DS to target world's top cities – and luxury car brands

PSA Peugeot-Citroen’s DS premium brand will go global in a direct challenge to the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi by only cherry-picking the best cities in which to sell luxury cars — including those in Australia — and by keeping its focus on luxury not horsepower.

Speaking to motoring.com.au at the 2014 Paris motor show last week, Eric Apode, DS Brand Vice President for Products, Business Development and Profitability, said he and PSA believe there's little point selling DS cars in every market in the world.

Rather, the approach is to tackle the top-200 wealthiest cities in major countries. Of those, Apode said: "Of course in Australia and New Zealand, we have plenty of them. Obviously, we think in Sydney, that’s a big market, and Canberra also.”

DS will use a shop-in-shop retail approach, said Apode. “Those cities are spread over 90 countries — the same as the Citroen network sells in today. We will still use the Citroen organisation to sell our cars.”

There are already three DS store-in-stores open in Israel, Denmark and France, however, Apode said that DS will open its 100th stand-alone store in China by the end of the year.

Citroen celebrates 20 years in China this year and, with its local joint-venture partner Dongfeng, sold a record 280,000 cars there last year – up 25 per cent and well ahead of the overall market’s 19.1 per cent growth – through 435 dealerships, making China its biggest market.

Less than two years after its launch in China in June 2012, Citroen has established 56 DS outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Shenzhen, increasing the number of retailers by 65 per cent in the last six months.

Underlining the importance of China to DS, it has also released the DS 6WR – its first SUV – specifically for the world's largest car market, at least so far.

But PSA will also use DS to attack the west’s biggest car market, North America.

“We want to make DS a global brand, and you cannot be global without the US," DS CEO, Yves Bonnefont, told US journalists in Paris.

However, Bonnefont said that the plan to go to the US would occur only after 2020.

Bonnefont told a small Australian media contingent at Paris that the company will achieve more market share by focussing on stylish designs and lavish interiors.

He said he would not allow DS to enter into a power war with the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes.

That means no RS, M division or AMG competitors, because more buyers are finding such vehicles boring and pointless, insisted Bonnefont.

"Many premium brands position themselves on mechanical power. We believe consumers are kind of bored with brittle mechanical power. It's becoming pointless – it's pointless in Europe," he said.

Around 85 per cent of DS sales currently stem from Europe.

"We want to find our own territory as a premium brand, so it means we don't want to follow or copy any of the leaders," said the French auto exec.

The DS supremo outlined a long-term plan that stretched to 2030 in its bid to overtake Audi in the luxury car sales race.

"We know we are going on a journey of 15 years. I'm not working for next month or even next year. We have to have some vision and see where we want to go. We decided to create a fully-fledged global premium brand so we want to be a competitor in that field and we will do whatever it takes to get there.

"We know it's going to take time, it's going to take investments. That's where we're headed," proclaimed Bonnefont.

While the company will shy away from tyre-shredding super cars, it won’t completely forsake buyers who want an involving driving experience, noting that it would still deliver cars that thump out up to 225kW.

"So we [still] want dynamic cars, we have a powertrain range between 200hp [147kW] and 300hp [225kW], which makes the car a pleasure to drive.

"Then we will focus on technology and then refinement of the entire vehicle with the promise to deliver the know-how of the French luxury brands into a car," he observed.

In the four years that DS has been in existence, the company has sold around 500,000 cars globally thus far, the majority of them on the back of unique design and high levels of comfort, said Bonnefont.

He also noted that, unlike its rivals, DS offers real leather on all its models: "Our leather is, from DS3 to DS5, across the range. This is the core value of the brand -- refinement and quality of material within the car — and we'll continue to work on that."

He also declared that DS offers the highest levels of luxury and comfort of any mainstream prestige car company: "We bring it already with our leather — the Sumeniere leather, the best leather you can find in a car — and the design of the seats too."

And the company doesn't plan on sitting still either. It is looking at ways to adopt even higher-quality materials in its cars, providing a preview in its wild Divine DS concept.

"We show this with the DS concept. We worked with Maison L'Esage, which is the most famous embroidery house in the world. This was created in 1860 and it’s the first time these guys work with a car company, so we're proud to have achieved that with them."