The 1,360bhp DS X E-Tense Concept is here

Car designers are an imaginative bunch, which is why when you give them carte blanche to create “a vision of what a dream car might resemble in the year 2035”, you get truly outrageous results. Results like the DS X E-Tense, a car its maker says is the “fruit of [a] passionate, unfettered journey” its designers undertook to “bring to life their dreams for the car of tomorrow while sharing their passion of [the] automobile, uncurbed by predetermined constraints”. Hmmmm.

It is, quite simply, not real. But that hasn’t stopped DS from supplying us with many renders and much ‘information’. Power, for example, comes from two electric motors housed within the front wheels. In normal use they produce 540bhp, but a ‘Circuit’ mode ups that to 1,360bhp. The chassis is carbon, the suspension “exquisite” and “innovative”, and the body capable of “recovering its original form after an impact” thanks to “new technology”. Again, hmmmm.

Seating is for three in an interior divided into two – the driver is exposed to the elements, whereas the passengers (or driver, if the car is in autonomous mode) sit in a leather-lined “cocoon’ of glass. Even the floor is glass, giving your passengers a close-up view of all the potholes you’ve run over. The fancy stereo and infotainment system is controlled via a holographic interface called IRIS.

It is very, very odd. And much as we’d like to see cars look this mad in 2035, it’s hard to believe that in just 18 years time we’ll see such a transformation. What do you think of DS’s vision of the future? Answers below.