DS has hinted at introducing performance-focused models in a bid to ramp up its premium credentials.
Despite racing in Formula E for more than a decade and creating some racy concept cars, DS has yet to develop a fully fledged performance model.
However, speaking at the recent London ePrix, new CEO Xavier Peugeot told Autocar he was thinking about bringing the idea to fruition.
“There is no closed debate, so why not?” he said. “It might be consistent for us to think about even more powerful versions of our models, of our engines, that would align with our commitment in Formula E.”
“I believe today that being committed to racing cars is important for DS. It brings dynamism, it brings energy, it brings the capacity to stimulate road cars, capacity to stimulate engineers, capacity to get the benefit of the evolutionary technology in our everyday cars and therefore to have real competitive advantages.”
The company has previously hinted at the potential for a dedicated performance car with its 805bhp E-Tense concept in 2022.
Speaking more broadly, he said that another advantage of DS being in Formula E is that the series “continues to fascinate younger audiences” and so opens the brand up to a younger demographic.
“It’s coherent with our electric messages,” he added. “There are lots of benefits. To me, the keyword is ‘acceleration’. It accelerates everything.”
Peugeot acknowledged that DS’s aim for youth could be supported by the addition of a performance flagship in the future.
DS, now 11 years old, had been light on new products until earlier this year, when the new No8 flagship was launched and the DS 4 was heavily updated (and renamed No4).
No sales volume targets have been set for the No8, said Peugeot, arguing that volumes weren’t the only metric for success.
“Our positioning is a premium one,” said Peugeot. “The German brands have been established for years, for decades, even in the case of BMW, Audi and Mercedes. But we also see that there are new players coming up. We see Polestar, we see this kind of new brand, which just reinforces the fact that premium in Europe is a key lever.
“The premium market is a quarter of the sales volumes [in the European market] but it makes up 40% of the profits. It’s relevant for a group like ours [Stellantis] to have a premium brand like DS.”
