DS will launch one model a year until at least 2023, with a target of 33% of sales to be hybrids or electric vehicles by the middle of the next decade.
Each of the six confirmed models will have an electrified version, which the brand claims will benefit from its EV know-how honed in its involvement in the Formula E championship.
The first of these is the recently revealed DS 7 Crossback - the brand’s answer to the BMW X3 - which will get an E-Tense petrol-electric plug-in hybrid variant with 296bhp and an electric-only range of 60 miles. The E-Tense will get an eight-speed automatic 'box, and will be available from spring 2019.
There’s no cap on where the brand’s one-model-per-year strategy will end, but six models are planned at the moment. More will come later.
The six confirmed launches will be a mixture of all-new market entries for the brand, as well as replacements for existing models. Some of these will be indirect replacements, explained a DS spokesman, where the model name would be carried over, but the car would be different to its predecessor, and wouldn’t necessarily occupy the same market.
Despite the high power output of the DS 7 Crossback E-Tense and subsequent plug-in hybrid models, the DS Performance badge will not be discontinued; the two will coexist. It’s not yet known if the Performance badge will spread to larger models than the brand’s entry-level DS 3, though.
The use of the E-Tense name for variants on more mass-market friendly models somewhat undermines the possibility of an E-Tense supercar under the brand; the spokesman said that such a model is not a priority, but didn’t rule out the now more distant possibility of a halo car in the future.
Read more:
2017 DS 7 Crossback on sale in La Premiere edition from £42,650
DS E-Tense supercar edges closer to production
DS 3 Performance long-term test review: taking on a track day
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I'm surprised they aren't planning to wind DS up
That's the problem!
You've hit the nail on the head - much has been promised but every new model is a disappointment; naff styling and poor ride. If only DS would look back at the USPs of many of its Citroen predecessors and come up with ultra sleek futuristic styling and fabulous comfort and it might get somewhere. But then why not let Citroen itself do that and forget DS altogether?
I think that the DS separate
Still no mention of a
catnip wrote:
In a meeting tail end of last week with what Autocar would call a 'Citroen insider' and more than a couple of hints were dropped suggesting that there is now no plans to replace the DS3!! General feeling within PSA seems to be that the new C3 does the job and that the DS brand will become mainly SUV or Crossover based going forward. They may keep the DS3 name, but it'll likely become more of a Juke-type rival and probably 5 door only. Have to say, much as I like the direction both Citroen & DS are taking regarding styling, I cant help but think that separating the brands is just a very expensive folly and will ultimately end up with one brand becoming a casualty, if not both. Just by dropping the Citroen chevrons from the DS models, does not mean that the buying public will suddenly view DS as a 'premium brand' in the same vein as Audi, BMW, Merc etc. To many, badge is everything.