AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/19 Report--

With monthly sales of three figures and annual sales of only four figures, the French luxury DS brand has not given up on the Chinese market. Even if it cannot make ends meet, DS still insists on launching new domestic cars. Some netizens said "come on" to DS, but the current situation of the brand makes its public opinion environment very bad, and many netizens think that DS is dying.

In June this year, 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. The new car will use the same infrastructure as the Peugeot 508L, with a longer wheelbase, and is expected to be exhibited at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November.

With the release of the latest batch of new car application information by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the flagship DS has also been officially released. According to the application, the car, named DS 9, is the new flagship car of Changan Peugeot Citroen, which will be put into production at the Shenzhen plant.

DS 9 has the shadow of Peugeot 508L and is slightly larger in size. The front face of the new car is a family headlamp group with a dot matrix front grille, so that it has a high degree of identification. the interior of the headlamp is also a cool design of the DS brand, echoing the taillight group. The roof lines of the DS 9 from the A-pillar to the C-pillar are gradually sinking, making the shape more dynamic.

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.

In terms of power, 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 power of 200hp for the gasoline engine. The fuel version is also expected to use a 1.6T engine, matched with an eight-speed manual gearbox.

DS 7 failed to save the beleaguered DS brand last year. Can DS 9 still succeed? Since it was made in China, DS sales peaked at 27000 in 2014 and 2015, then plummeted to 16000 in 2016, 5800 in 2017 and only 3867 in 2018. From January to July 2019, the cumulative sales of the DS brand reached 1841 vehicles, down 16.1% from the same period last year.

At the brand media communication meeting in the first quarter of this year, Meng Nuo, president of Changan PSA, said: "PSA Group will never give up the Chinese market, the Chinese market is the highest priority for the group, so that DS's luxury brand line can be better implemented."

What kind of measures has DS taken? In March, DS officially released to the market and consumers the brand recovery plan of the DS Trust Program, which includes brand and product enhancement, city marketing plan and customer satisfaction, with the aim of regaining customer trust and enabling dealer partners to build continuous trust in the brand. DS said that on the basis of strengthening brand marketing and strengthening brand confidence, it will further integrate the dealer network and strengthen communication with dealers in order to improve the profitability of dealers.

However, at present, the public opinion environment of the DS brand on the Internet is very bad, and most netizens feel sorry for its current situation.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat