The new DS 8 will be launched next year as a segment-straddling luxury flagship charged with reinvigorating the French premium brand and kickstarting its electric era.
The high-riding fastback will spearhead a totally overhauled line-up for DS, which is working to electrify each of its cars and increase its share of the market, 10 years on from its foundation as a stand-alone brand.
The new range-topper has been conceived as a replacement for today’s DS 9 saloon and will arrive at a crucial moment for the marque, which is still struggling to get a foothold in the European market.
To the end of August, sales were down 33% year on year across the region, to 26,173 cars, and fewer than 800 of those were sold in the UK.
The flagship DS 9 – based on the Peugeot 508, which is due to be pulled from sale – sold just 234 units in Europe until August this year, and only three in the UK.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has been vocal in his backing of each of the company’s 14 brands – most notably Maserati, which has been under intense scrutiny for its lacklustre financial performance.
The company is also standing by its pledge made in 2021 to give each marque 10 years of financial support before making any decisions on its future within the group.
That gives DS seven years to become more competitive in the upper mainstream segment, during which time it will also undertake a complete revamp of its product range in line with an ambition to go all-electric from 2027.
The radical new DS 8 is set to serve as a statement of intent for this new era. It helps to establish bold new design practices while introducing new powertrains and taking the brand into a new segment, in which it will compete with the likes of the Genesis GV60 and Audi Q6 E-tron.
The DS 8 will be built at Stellantis’s factory in Melfi, Italy, alongside a similarly shaped successor to the Vauxhall Insignia and Lancia’s new Gamma crossover.
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I know Tavares has said that he will keep brands as long as they remain profitable but surely mahy are canabalising sales of their other brands and creating a monolithic management structures. The multitude of models may share platforms but each must still cost € millions to develop. If Stellantis want their brands to be associated with a national identity wouid there be anything wrong with following the Opel/Vauxhall example by perhaps pairing Fiat with Citroen and Lancia with DS? Have Stellantis huge problems in the US been caused by too much product investment going into Europe and taking the Jeep/Ram truck brand and profit generator for granted? It does appear the chickens are coming home to roost by Stellantis neglecting their cash cows.
Fascinating. Any chance they could make that SM reboot with the steering and suspension the Activa 2 prototype had?
Looking forward to these "bold new design practices", maybe that will do something for the brand's fortunes. Don't see anything bold in the Autocar rendering though.