On July 14, 6,686 military personnel, 315 vehicles, 98 aircraft, 31 helicopters and 193 horses took part in France’s national day parade on the Champs-Élysées.
We were watching one car.
The DS N°7 ÉLYSÉE was making its first official appearance as the new vehicle of the French Presidency and the first fully electric model to join its official fleet.
Beneath its Bleu Liberté paintwork sits an exclusive hydropneumatic suspension designed and developed by Nimbus.
A fully armoured vehicle with a wheelbase extended by 25 cm asks a great deal of its suspension. Comfort, handling and robustness all have to coexist, with no room for guesswork. This was the kind of challenge that reminds us why we do this work.
We were fortunate to take it on alongside Centigon France. In their workshops in Brittany, their teams carried out the complete armouring and fit-out of the vehicle. Centigon is a French leader in security, special-purpose and armoured vehicles, known far beyond France for the quality of its work.
Their standards, expertise and trust from the very beginning gave this project something rare, both technically and personally. Thank you to every member of their team.
Watching that car travel down the Champs-Élysées on Bastille Day was difficult to put into words. Behind a suspension are experience, calculations, testing and fine adjustments. There are also doubts, questions and the decision to go back and do something again when it is not good enough. Now, the women and men behind that work know that a small part of what they built will travel with the President of the French Republic.
We are immensely proud. More than that, we are grateful for the honour.
To Centigon, thank you for making room for us in this story. To the Nimbus team, thank you for putting so much care into something almost nobody will ever see, but one passenger will feel on every Paris cobblestone and every road beyond.
A small part of Nimbus now travels with the President of the French Republic.
Wait. We need to write that again.
A small part of Nimbus now travels with the President of the French Republic.
This is surreal. We are still trying to take it in.
