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DS Automobiles is a French luxury vehicle marque introduced in 2009 as a sub-marque of Citroën before becoming a standalone brand in 2015 (2012 in China). In May 2018, DS announced that it will launch only electric four-wheel drive and hybrid vehicles starting in 2025.
DS can be an abbreviation of Different Spirit or Distinctive Series (although it also refers to the Citroën DS designed by Flaminio Bertoni and André Lefèbvre). The name is also a play on words, as in French it is pronounced like the word déesse, meaning "goddess".
The PSA Group originally consisted of three automobile brands, Peugeot, Citroën, and the soon dropped Talbot, but none was considered a "premium" brand. Since 1976, PSA has experimented with differentiating the brands by price level, similar to Chevrolet/Buick or Volkswagen/Audi, but neither brand had the strength to justify premium price
The DS cars' rear badge is a new logo rather than the Citroën double chevron, and all have different styling compared to their equivalent Citroën car. This logo has been designed by Korean designer Jin Joo. Citroën produced several concept sports cars, with the fully working Citroën Survolt being badged as a DS. A 2014 concept car, the DS Divine, develops the Survolt prototype as the future sport coupé of the DS range.
In China, DS vehicles have been sold in separate dealerships since 2014. DS models for sale in China were produced by the Changan PSA joint venture based in Shenzhen until May 2020, when the factory was acquired by the Baoneng Group. The DS 5LS and DS 6WR are only sold in China. With the facelift of the DS5 in 2015, the DS brand was also separated from the Citroën brand in Europe, and standalone DS dealerships are planned worldwide
