Opinion: Is DS finally making in-roads?

Launching a premium brand was always going to be a slow burn, not least when the only model for which it was initially known was a Citroën-badged supermini – the DS 3 of old.

Last year, DS boss Béatrice Foucher even admitted that she wasn’t happy with DS’s progress in the UK.

But things appear to be looking up. DS has doubled its sales year to date in the UK. Yes, that still means only 2500 units, but it’s all relative.

DS is inevitably popular in France, given the French’s loyalty to its own, but the other two unexpected places DS is thriving are Turkey and Argentina. In the latter, it even outsells Audi, which surely must have been the dream for Carlos Tavares, the boss of DS owner Stellantis, when he committed to the luxury brand.

Talking at the Paris motor show, where DS is showing its facelifted DS 3, formerly the DS 3 Crossback, Foucher said of the UK: “We started with [very few sales] in the UK, but now we're gaining market share, getting credibility. To me, the UK is the most difficult market for premium, even more so than Germany. So the progress we’ve made this year is a good one.”

Globally, Foucher added that DS has grown its market share by 25% year to date compared with 2021. It’s still tiny, but that’s pretty impressive in this current climate. How? Well, however small its volume, DS is highly profitable for Stellantis so, as Foucher puts it, has been largely “protected” by its owner from the biggest hits around supply issues.

“We would like to produce more cars, obviously, but we have been quite protected. We have to take the benefit of this period of time when we know that some premium brands have some big shortages. We want to gain market share by being able to promise delivery of the car within three to six months, which isn't very short but must be better than some. So we're capitalising on that.”

DS inevitably has a long way to go. Stellantis never talks about volume or market share goals, so it’s hard to pin down what success is, but the fact that it’s “highly profitable,” as Foucher says, and significantly growing, even if from a low level, suggests that we should take DS more seriously than ever before.