DS Aero Sport Lounge Showcases Designs and Tech for Future Electric Vehicles

If you’re not up to date with what’s happening in other car markets, welcome. We’re gonna do a little showing of something called the DS Aero Sport Lounge. With a name like that, this thing better be nice, don’t ya think?

What DS looked to do with the Aero Sport Lounge was to bring about a new body style to its vehicles. One that focuses on aerodynamic efficiency and raises its visual desirability. The other point of focus was sustainability and luxury.

“DS AERO SPORT LOUNGE illustrates the opening of a new era for the car. An amazing pathway is opening for us to transform new limitations into opportunities to make cars that are more and more charismatic,” says Thierry Metroz, Design Director for DS. “For this concept car, which is a prelude to our next creations, we have opted for solutions that are avant-garde and high technology in which the purely technical element is concealed for the benefit of the beauty. In the cockpit, we have chosen to work with unexpected materials, hand crafted with simple, pure lines, expressing a new kind of tranquility,” says Béatrice Foucher, CEO of DS Automobiles.

Now, anytime, you try to mix in sustainability and luxury, the offspring are usually very hard to temper. By this I mean that it's hard to find the proper balance between the two. But I feel that DS did succeed in finding the perfect balance.

With the use of satin, straw, and a technique called illuminated 3D weaving, the DS does offer a luxury feel and most probably a lower cost than other vehicles in its class. You read that right, there is straw in this car. And lots of it too.

Don’t start thinking that the straw is just a hay-bell thrown into your car. Come on now, this is a luxury car we’re talking about. The straw work has been developed using a combination between 17th century techniques and modern-day materials, offering us a look at another style of dashboard and seat design.

The use of satin cotton throughout the vehicle also offers the seats and other components a soft, smooth and cooling touch. A high-density foam, probably soy-based, gives the seats their unique shape and ergonomics, all wrapped up with a satin touch.

As mentioned earlier, the entire dashboard incorporates the use of straw. The instrument panel seems nonexistent, offering a sleek, modern, and uncluttered visibility. But then again things aren’t as simple as they tend to appear. Built into the dash, the Aero Sport Lounge includes an AI by the name of Iris. It can control everything with just means of conversation.

The sleek outer body design, accented by the use of LEDs, give me the urge to stroke my screen just to feel those lines. To feel the temperature of the body's components. To feel what the sculptor felt when he finally laid down his tools.

The front and rear of the vehicle offer the same visual width, but a pinch in the design between the wheels, and a lift over the rear-wheel well, give this DS a mean and capable look. That pinch is the meeting point for a set of suicide doors.

But what about the engine? Well, it’s electric! A 500Kw (680hp) electric motor linked to a 110kWh battery offers its occupants a range of over 400 miles (650km). Using technology tested in Formula E gives the Lounge a 0-62 mph (0-100kph) time of 2.8 seconds.

With stats similar to a bullet shot out of a gun, and the luxury to do it safely and comfortably, how could you not be interested in this?