DS says its whole range will be hybrid or electric by 2025

Citroen's premium brand DS has promised that all models it will introduce from 2025 will come equipped with either hybrid or pure-electric powertrain.

DS also announced at the Paris ePrix yesterday that it will unveil its first battery-powered vehicle at the Paris motor show this October.

The latter is not to be confused with the futuristic DS X E-TENSE electric supercar concept revealed in Beijing last week, which DS described as "what the car of your dreams might look like in 2035".

The move to offer state-of-the-art EV and hybrid tech in all its models is a clear attempt to elevate the DS brand, which is dormant in Australia, above both its Peugeot and Citroen sister brands.

Following its Paris reveal, DS says it will introduce a plug-in hybrid version of its DS 7 Crossback SUV, which could headline the French luxury brand's return to Australia, in 2019.

It's not yet known if the car shown at Paris will be a concept or near production-ready, nor where it will be positioned in the DS range, but rumours are it will be a pure-electric version of the long-awaited replacement for the current nine-year-old DS 3.

Set to be called the DS 3 Crossback, the all-new small hatch is likely to be based on PSA's compact CMP platform and be offered with not only an EV powertrain but also more conventional petrol and diesel engines.

Helping achieve its ambitious 2025 aim is the fact both PSA's small CMP architecture and the bigger EMP2 platform, on which the Peugeot 308 is based, have been engineered for hybrid and pure-electric powertrains.

In total, PSA's Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands -- plus its new additions Opel and Vauxhall -- are primed to offer 40 electrified vehicles by 2025.

Now on sale in Europe, the DS 7 Crossback will be the first to feature the firm's next-gen E-TENSE 4x4 plug-in hybrid tech, next year.

Combining a 147kW petrol engine with two 80kW electric motors mounted on the front and rear axles, plus a 13kWh lithium-ion battery, the new plug-in powertrain produces 221kW in total.

DS hasn’t revealed how efficient the hybrid is, but says after a 4.5-hour charge using a standard power socket (or 2.5 hours using a 32-amp fast-charger) the DS 7 PHEV can travel up to 60km on pure-electric power alone.

The standard DS 7 Crossback comes with semi-autonomous active cruise control that can stop, steer and brake the car at up to 180km/h.

The French SUV is also able to auto-park without any input from the driver, carrying out complex manoeuvres at speeds of up to 5km/h.

When the sun goes down the DS 7 Crossback uses an infrared camera in the front grille to identify pedestrians and animals, automatically alerting the driver if they wander into its path.

Boosting comfort, the new DS SUV comes with Active Scan Suspension that ‘reads’ the road ahead using a windscreen-mounted camera to prime the dampers for bumps and dips in the road.

Peugeot and Citroen's Australian importer Inchcape has already announced it considers the DS 7 a "serious prospect" for spearheading the brand's revival Down Under.