrances. Visitors discover the stills and large maceration vats, then settle in for an olfactory workshop where each person creates their own fragrance, trial and error, until they find the perfect balance.
The exercise, on the surface, has nothing to do with cars. Yet it reveals a great deal about the spirit of travel that DS seeks to embody with its N°7: taking one's time, stopping where one least expects it, transforming a simple journey into a series of experiences. On the return trip, as the road descends towards Terre Blanche at dusk, a doe and her fawn, just a few days old, cross in front of the vehicle. The scene lasts three seconds. It encapsulates, in its own way, all the silence that an electric motor allows one to rediscover on a country road.
Three words, one goal
Technology, comfort, refinement: this three-part approach sums up the ambition of the N°7, the latest step in a range renewal that began with the N°8 and then the N°4. It picks up where the DS 7 left off, long the brand's best-selling model, and inherits a platform designed from the outset to accommodate both electric and internal combustion engines. The 97,2 kWh battery, which allows for a range of up to 740 kilometers in mixed driving and over 450 kilometers on the highway, comes from a mega-factory in northern France, while the electric motors are assembled in the east of the country. Only the final assembly takes place in Italy, at the Melfi plant, which also produces the N°8. Inside, the textiles incorporate a significant proportion of recycled materials, and chrome has been removed from the bodywork in favor of more understated finishes.
The DS N°7 arrives at dealerships in October 2026. It targets both individuals seeking a quiet premium SUV and company fleets, for whom its electrified versions meet the now-essential tax requirements in this segment. But reducing the N°7 to a purely financial argument would be to miss the point: in the winding roads of the Pays de Fayence, amidst the silence of an electric motor and the aromas of a century-old perfumer's workshop, it primarily conveys a certain idea of travel, one where there's no longer any need to rush to get somewhere.
Photos: Maxime Dobremel
