Luxury SUV could spearhead DS revival in Oz, says PSA boss

Bringing the DS 7 Crossback to Australia is a serious prospect for PSA Groupe and its recently appointed distributor for Peugeot and Citroen in Australia, Inchcape.

So says PSA’s Operational Director for the India-Pacific region, Emmanuel Delay, in an exclusive interview with motoring.com.au during the local launch of the new Peugeot 5008. He and his colleague, Olivier Dourele – PSA Groupe Representative for Oceania – admit that there are few if any technical hurdles to surmount for PSA and Inchcape to introduce the DS 7 Crossback to Australia, where it would be marketed as the flagship of the DS brand.

That of course presumes the DS brand is reborn here as an entity distinct from Citroen.

“It’s the hero car to launch or relaunch the brand everywhere. We are actually executing that plan in many other markets. I can give you the example of Japan and [South] Korea in our own region, where we are going to bring DS as a separate brand, basically with this product,” Delay explained.

With the DS 7 homologated for right-hand drive Japan, complying with Australia’s ADRs (Australian Design Rules) shouldn’t be too challenging. However, technical and legal issues are not the reason why PSA is taking it slowly with a decision to bring the car here.

“Technically we can bring this car to Australia, but... launching a new brand in a competitive market such as Australia is not just a decision you can take because you have a technical possibility; you need a strategy behind it [as well],” says Dourele.

Ahead of focusing on the DS brand in Australia, the top priority for PSA and Inchape is reviving passenger-car sales for Peugeot and Citroen.

“The most important [priority] at this point in time, if I may say, is turn around the Peugeot and Citroen passenger vehicle businesses,” Delay stated.

“Then, in a second step, we have two open questions. One is the DS brand; do we want to restart DS [as a] separate brand? Because historically, it’s part of Citroen.

“Do we want to bring DS as a separate brand to Australia? The contract with Inchcape, we have made it such that we are not forcing Inchcape to launch DS as of yet.

“We need to have a good business model that we are confident will work...

“Making a parallel with DS is also the light commercial vehicles. Exactly what do we do with light commercial vehicles? Do we try and leverage the line-up that we have in Europe – knowing that we are number one in Europe, in LCVs. Which brand do we use? Is it one of the two, is it both of them in parallel?

“All of these questions are now being asked, and, together with Inchcape, we are in the process of crafting the overall strategy for Peugeot, Citroen, [and] potentially DS. And within these strategies, LCV is an open question, I would say.”

There is, of course, nothing to stop PSA and Inchcape introducing the DS 7 Crossback in Australia as a Citroen, rather than a DS model. But it would be wasting the group's best shot at launching DS as a separate brand. In the meantime, the manufacturer and the distributor are understood to be working towards the local launch of the all-new 508.

The motoring.com.au review of the new 5008 will be published on Thursday, February 8.