Citroen Oz won't split DS – yet

There's a belief within DS Automobiles, French car-maker Citroen's premium sub-brand, that its reputation and sales will one day overtake German prestige makes, namely Audi.

The DS brand has already made big gains in the world's biggest automotive market, China, where Citroen has established a chain of stand-alone DS showrooms, and DS is also planning an assault on the USA from 2020 with several new models on the horizon, likely including a number of new luxury SUVs.

In Australia, where Citroen sold just 288 DS vehicles last year, there are currently three DS models available — the DS3 compact hatch, DS4 small hatch and DS5 large hatch.

As such, Australians will have to wait a lot longer before Citroen's double-chevron badge is removed from premium DS vehicles and stand-alone dealerships are opened.

Asked when separate DS showrooms would be opened in this country, where luxury car sales are booming, the general sales manager of Citroen Automobiles Australia (CAA), Shaun Mackle, said he wasn't sure.

"The vision is for the two brands to move apart," he stated, before cautioning: "we don't 100 per cent know [when].

"In China it's very much separated already, but in Europe they're still together [Citroen and DS].

"We have more news coming on that, but there's no official due date. Basically we've got to do it sustainably and sensibly in the Australian market."

He said that halving a showroom with "one side DS and one side Citroen" was not ideal and the split would require a "very, very measured" approach.

Most Australians don't know that DS even exists, conceded Mackle, noting that the French importer has not yet talked about them as "different entities".

Asked if the plan was to take the fight to Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, CAA's PR and communications manager, Tyson Bowen, said: "I think that's the intent, but we have a long way to go in doing that. [We have to] bring the product and the network and the things that support that."

Bowen noted that the Citroen and DS brands are diverging in design and function, and this will be more obvious going forward.

"Sitting under the same banner you have to have a family resemblance. And I don't think those two brands can exist under a single badge when they start to move apart in terms of personality," said Bowen.

"There's a lot of discussion about how this applies to other markets. China started under this premise, and markets like Australia have to move on a case by case basis in terms of sales, structure and network.

"It'll be over a longer period of time. It has to be something that rolls out over a longer period," he said.

CAA general manager John Startari has previously made it clear that the Citroen and DS brands would not be separated in Australia until it made financial sense.

"We have to work within the confines of this market. The two brands are unable to split until it's financially viable," he told motoring.com.au last month.

Launched this week, the facelifted DS3 hatch replaces a light-size three-door model that found just 134 homes in Australia last year (down almost 35 per cent on 2013), where the hatch was launched in September 2010, followed by the Cabrio last August.

The revised DS3will be the first in a number of fresh DS models from Citroen, which will launch its upgraded DS5 flagship in September and is also looking at DS6 premium crossover, which is currently only built in left-hand drive configuration in China.

CAA is "looking closely" at the first DS SUV, which Startari said would be Citroen's most popular model in SUV-mad Australia.

"We need to look at the product and we assess everything on a product by product basis. I wouldn't rule anything out. SUVs are top-sellers here so it would be our biggest DS seller."