AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/24 Report--

According to the Federation of passengers, the cumulative retail volume of the luxury market in 2020 was 2.5291 million vehicles, an increase of 14.7% over the same period last year.

The luxury car market continues to grow rapidly, and the sales of many brands have risen sharply and ushered in historical highs, which has become a major breakthrough in the automobile market this year. However, China's luxury car market also presents different development trends. The first-tier luxury brands composed of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are mature and stable, while the second-tier luxury brands composed of Cadillac, Lexus and Volvo are highly competitive, while third-tier luxury brands such as Infiniti, Acura and DS are facing a huge survival crisis, especially the DS brand, whose cumulative annual sales are only 43700 vehicles. Down 29.5% from the same period last year.

DS is a luxury brand owned by Peugeot-Citroen (PSA). In 1955, DS made its debut at the Paris Motor Show. Its design and technological innovation caused a sensation and played an important role in the history of automobile development.

In 2011, PSA Group and Changan Automobile Group established Changan Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co., Ltd. In 2012, the DS brand officially entered China, and the first domestic model, DS5, was officially launched in September 2013. In July 2015, DS5LS officially went public. In September 2015, the new DS5 and DS6 were officially launched. DS4S went on sale at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2016. In April 2018, DS7 went on sale at the Beijing Auto Show. In August 2020, DS9 made its debut in China.

The development of the DS brand in China seems to be going well, but at the end of 2019, Changan Peugeot Citroen Motor Co., Ltd. was sold by PSA Group and Changan Automobile Group, which listed their 50% stake to Shenzhen Baoneng, and the joint venture was eventually dissolved after eight years of establishment.

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.

The cumulative sales of the DS brand in China in 2019 was 2110, down 46.6 per cent from the same period last year. Sales in 2020 were 424, down another 79.90% from 2019.

DS brand sales are so low, will it withdraw from the Chinese market? The DS brand said at a press conference in July 2020 that it would not withdraw from China and would continue to dig deep into the Chinese market.

In August 2020, DS 9, a new domestic car of DS brand, was officially released and pre-sold. As a flagship model of DS brand in recent years, DS 9 will be manufactured entirely in China and supplied all over the world. As the DS brand was acquired by Baoneng Automobile, its vehicle tail mark changed from "Changan Aisi" to "Baoneng Automobile". As the luxury brand model of PSA Group, it is marked with "Baoneng Automobile" in the rear of the car, and its brand must be greatly reduced whether it is sold abroad or at home.

In fact, the DS brand launched a lot of products in China, from 2012 officially announced to launch a total of seven models in China to 2020, but none of them became popular. Facts have proved that what DS brand lacks is not a lot of products, but products that are not competitive enough, and the newly launched DS9 is obviously very difficult to become a popular model of DS brand. Well, from the current point of view, although the DS brand has repeatedly stressed that it will not withdraw from China, it is also very difficult for it to have a larger space for development, and it will still face tremendous pressure of survival in the future.

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