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Citroen DS To Lose ‘Citroen’ Name In 2015: Report

Citroen has made no secret of its plans to make the DS range a stand-alone premium brand, and a major step in that process could take place as soon as next year. Speaking with Britain’s Autocar, PSA Peugeot-Citroen chairman Carlos Tavares reporte


Citroen has made no secret of its plans to make the DS range a stand-alone premium brand, and a major step in that process could take place as soon as next year.

Speaking with Britain’s Autocar, PSA Peugeot-Citroen chairman Carlos Tavares reportedly revealed that DS models sold from next year will be identified only as ‘DS’, with no Citroen badging to be seen.

The PSA chairman also outlined plans for the DS brand to rival the Germans by 2020, with Audi being a major focus.  

"From 2015, DS will be disconnected from Citroen - we don't need to have separate platforms, or even separate dealers, but we will have separate manufacturing and engineering standards,” Mr Tavares said.

"DS can be an Audi rival by 2020. The products in the pipeline are extremely exciting but we are not just going into 'premium' as we're not going to be fighting the Germans with the same weapons.”

With a degree of French patriotism, Mr Tavares said “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 first of those concept cars is the Divine DS (pictured, top of page); set to be officially unveiled at the upcoming Paris Motor Show.

Whether the Divine’s styling is enough to ‘outdo’ the Germans or not is perhaps a matter of opinion, but Tavares said DS won’t be seeking to immediately match Audi in the sales race.

"We have to be patient about sales and I don't want to measure success in this way. We'll measure it in per-unit profit and making huge margins. This is a long run 20- to 30-year story," Tavares said.

DS models currently on sale in Australia include the DS3, DS4 and DS5. A long-wheelbase model and an SUV are currently scheduled for the Chinese market only, while a city-car is being considered for Europe. 

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