Mon dieu! Emmanuel Macron has a new car

Whatever your views on politics, the cars that drag our senior politicians around are invariably cool. And a wonderful window into the car culture of the country they run. Boris Johnson may not be your cup of tea, but he’s hung onto a glorious Callum-era Jaguar XJ when the car is (sadly) no longer made.

But we’re on the other side of the channel for today’s Politicians’ Cars update, namely the new wheels of French President Emmanuel Macron. A man who a) clearly has pride in his country’s produce and b) presumably doesn’t pay for the car himself and therefore has no worries about depreciation. Hence he has the biggest, poshest DS on sale.

Bigger and posher than you can buy from the showroom. Having toured the Paris streets inside a DS 7 Crossback Présidentiel edition during his 2017 inauguration, he’s now upgraded to something called a DS 7 Crossback Élysée.

It’s longer – by 20cm, and all in the wheelbase – and now runs on 300bhp plug-in hybrid power. Kinda handy when you’ve climate summits to show face at.

Longer (armoured) bodywork allows for more mobile office room, the DS 7’s usual rear bench hoiked out and replaced with a pair of individual captain’s chairs, separated by an elbow rest (do politicians get especially tired elbows?). There are USB ports and wireless charges ahoy, presumably for phones and tablets rather than big red nuclear buttons. But you never know…