Posts Tagged "citroen"

The DS Numero 9 captured much of the pre-Beijing press coverage thanks to the ‘leak’ of its pre-show Parisian photo shoot and Laurent Nivalle’s seductive video. It’s hitting the mark with the public and press who’ve seen it here in Beijing. You can read Guy Bird’s viewpoint here if you want to know more.

But it’s worth noting the context it sits in, the highly-impressive DS stand, which stands apart from the Citroën stand in a separate show hall altogether. At dinner last night with senior members of the Citroën design team I learned much more about the plans for the DS brand. Four cars in to DS and many have started to judge Citroën’s upmarket sub-brand as having a level of success, yet the team know that for it to truly succeed and feel authentically premium it has numerous challenges. The first is to offer something authentically French – an idea of premium that’s totally different to what the Germans offer. Then there’s the need to establish a series of themes and design cues that are recognizably DS and not Citroën. Part and parcel of that is a consistent message given out not just by the cars themselves, but through all methods of marketing and communication.

Thierry Metroz told us that to this end, the design team are working very closely with Citroën’s marketing and communications teams. So for the Beijing show, the DS stand was developed primarily by design. The striking sculpture that hangs over the DS Number 9 Concept was commissioned by them too. And they’ve made sure the brand is perceived to be playing to national strengths of high-fashion design and artisan creativity, by featuring an atelier DS in one corner of the stand, with two craftspeople hand-stitching and trimming leather throughout the show.

Carlo Bonzanigo,  head of Advanced Design and who led the DS Numero 9 project, also stressed the importance of the DS motif. This diamond-shaped graphics, which contains both the D and the S relates to the DS logo itself. It is being spread as a graphic around the various cars and in Beijing is employed heavily in the design of the stand. Most apparent is the beautiful wall of glass crystal diamonds that hangs as a backdrop to the DS3. It’s carried through into a range of luggage and accessories we’re currently coveting more than the cars.

Given that we now understand Citroën’s plans to separate the DS brand from Citroën altogether – dropping the double Chevron altogether from the cars in the future – it’s hardly a surprise they’re working so hard to develop and control this image. As a lesson in how to create yourself a premium brand, it’s highly impressive and more importantly it’s clearly working – the Chinese seem to absolutely love it.

by Joe Simpson

The infancy of the Chinese car industry dictates that the general public has zero perception of what brands – some of which have been around for ten times longer than this country’s entire mass car market – have achieved.

When westerners think of MG or DS, images of historic, evokative cars appear, yet here they are simply two letters. Even Ferrari has none of its mystique here. And so to contextualise brands and their new products, many brands are educating visitors of their past glories. While Ferrari, Lotus and MG use video montage to create an impression of their histories, Citroen’s solution is far more appealing – simply park a gorgeous DS 23 Pallas on the stand.

By Owen Ready

Citroen announced its intention to launch three new DS models due for production at Beijing: an SUV, C-segment compact sedan and an as yet unknown large limousine-style car to sit above the DS5.

In the absence of those production vehicles, it whet showgoers’ appetites with the Numero 9 concept. According to head of advanced design Carlo Bonzanigo, the shooting brake-style large hatch with suicide doors “announces the new face of DS” with its 3D grille fusing into full LED headlamps. The car is large and long at 4930mm, but Bonzanigo says the Numero 9 is actually smaller than the current C6, only looking longer due to its low roofline.

Not based on any existing platform, he told CDN that it is “a true concept and design study” rather than a pre-production marketing exercise, although he did concede that his team had already investigated how a feasible production version could be made by adjusting the proportions suitably. Bonzanigo also said the car’s simple and elegant lines reflected Citroen’s desire “to separate the aesthetic universes of the two brands,” steering the mother brand Citroen more towards simple shapes and classic lines and to tone down the DS line too, making it “less overwrought by using warmer chrome finishes for example”. It’s a shame there’s no proper interior, but that aside, another accomplished Citroen concept.

By Guy Bird