PSA Peugeot-Citroen is planning to explore the lucrative automobile market of the United States with its premium DS car brand by 2020.
While the Paris Moto Show was filled with new launches, the CEO of PSA's luxury DS brand - Yves Bonnefont - made an announcement promising to bring the renowned luxury car brand to the United States by 2020. Amid the well-established brands like Cadillac, Ford, Audi, BMW, Maserati among others, DS will face stiff challenge in establishing itself.
"We want to turn DS into a globally recognized premium brand, and you can't go global without entering the US market," Bonnefont told Automotive News Europe in an interview at the Paris auto show.
It is certainly right that any automotive brand cannot get a global recognition without exploring the U.S. market, but the car maker has a long way ahead of its official debut in the country. According to Bonnefont, PSA will bring DS into the U.S. market in 2017, but the sales of the stylish and advanced car will commence only by 2020. PSA will use the three-year gap to customize its product so it matches the U.S. safety standards.
DS (pronounced "dey-ESS") gets its name from PSA's classic Citroen DS, which was the car maker's highly successful car and marked the heights of engineering and styling of the French company. DS was started in 2010 and has been very successful in Europe and China. The premium car brand has five models built on Peugeot-Citroën cars' platform with a premium price tag, of course. In the last four years, the latest car brand has sold more than half a million units, mostly in Europe and China, Detroit Free Press reports. Sadly, none of the cars, ranging from small A-class rides to larger SUVs, meet American safety standards.
Bonnefont envisions a bright future for the DS brand as he expects DS cars to be sold in 200 cities around the world within the next decade, 20 of which are expected to be in the U.S.