The SM and DS left Citroën’s legitimate heritage to join the DS Automobiles brand, created ten years ago in 2014. The ‘DS line’ in the Citroën range was a godsend for the network, which was able to sell better-equipped Citroëns with a premium image and a more consistent margin. Since 2014, DS Automobiles has transformed itself into a truly premium brand, adept at ‘French know-how’, which it consistently defends by using craftsmanship that only needs to be exposed to the light in order to exist. Well done in that respect.
Unfortunately, DS Automobiles’ strategy was partly based on a Chinese launch, which never took place. The DS9, produced there, was the first blow to this ‘made in France’ concept, which did not say so but wanted to suggest it… The DS9 produced in China will not be replaced as it stands. It will be replaced by the D85 crossover project, which is taking a long time to reach the market, even though the car – to be produced in Italy – is ready. Being part of a family of 14 children at Stellantis means making concessions: it’s your turn!
Finding its place in the calendar is not easy, and DS Automobiles seems to be too far down the queue. In terms of strategy, we can point to the brand’s lack of activity over the past year, apart from supporting its four-model range with special series. Even the 100% electric DS4 E-Tense has yet to be unveiled. And it’s mid-September… As a result, the network has to live with its DS3 below (born in 2018), DS4 (born in 2021), DS7 (born in 2017 and restyled in 2022) and DS9 stock. In short, it’s sticking its tongue out and sales from January to August this year fell by 25%, with 12,713 cars sold in eight months (CCFA sources). So there you have it, not a pretty picture.
But behind the figures, there are the men and women who make up the DS team, who work with the storm blowing in their faces, but who firmly believe in the success of a brand with great potential. Provided we speed up the process of putting the product offensive in place. Carlos Tavares spoke of this offensive last July, when he said that ‘ 20 new Stellantis products will be launched this year “, and he concluded that the 14% fall in Group sales in the first half of the year (compared with 2023) could potentially be countered by this product offensive, ” if we manage to implement it well ’ . The famous queue.
Among the men and women we’re talking about, we’ll be looking at the design department led by Thierry Métroz. In 2014, as soon as the brand was born, Jean-Pierre Ploué, the boss of the brands’ design directors, logically swapped him from the Citroën design department to the DS Automobiles design department. Since then, Thierry Métroz has put together a solid team of talented designers, which has produced the splendid DS4 above, the foundation of a new range. The next DS, the D85 (a 100% electric crossover based on the platform of the recent Peugeot 3008) is ready and should finally hit the screens by December. Hopefully before… So, when it comes to timing, the design team can’t be blamed for being slow on the uptake.
And while we’re on the subject of men and women, in other words, the soul of the brand, we can’t ignore the arrival of a new boss for the brand in June 2023: Olivier François, below, who will also be in charge of the Fiat brand. Ironically, he began his career with… Citroën.
On his arrival at DS Automobiles, Olivier François has somewhat upset the established order. A concept car planned for 2024 has been carefully tucked away behind the scenes, and the new boss is adamant that ‘ there is a real place in the market for a premium brand in France’. And when it comes to designing them, Olivier François would not be against injecting a small dose of retro-design into the lines of future DSs, considering that this would even be an asset. Speaking to Auto Infos Distribution on 30 May, he was quick to say that ‘ we need to rediscover the soul and spirit of what made the DS what it was’.
This is the opposite of the strategy supported by the design team. Let’s not forget the 50th anniversary of the SM, in 2020. Shortly before that date, LIGNES/auto asked Thierry Métroz (above) if there was an SM concept car in the pipeline. His answer was very clear: ‘ I formally forbid myself – and the brand with me – to design and conceive revival concept cars. As long as I’m alive (the guys in the team laugh when I say this in the studio), we won’t be doing any revival concept cars, even though everyone is waiting for them. I know you’re all waiting for a concept car inspired by the original 1955 DS or the 1970 SM…’. Well then…
The DS Design Director continued: ‘ We have many other stories to tell. We’re building a brand, and that’s no mean feat! Our objectives are to focus on innovation, technology and the avant-garde. Our mission is to imagine the future, to break new stylistic ground. It’s very exciting and time-consuming. Another story of a stopwatch that goes round and round. Ferdinand Piëch, who instigated the positioning of the Audi brand in the world of premium brands, took 30 years to achieve this. And in a completely different context to the troubled automotive world of today. So what are you thinking?
So there are times when you have to eat your hat (it’s happened to all of us at one time or another, hasn’t it?) and design may have to nibble away at its top hat. But here at LIGNES/auto, we’re leaning more towards the Métroz team’s more complex and ambitious strategy of not trying to reinvent yesterday’s icons. Not to produce an over-simplistic DS or SM, inspired by their lines rather than merely suggesting them. We have just seen the Renault 17 by designer Ora Ïto. Now here’s the SM reviewed by DS Automobiles.
You may also be thinking of the 2018 Peugeot e-Legend concept car, above. Gilles Vidal, Peugeot’s design boss at the time (now head of design at Renault), explained that ‘ this is not a revival, but a message that tends to prove that the autonomous electric car of tomorrow is not necessarily a cold object…’ Thierry Métroz explained that ‘ he’s right. Personally, I don’t think that this exercise is completely retro-design, but it’s a direction that we won’t be going down, even if you’ll see in our next series of creations that there will be nods to the DS and the SM. But that’s as far as we’re going to go. ’
This revisited SM concept is more than just a collection of winks. It is directly inspired by the original 1970 coupé. Today, the DS Design Director explains that this concept ‘ is not just an evocation of the SM. We have respected the spirit and details of the original design. We have transcribed and reinterpreted the SM. But as it is not our habit to separate ourselves from our other work, we have integrated many details of what the DS Automobiles models and our future projects are all about’.
Luc Quirin, interior designer for DS Automobiles, explains that ‘ the design of the top of the dashboard was a strong signature with an assumed transversality. We have retained this distinctive approach by incorporating the fruit of our research. The display is based on projection, without a screen. The environment is more immersive while being less restrictive for the driver and occupants.
Vincent Lobry, head of ‘colours, materials and finishes’ design at DS Automobiles, explains that ‘ the laser-engraved leather work on the door panels reveals motifs inspired by the decorative arts. This trend was born in the same years as the concours d’élégance. The dot-pearl decorations refer to current models.
This 2024 SM will undoubtedly appeal to the widest possible audience, because the team in charge of it is, we repeat, solid and is aiming for the long and very long term for the offering of a brand that Stellantis should no doubt support a little more. This SM seems to be the icing on the DS cake. But there has to be a cake… Because since 2021, more than three years ago, no new DS model has appeared in the range. The emergency is called the D85, and it’s not journalists who are waiting for it the most, but the network…
MORE HERE : https://www.dsdesignstudio.paris/fr/article/sm-tribute/
