AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/22 Report--

The DS brand has almost faded out of sight in the Chinese market, and there is uncertainty about whether it will stay after the dissolution of the joint venture. A few days ago, the DS brand officially released a preview of the new model and revealed that the new car will be officially unveiled on February 24th. Based on this judgment, this may be the DS 9 flagship sedan previously exposed.

In June 2019, foreign media reported that the DS brand would launch a new flagship car in the Chinese market to compete with the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, with the same infrastructure as the Peugeot 508L and a longer wheelbase. In the new car declaration information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier, a new domestic car named DS 9 appeared. So the new car to be released by the DS brand is almost certain.

From the preview picture, the front face design of DS new car still follows the family style, and its headlamp group with dot matrix front grille makes the front face highly recognizable. The upper part of the LED headlamp is sharp in shape, while the lower part is vertically arranged daylight. The overall design is basically consistent with the DS 9 flagship car exposed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. French cars have always had their own unique design, as is the case with DS 9, such as highly recognizable headlight sets, taillight sets, and so on.

From the side point of view, the car is very close to Dongfeng Peugeot 508L, and the roof line from column A to column C adopts a gradually sinking design. In terms of body size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4933mm/1855mm/1468mm, wheelbase 2895mm, and six different styles of rims are available.

On the power side, the application shows that the PHEV version will be equipped with a plug-in hybrid system based on a 1.6T engine, with a maximum output of 200hp, which is expected to match an eight-speed manual transmission.

Changan Peugeot Citroen, which operates the DS brand, sold only 2055 vehicles in 2019, down 47 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data. It has lost more than 92 per cent of its sales share, compared with the peak of 27000 in 2014 and 2015.

After eight years, the joint venture of Changan Peugeot Citroen (Changan PSA) was finally dissolved.

Since the second half of 2019, there has been frequent news that Changan Automobile and PSA Group, the shareholders of Changan PSA, have sold all the shares of the joint venture company.

Changan Automobile has signed an "equity transfer agreement" with Shenzhen Qianhai Ruizhi Investment Co., Ltd., transferring all its 50% stake in Changan PSA to Qianhai Ruizhi, with a transfer amount of 1.63 billion yuan, according to a notice issued by Changan Automobile on December 31, 2019.

PSA Group has also disclosed to foreign media that it will sell 50 per cent of the shares held by Changan PSA.

It means that Changan PSA will change ownership after the withdrawal of both shareholders, and the original joint venture company will be dissolved.

The dissolution of the joint venture is related to poor brand operation, declining sales and long-term losses. According to the financial report released by Changan Automobile, Changan PSA lost 1.63 billion yuan in 2016, 1.1 billion yuan in 2017, 874 million yuan in 2018 and 2.233 billion yuan from January to September 2019. In the past four years, Changan PSA has lost more than 5.8 billion yuan.

In addition, the data show that Shenzhen Qianhai Ruizhi Investment Co., Ltd. is 100% controlled by Baoneng Automobile Co., Ltd., and the actual controller is Yao Zhenhua. It means that Baoneng will take over Changan PSA.

So, will domestic DS brands and models continue to operate? Wang Chao, director of corporate communications for China and Southeast Asia of PSA Group, revealed that after the change in the share structure of Changan PSA, the DS brand plans to continue to produce DS cars in its Shenzhen factory.

As for how to operate, the PSA Group has not disclosed or adopted the cooperation mode of contract production. Wang Chao also expressed the hope that all staff of Changan PSA will continue to serve the company after the future new shareholders take over the company, and PSA will choose the right time to disclose the new strategy for the development of the DS brand in China.

The DS brand earlier planned that "electrification will be the strategic core of DS in the future." According to the plan, DS will introduce new energy vehicles such as DS 7 CROSSBACK E-TENSE four-wheel drive version and DS 3 CROSSBACK E-TENSE to the Chinese market within 2020.

Today, the DS brand in China does not seem to give consumers too much good news, but leaves a piece of sigh. The new flagship car DS 9 is listed in China, is there any hope for the DS brand?

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