The new President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, will use the all-new DS 7 Crossback as his ceremonial vehicle. The model was introduced two months ago and was driven for the first time in public on the official inauguration ceremony seven months before its launch.
Of course, this is not just a regular example of the crossover. It features a custom-made opening roof, French Republic signature badging, and a Tricolor flag holder. Finished in Ink Blue, it has a matching Black Art leather interior named "Opera Inspiration" after a district of Paris, and 20-inch alloy wheels with special finish.
There's no information regarding the powertrain of the car, but DS Automobiles says in many aspects it is equipped with technologies that will be also offered to regular customers starting in January 2018. These include the DS Connected Pilot, "paving the way for autonomous driving," and DS Actove Scan Suspension, "the 21st century DS suspension system," which uses a camera to anticipate any bumps and undulations in the road surface.
Emmanuel Macron, the youngest President of the French Repulic since Napoleon Bonaparte, won't be the first to use DS as a presidential car. General Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, Claude Pompidou in the early 1970s, and their successors Giscard d'Estaing, François Mitterand, and Jacques Chirac in 1995 were all riding different Citroen/DS models from the past.
The presidential car will be displayed from May 16 at the DS World in Paris. As for the production DS 7 Crossback, it will go on sale in the first days of 2018 and will be offered with a new hybrid system delivering 300 horsepower (223 kilowatts). In this configuration, the crossover can travel up to 37 miles (59 kilometers) on purely electric energy.
