Starting next year, there will be no mention whatsoever of Citroën on premium vehicles from its DS brand, PSA boss Carlos Tavares has revealed.
The French carmaker is trying to establish the DS brand as a fully-fledged luxury marque and getting rid of the Citroën badge is part of the plan. “From 2015 DS will be disconnected from Citroën. We don’t need to have separate platforms, or even separate dealers, but we will have separate manufacturing and engineering standards,” Tavares told Autocar.
Citroën hopes that DS will become a serious rival for Audi by 2020, matching the appeal and exclusivity of the German brand. However, DS won’t achieve this goal by “fighting the Germans with the same weapons,” Tavares explained. “We want to convey a French sophistication, trendiness and the French way of life. The Germans can’t do this and we’ll see some concept cars that will back this up,” the executive added.
The Divine DS study (pictured), which will be unveiled at the Paris Auto Show, gives a fair hint of what to expect from the DS brand in the future.
Still, Tavares said that DS won’t be trying to rival Audi in terms of sales, as that would take 20 to 30 years. Instead, he said success will be measured in per unit profit and making “huge margins”.
DS’ lineup will expand from three to six models in the near future, with upcoming vehicles including a luxury sedan for China (DS9), an SUV (DS 6WR) which may or may not be offered outside China, and possibly a Fiat 500 rival for Europe.
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