“It’s very comfortable this, isn’t it?” says DS Automobiles design director Thierry Métroz as we take a pew in one of the Citroën DS show cars on the enormous DS Automobiles stand at Rétromobile 2025.
Given the boardroom shuffles in the fallout from Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares’ departure just before Christmas, all of the conglomerate’s 14 divisions will be hoping for the kind of smoother travelling that defined DS Automobiles’ vehicular inspiration. Immediately prior to Rétromobile, Xavier Peugeot was installed as DS Automobiles’ CEO, and he would address the company troops surrounded by the cars that set the template for the brand, plus its new model – the all-electric DS N°8, a swoopy luxury coupé/SUV (pictured below) that the brand defines as “a forecast for the future and a manifesto of the French Art of Travel”.
For Thierry, he’s relishing the challenges. “It’s always exciting when you change to a new CEO, because it’s a new chapter,” he says.
Nevertheless, the brand’s design philosophy will remain fixed on three pillars. “The first one is proportion – we put a lot of work into having very elegant proportions, and a very well balanced car – that’s what we’ve done with DS N°8, our new baby. We spent a whole year talking about proportion, before doing the first sketches and styling – we discussed with the engineering team how to have perfect proportion,” he explains. “We looked at how to lower the bonnet and roof, and how to have good positions for the wheels and wheelbase.”
Expressive exterior design is second key pillar, he goes on. “Identity is very important, especially at the front and the rear. At the front, because it’s the face of the car, and at the rear – well, when you’re in traffic for hours, what do you see?”
The third pillar is all about the interior ambience. “We work a lot on the interior for a feeling of French luxury – on the N°8 we used a light gun to develop specific colours for the finishes, and test the quality of the leather – all the metallic finishes have an engraving on the surface.”
With 14 brands in the Stellantis empire, there’s a lot of in-house competition. In a world where Alfa Romeo, Abarth, Lancia and even Maserati could cross into each others’ paths, the broader history of Lancia in the luxury segment could also be seen as being within DS Automobiles orbit – that of style and luxury. Thierry sees the lines as clearly divided: “We have a very clear vision about the brand positioning between Alfa Romeo, Lancia and DS,” he says.
“For Alfa Romeo, it’s super-clear – it’s red. Sporty, very dynamic driving, the link to the past and ‘sportivo’ and ‘bella machina’. For Lancia, it’s still under construction – it’s sporty, but also elegant. It [Lancia] is doing a lot of references to the Stratos, and also the Delta, iconic cars for the marque – Lancia is much more GT-like, more gentleman driver, sporty and elegant with a taste of Italian design.”
For DS, the outlook is far clearer – distinctly French elegance. “Our dream is to be the Louis Vuitton of the automobile industry,” Thierry says. “We are always focused on the avant garde, the artistic dimension is very important because these cars [Thierry points to our impromptu Citroën DS interview booth] are really sculpture, and we keep this structural, artistic taste as the inspiration for French luxury.”
Thierry also points to Paris as being the epicentre for that distinct French automotive style. “The DS brand was born in Paris, and the Bertone design centre was here – and Citroën’s Quai de Javel factory was inside Paris. We are born in Paris, and we share this link with the likes of Chanel, Vuitton, Dior,” he explains. “It’s a big source of inspiration – elegant, very Parisian.”
So, just how does Thierry define the difference between Italian and French luxury design in more general terms? “Italian design is a little more simple, purer,” he says. “Because French design has a link with the world of fashion, it’s more ornate, more demonstrative.”
The move to electric has long been heralded as offering creative opportunities for designers, although Thierry, whose design passion is the aeronautical influence of Avions-Voisin, is yet to see this being applied.
“In terms of design, it doesn’t have a huge benefit. The main one is about how we can design the front, because we don’t need a grille for the engine. For the N°8 we took the opportunity to create an illuminated front surface with polycarbonate – you have the DS logo in LEDs, and graphic lines; it was an opportunity for us to do something different.” Thierry believes the bigger benefits are currently for customers – greater space thanks to no central tunnel, especially in the rear, and no noise.
Still, he says that the abandoning of the design hierarchy intrinsic to the needs of an ICE drivetrain is some way off. “We are in a period of transition, because we still have ICE cars on the market – we are still working on multi-energy platforms, and the transition is not finished yet,” he explains. “I was never convinced in having a design for ICE cars and one for BEV cars, because we are looking at building a brand – the first thing is the DNA of that brand.
“Take the example of Alfa Romeo and the scudetto – it’s part of the DNA of Alfa, and if the company designs a new car, it needs to keep this because it’s a part of the marque’s history. If Alfa Romeo said ‘it’s a BEV car, we do without it, or have a square’, it wouldn’t make sense. For the DS N°8 it’s an evolution of our design language, an evolution of the codes of the brand.”
Those brand design codes, and in particular of the Citroën DS and SM, are therefore going to play an increasing role in future DS Automobiles cars, especially given Renault’s rapturous response to the R5 EV supermini. DS Automobiles prepared an SM concept for Chantilly in 2024, and as Thierry reveals, there will be a new take on the original DS unveiled later this year: “At the moment we are looking to do the same exercise with the icon, the DS – we know that it’s very powerful to create this heritage.”
“In the past, we [Stellantis design] didn’t want to do this exercise, but the context of the automotive industry was different. Now, we fight a lot with the Chinese – they are doing good design because they hire designers from Stellantis, Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, and they have good technology and advances in battery design. They also have good pricing and quality now. The only thing that they can never buy is the storytelling and history of the brand – they can’t buy the DS.
“That is our strength, it’s very powerful for us and it’s the reason why now is a good time to do a modern version of the DS, and do something with a greater link to our heritage,” Thierry says. Although Xavier Peugeot has been in the job for only a short time, he’s fully behind the idea. “He said ‘I love the idea, I love the strategy – make it earlier.’ It will appear later this year’.”
When the SM ‘resto-prototype’ debuted at Chantilly, there was some discussion that it could enter low-volume production; that’s now not happening because work on developing the new take on the original Citroën DS takes precedence. “While we like to do these concept cars to announce our vision, the real target is mass production for the new DS – many people are waiting for this car, so we would like to offer the opportunity to buy the new DS, but not at £1m,” Thierry says.
He is cheerfully agnostic on the method of propulsion. “It’s not my problem,” he laughs. “I want to do a nice design, protecting the original car’s proportions, a very low car with a sloping-down bonnet – all the DS codes. If we can do that, they can put what they want under the bonnet.”
Now that’s a comfortable approach to take…
The new DS N°8 is available to order now, and first deliveries are due in the second half of 2025. For more information on DS Automobiles, head here.
