Design Development: DS7 Crossback

“It’s completely fun — the first new generation DS, the first DS to be born DS,” opines Thierry Metroz — the Executive Design Director for PSA’s DS brand — as we walk around the new DS7 Crossback in Geneva.

The DS brand needs this car. Success as a premium brand is today impossible to achieve without an SUV in the line-up, and the DS7 Crossback will be the upscale French brand’s first. At 4570mm long, 1620mm high and 1890mm wide, the DS7 is only slightly shorter than Audi’s Q5 and BMW’s X3 — but it intends to compete on price with cars from those brands’ next segment down, such as the Q3 and X1.

All the basic ingredients for competing with premium German brands are present, at least in essence, Thierry Metroz believes: “The first point of the exterior brief was to find a good proportion — when we talk about exterior, 70 percent is about proportion. After that, 30 percent is styling and it’s important to follow the code of the SUV.” Metroz believes that following this ‘code’ is easy. “It’s big wheels (we have 20-inch wheels available on this car), a wider track — this car has the widest track available on the EMP2 platform. And [to compete with the German premium brands on a technically level playing field] unique multi-link suspension.”

Designed in the dedicated DS studio at PSA’s ADN studio in Vélizy, outside Paris, the DS7 project, codename X74, began in 2013, and in its early stages ran in parallel with the development of the Divine DS concept car, shown at the 2014 Paris motor show. “A lot of the front identity and inspiration comes from the Divine,” comments Metroz, “the ‘DS wings’ and the headlamps stem from there.”

There’s much discussion about ‘Frenchness’ but surely this type of SUV is primarily aimed at DS customers in China? “It’s a car for Europe and China,” states Metroz firmly. “But all the design of DS is now done in Paris — it’s very important to keep the French spirit. We’re talking a lot about French knowhow and French luxury. In Paris, we are very lucky because we have all the connections and partnership with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and so on.” Even those with little insight on the (modern) DS brand’s history won’t be surprised to hear Metroz state that “our major source of inspiration is the world of fashion.” Certainly inside the DS7, that inspiration goes beyond obvious.

Beyond the new facial graphic, the DS 7 is relatively conventional in its surfacing and graphics. The development images show how two themes developed (labelled in the picture “Bob” and “Ugo”) — with the ultimately rejected “Bob” theme featuring a more pronounced, continuous shoulder section, and an unusually positioned fender vent which runs into the middle of the front door, visually indexing with the grille “wings” which flow back beneath the lamps. In the end, Metroz relates how “Ugo” was chosen for its “very simple surfaces — well sculpted, sensual quality with a strong character line.” It’s a plainer canvas, and the development images show how earlier ideas such as running chrome along the fender character line (like DS5) or bleeding chrome out of the bottom of the DLO surround were eventually rejected. It’s part of a strategy Metroz call “Simplexity — very simple surfaces, and very complex, magic details.”

The most eye catching of these details are undoubtedly the headlamps, which put into production an idea DS has been playing with since the Numero 9 concept of 2012. They were “the biggest challenge with this car,” smiles Metroz. “Firstly, you have this purple light to welcome you, but then afterwards you have these three, LED modules, which rotate through 180 degrees. It’s like the concept car. In fact, we put the same technology we had in E-Tense, into the production car.”

Metroz also points to the rear lamps, whose hexagonal scales unlike Divine DS don’t move, but create a hypnotic, “absolutely magic” effect at night. “We are looking for our next cars to have very advanced technology,” he adds, “but to do something very different to our [German] competitors in terms of the way we stage the technology. The rotating LED modules — this kind of thing — we will extend that. It’s in the heart of our design strategy.”

At the interior design kick-off (developed in parallel with the exterior), Metroz briefed his designers to produce something architecturally “simple — in order to magnify the materials. If you have very complex surfaces, the material can get lost,” he suggests.The other keyword for the interior theme, was “wrapping”. “You can see this in the very first sketches,” Metroz explains, and this approach allows the “magnification” of materials that is so important to this car.

The interior options are framed within five “inspirations’ says Metroz. “La Premiere” is a ‘sixth’ — and the only one to be shown in Geneva. It is in fact a red-leather version of “Opera”, available until the year end on the first run of cars. Dominated by patinated red Nappa leather, it features DS’s signature watch-strap seat pattern design, which Metroz points out “is now running across all of the seat” — done to make it look wider.

‘Performance Line’ utilises “Grey Alcantara, with the toggle switches in black,” notes Metroz, but beyond DS’s new sporty trim-line the four other inspirations are named after districts or places in Paris. ‘Faubourg’s’ Macassar wood presented one of the “biggest technical challenges,” of the project, “because to apply real wood with this radius [at the point where the IP meets the console, under the lower edge of the centre screen] took three years to get right,” says Metroz.

‘Rivoli’ uses a non-symmetrical diamond stitched black leather, “the inspiration for which comes from Dior, specifically Dior bags,” meanwhile ’Opera’ is ‘La Premiere’ rendered in black materials, while ‘Bastille’ “is inspired by leather”. While it is in fact the basic version, it “has a specific finish with a two-tone, gold definition which looks very luxurious,” according to Metroz.

It is the details that the Design Director is keenest to discuss though. “Just to develop these pearl stitches [running across the top of the IP and door cards of La Premiere edition] took four years,” smiles Metroz. “We had it on Divine DS, and worked with our own leather workers inside the Design Centre to develop them for production. It’s important for us to have this know-how about leather work in house — rather than just using consultants and suppliers. We think this might be unique in the industry.”

Meanwhile “to make these (air vent crystal dots) is very difficult in terms of technology,” explains Metroz. “It’s the same on the roller grips — you have the black crystal, stone and the black grip element — combining the three is a challenge.”

The clock — a jeweled unit, which stands proud of the IP above the centre screen “was designed in collaboration with French watch brand, B.R.M.,” and in a nod to the swiveling headlamps of the exterior it too spins open through 180 degrees out of the IP, when the car is switched on.

DS’s design team also designed a diamond-based graphic skin for the cluster and new wide-aspect centre screen, an approach seen in 2016’s E-Tense concept’s HMI. “I love the contrast,” explains Metroz, “because when you look at the dashboard, you have this very fluid, very simple design and it contrasts against these very technical, faceted details which flow onto the screens — and the places you touch.”

But it is the distinct, DS-signature centre toggle switches which have clearly had the greatest attention lavished upon them. Finished with a “Guillochage” pattern, this shallow engraving technique was borrowed from the watch making industry. “The specific pattern used here is Clou de Paris,” says Metroz. “It was invented in 1786 by the French watch brand Breguet — and its founder, Louis Breguet.”

We wonder out loud about the cost feasibility of what — for now — are parts bespoke to this one car. “To do a nice, innovative design is not so complicated,” replies Metroz. “The most complicated part of my job is to discuss with the engineers, the people who control the budget, and to make them understand that it’s important to have things like these new push switches, because it’s part of our DNA and our design philosophy at DS.”

Concluding, Metroz smiles once again and adds: “It’s fantastic, we are at the beginning of a brand. With this car we have the opportunity to launch our entire design philosophy. So we put everything into it!” To anyone who sits in the DS 7, the truthfulness of that statement will be abundantly, and immediately evident.

The Team

(from left to right – click to enlarge)

Thierry Metroz: DS Design Director

Kristine Lipinski: Colour & Trim Lead designer for DS 7

Sabine Le Masson-Pannetrat: Head of DS Colour & Trim Design

Thomas Bouveret: Head of DS Interior Design

Pascal Saudrais: DS Concept Car Ingenior

Ivo Groen: Design Programme director for DS 7

Nicolas Dumont: DS Graphic Designer

Bernard Germain: DS Chief Designer assistant

Emmanuel Rouyer: Virtual Lab Lead Graphic designer

Laurent Nivalle: Head of DS Virtual Lab

Ugo Spagnolo: Exterior Lead designer for DS 7

Colomba Ducrot: DS Design Communication

Frédéric Soubirou: Head of DS Exterior Design

Nicolas Deluy: Head of DS Pro Lab Design