The new DS 8 will try its luck in Europe after its launch in 2018

Several French motoring media reported this spring on the future addition of a luxury saloon to the DS range. Its launch was confirmed this week by an internal source from the PSA group’s Peugeot Citroën division to Automotive News. Like the French publications, the website says this model is provisionally known within the brand by the name DS 8.

Its commercial life will begin in China, its most important market, and later, as this source pointed out, we will see it in Europe. The earliest launch dates under consideration have been scheduled for 2018. This DS will thus take the place left by the Citroën C6 after its production ended in 2012.

The car will use the modular EMP2 architecture of the consortium that already underpins products such as the Citroën C4 Picasso or the Peugeot 308. In size it will compete in the E segment, aiming directly at premium rivals such as the Audi A6, the BMW 5 Series and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

Automotive News states that its exterior design will combine features inspired by the original DS and various prototypes presented in recent years, such as the Numéro 9 from Beijing 2012 -which we also saw in Paris that same year– and the Divine DS, a prototype of the upcoming DS 4, which PSA exhibited in the French capital in 2014.

The three years until we see the DS 8 will feel rather long for PSA’s sub-brand. Its line-up urgently needs a renewal based not only on another generation of the DS 4, but on more models that will support its stage as an independent entity from Citroën. So far in 2015, its sales have fallen 20% worldwide; Europe has been hit the hardest, with a drop of 24% to 31,700 units –figures from the group itself-.

Via | Automotive News