Latest news with #ThierryMétroz
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
DS should consider its past while shaping its future
If you thought that DS was optimistic in believing it was a rival to premium brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, I wonder what you made of the news that it would in future like to become 'the Louis Vuitton of the automotive industry', rubbing shoulders with Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Let's take it seriously for a moment. DS design director Thierry Métroz acknowledges that this is a 'dream', that it could take the brand another 10 years to achieve (on top of the 10 for which it has existed in its present form) and that it ultimately might never get there. I'll be amazed if it does – and it won't do so by taking existing Stellantis platforms and tweaking them a bit, no matter how much the interiors, like that of the new N°8 crossover, are 'more like Bentley than our German competitors' and regardless of how many key parts are changed. Pushing back windscreens and lowering rooflines won't be particularly persuasive. True luxury is also territory never before occupied by a DS – not even one of the most striking cars in existence, the original Citroën DS19 of 1955. That's pretty old history, it's true, but if they thought it didn't matter, they wouldn't have reused the DS name in the first place. When new, the DS19 cost £150 more than other Citroën models, at over £1400. That turned out to be too expensive for many buyers in its home market, yet it wasn't even near luxury pricing. The Bentley Continental of the day cost £3295 and the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud £3395, off the peg. By the time they had been to a coachbuilder, they could cost much more. The DS19 was never in that sphere. It was advertised as 'one of the world's most advanced cars' at the same time as a Rolls-Royce was being marketed as 'the best car in the world'. Could a modern DS be one of the world's most advanced cars? Perhaps, but even if DS were, say, the first brand within the Stellantis group to be given the newest battery or motor technology, it would have to offer a tremendous advantage, of the sort that's harder to come by today, to cut through. Besides, would the average car buyer even know, remember or care that the original DS was about new technology? What they would do is remember the way it looked. It's a unique, beautiful and in some ways still futuristic shape 70 years on. You don't have to be a car nerd to know and appreciate the design. It strikes me as odd, then, for Métroz to bang on about interior materials or 'an attractive design with a lot of character' as DS makes a car that, while making a couple of tiny nods to the original, doesn't have overtly identifiable cues, stance or lines, nor its impossible elegance. The N°8 doesn't look to me like a 21st-century DS19. You might disagree. But if I'd been shown it without badges and asked who it was made by, I'd have answered: 'Haven't a clue, mate.' To avoid retro cues is clearly deliberate. As Citroën design chief Pierre Leclercq said last week about the brand potentially reprising the 2CV: 'The things you remember from Citroën is not especially that you want to redo the shape of the vehicles that have been good.' That's laudable enough, because car designers like to design new things. But are new things what customers want to buy? Keeping shapes but changing philosophy seems a safer bet. Take the Land Rover Defender, Fiat 500 and Mini: models that spent time out of production and don't do the same things they started out doing but are easily identifiable as modern iterations of decades-old designs. Entering this arena, too, is the Renault 5. It won a couple of big awards recently, but what will please Renault most is that nearly 10,000 examples left French showrooms last month. Perhaps I'm exposing the reason why I don't run a car company. But if I intended to restart the DS brand and wanted to push it as far upmarket as I could, I think the first thing I'd do is actually make a new DS. ]]>
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
New DS No8 tops out at £63,290 with 370bhp and 426 miles
DS No8 launches brand's new design language and naming strategy The DS No8, the French premium brand's new flagship, has gone on sale in the UK from £50,790, topping out at a lofty £63,290. The rakish Tesla Model Y rival signals the start of a new era for DS in which it will pursue a fresh approach to how it designs, engineers and markets its cars. Opening in Pallas trim with a single 256bhp front-mounted motor, the No8 offers 355 miles of range from its 74kWh battery. This entry-level model comes equipped with a 16in infotainment touchscreen, heated seats, dual-zone climate control and a head-up display. Add the larger 97kWh battery pack for an extra £3900 and range increases to 466 miles and power to 276bhp. Move up to Etoile trim and the price is £54,790. This model is distinguished by its illuminated front grille and adds a digital rear mirror, LED lights and an upgraded cruise control system. Etoile pricing rises to £59,290 with the bigger battery added. For those after an all-wheel-drive powertrain, this can only be paired with the bigger battery and Etoile trim. It adds a second motor to the rear axle to increase power to 370bhp but cut range to 426 miles. This top-rung configuration comes in at £63,290. First deliveries of all models are scheduled to begin in July. Positioned as a high-riding fastback in the mould of the Peugeot 408 and e-3008, the new flagship arrives at an important time for struggling DS. The French firm is looking to rebuild sales after a 25% drop to 35,000 units in Europe during 2024 – and to hit crucial profitability targets by 2031 or risk being axed by parent Stellantis. While STLA-based cars from sibling brands Peugeot and Vauxhall have been launched with electric and combustion options, the No8 will be EV-only, in line with the French brand's plan to phase out ICE power for its next-gen line-up. Inspired by the Aero Sport Lounge concept from 2020, albeit significantly toned down for production, the No8 is the first model to adopt DS's new naming strategy, which is similar to that of French fashion house Chanel, which sells the No 5 and No 19 perfumes. This naming convention will be employed for future DS models such as the successor to the DS 3 as part of a complete naming rebrand. The No8 is underpinned by the STLA Medium platform, which has been reworked in a bid to meet the car's target of class-leading aerodynamic performance. 'In the past, we did a nice design and after [worked out] how to make this design efficient, but on this car it was a different process: we started with aero,' design chief Thierry Métroz told Autocar. 'From the beginning, when we sketched the car, we discussed with the aerodynamics people – 'if you put the edge at this place, it's better for aerodynamics; you don't need to have this' – and we really designed the car and the spec around the aerodynamics,' he said. To that end, the No8 employs several wind-cheating design devices. The most prominent of those is its rakish roofline, which is 6cm lower than that on the Peugeot 3008. The result is a drag coefficient of 0.24 – better than the 0.26 of rival Polestar 4 and just slightly behind the Tesla Model Y's benchmark 0.23. So although the longest-legged version of the No8 uses the same 97.2kWh (usable capacity) battery as the e-3008 Long Range, it can travel 31 miles farther per charge: DS claims a total of 466 miles. The pursuit of range is also evident in the cabin. DS has fitted the seats with a neck-warmer system of the kind typically reserved for cabriolets because it is claimed to be a more efficient way of warming the body than a conventional heater while using 5-10% less energy. Moreover, heated seats will be included as standard because they are also more efficient than heating the entire interior. As with its radical exterior, the rest of the No8's interior represents a dramatic departure from the brand's existing models. Most notably, it uses a novel four-spoke steering wheel, while the cabin is clad in monolithic, geometric panels. In the pursuit of a more minimalist look, designers have also removed traditional buttons from the dashboard and placed most of the car's controls within the centrally mounted 16in infotainment screen. The No8 will be offered with a choice of three powertrains and two batteries. The entry-level car gets a single front-mounted motor that puts out up to 256bhp and 254lb ft. It's paired with a 74kWh battery, giving a range of 355 miles and a 0-62mph time of 7.7sec. The middle-rung Long Range car also has a single motor, which delivers up to 276bhp, but gains the 97.2kWh battery. Supplied by France-based Automotive Cells Company, it's composed of 12 modules that each weigh 34.45kg and gives the headline range figure of 466 miles. The extra mass slows the 0-62mph to 7.8sec, though. The range-topper uses the same battery but adds a second motor on the rear axle, boosting combined power to 370bhp. This cuts its 0-62mph sprint to 5.4sec but also compromises efficiency, reducing its range to 426 miles. Given DS's push for efficiency, all three powertrains have been programmed to reduce power outputs when charge levels are low. The entry-level car drops to 227bhp, Long Range to 242bhp and the top-rung car to 345bhp. ]]>
