We’ve repeatedly seen a phrase related to large Citroën and DS fashions. In our early critiques of the 9, the corporate’s individuals mentioned that success could be measured by promoting the automobile “in lots of”, fairly than hundreds, which is sort of to the phrase what they mentioned concerning the C6 again in 2006.
It’s too early to gauge the gross sales success of the N°8 (European-built this time), but when DS does find yourself promoting it by the a number of hundred per 12 months right here, my flabber will likely be pretty nicely gasted.
What do you do, then, in case you’re a mainstream automobile maker who wish to promote premium automobiles? And it’s comprehensible that you simply actually wish to, as a result of whereas the volumes are decrease, the income are a lot greater.
I not too long ago requested a automobile designer (who would favor to not be quoted immediately, so I’ll paraphrase) about what one ought to do with DS. The very first thing to resolve, he thought, is what DS must be. Ought to it’s, because it was within the Fifties, a expertise chief?
Or ought it do one thing extra prosaic and rerelease some of the previous tunes, a brand new DS within the style of a brand new Mini or a brand new Fiat 500 (as I believe it ought to)? He mentioned he thought it in all probability should be true to its roots, performing as a tech chief, receiving or introducing the newest stuff which may (or maybe may not) filter by way of to different Stellantis fashions later.
There’s a the Aristocracy to that, however I’m undecided that the N°8 does it. The very first thing DS’s web site calls it’s an “electrical SUV”, which I suppose could also be so it pops up as excessive as doable within the search engine rankings. (In that case, that hasn’t labored: I’m on web page seven of my search outcomes for ‘new electrical SUV’ and I’ve been previous Rivian and Mahindra with nonetheless no signal of DS.)
Click on the precise hyperlink and also you’re instructed that you simply can “expertise the pleasure of driving electrical, with the simplicity of petrol”, I believe as a result of the N°8 has an extended vary. Nevertheless it’s a sentence that might have been written for any of a dozen producers.
