Ken Gratton•10 Sept 2012
NEWS
Citroen DS5 arrives at 11th hour
Final element of the DS line-up falls into place just months before brand distribution changes handsCitroen has officially launched the DS5 mid-size family car in Australia, but handing over local distribution of the brand may hold up the release of a diesel version.
PSA Peugeot Citroen recently informed Ateco Automotive that its distribution of the Citroen brand will end early in the new year. Ateco knows which company will be granted the distribution rights – but contracts are yet to be signed, so the current Citroen distributor is bound to maintain the confidentiality of the new distributor in the meantime.
"They take over from the end of January," said Edward Rowe, Public Relations Manager for Ateco, in conversation with motoring.com.au this afternoon.
The one engine available at the DS5's local launch is the THP155 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo (petrol) engine, matched to a six-speed automatic transmission. There's a higher-power version of the engine – developing 147kW – but that is only offered with a manual transmission, and Ateco planned all along for the DS5 to offer at least one drivetrain variant with a self-shifting transmission to satisfy the local market demands of any family car.
Developed jointly with BMW, the DS5's Aussie-spec engine produces 115kW/240Nm and can push the car to 100km/h 9.7 seconds from launch. Despite its respectable fuel consumption figure of 7.3L/100km in combined-cycle testing, the engine is more powerful than the 1.6-litre turbodiesel engine that can be specified for the DS5 in other markets. There's also a 2.0-litre turbodiesel available overseas.
The full rationale for choosing the 115kW petrol engine over either of the diesel options goes beyond the mere fact of new distribution, according to Edward Rowe. Citroen did not ship diesels to Australia in the first production batch. And with just five months of Ateco's distribution of the French brand remaining, time has run out for Ateco to bring in diesel variants.
"Cars that are being built now will obviously be cars that they'll be selling, not us," Mr Rowe observed. So the key decisions concerning the marketing and on-going promotion of the DS5 will be a task for the new distributor, including any decision to bring in diesel variants. That might yet happen, Mr Rowe suggested.
"It's possible, but it won't be [Ateco] that will be doing it. It's simply a decision that won't be ours."
The Ateco spokesman outlined why the company hadn't launched the DS5 with the diesel drivetrain.
"The main reason is that's the engine that's attached to the automatic gearbox; the more powerful [petrol] engine is manual only, which would have hamstrung the vehicle in this market completely. The [1.6-litre] diesel isn't as powerful as this engine; it's got more torque, but it isn't as powerful. And the diesel isn't available to us in the initial production run."
That leaves the DS5 without the low-range torque of the diesel engine, which should be a natural fit for the Australian motoring environment. Ateco anticipates that at its respective purchase price of $47,990 the DS5 will face competition from the Honda Accord, the Volkswagen Passat and CC, as well as prestige models from Audi (A4) and BMW (3 Series). Yet the new car is based on the same platform as the C4 and the Peugeot 308, with a luggage-carrying capacity of 465 litres and length measuring 4530mm – marginally longer than Holden's Cruze hatch.
Asked, in the circumstances, whether Ateco would have preferred to leave the introduction of the DS5 to the new distributor, Mr Rowe explained that the decision to homologate the Citroen for Australian Design Rules certification predated PSA's notification that Ateco's distribution was to be terminated. It wasn't a matter of choice for Ateco.
"In the timescale of things, we were ordering DS5 12 months ago. We would have specced DS5 for the Australian market probably June, July last year..." he said, also explaining that the new distributor will assume full responsibility for spare parts logistics once it is the official distributor for the Citroen brand.
Offered in just the one level of trim, the DS5 boasts a five-star Euro NCAP rating and a comprehensive standard equipment list, including climate control, keyless access/start, three-partition glass sunroof, automatic high beam for the adaptive xenon headlights, front/rear parking sensors and colour head-up display. In addition the DS5 comes with electrically-adjustable front seats (with position memory and massage functions for the driver's), chilled food/drink compartment, alarm
Ateco expects typical DS5 buyers to be males aged 35 and above. According to the distributor they will be "style conscious and early adopters of new technologies". The decision to buy the DS5 points to the buyers being "creative and independent minded" and they are "brand conscious, aspirational and discerning."
Mr Rowe seemed sanguine about the loss of the Citroen franchise.
"For Ateco, this is part and parcel of how our business operates... We have other brands waiting in the wings to come in; we have a team of people here, whose job it is to work on – I think we're working on five separate brands at the moment.
Confidentiality agreements precluded Mr Rowe from revealing the names of the brands being evaluated.
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Written byKen Gratton
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