The PSA Group’s DS luxury brand is being put on-hold in Australia for at least 12 months while the new importation arrangements for Peugeot Citroen vehicles in Australia are bedded in.
Inchcape Australia, best known as the distributor of Subaru vehicles here, took local control of the French brands from Sime Darby on June 1.
While it’s a stand-alone brand internationally, DS is a sub-brand of Citroen in Australia and only 48 examples have been sold so far in 2017.
“We have had preliminary discussions on DS,” Inchcape CEO Nick Senior confirmed at this week’s launch of the Peugeot 3008 medium SUV.
“On the basis of being able to walk before we run have said we will revisit DS mid-next year.
“So we will sit down at that time and have a discussion with the factory about DS. I won’t predict the outcome of that, but we will have a discussion about it.”
That timing would coincide with the potential availability of the all-new DS 7 Crossback SUV (pictured), which is now available in Europe.
But Senior said the DS 7 would not play a role in the timing of the discussions.
“It’s predicated on ‘let’s get 12 months under our belt with this and show some credentials before sitting down at the table’.”
Australian supply of the DS line-up, comprising the slow-selling DS 3 hatchback and DS 4 and DS 5 crossovers models, has all but been emptied from Citroen showrooms, Senior confirmed.
“We could probably get you in one next week, just leave your Mastercard,” he joked.
Australians have never had access to the brand’s facelifted DS 3, which was released last year in Europe and is available there in 155kW/300Nm DS 3 Performance hot hatch form.