DS boss Xavier Peugeot has hinted {that a} alternative for the model’s smallest mannequin, the 3, is on the horizon – however urged that it will not be simply pigeonholed into a conventional section.
The high-riding DS 3 supermini is up for renewal, having been launched in 2018 because the second mannequin from the then newly unbiased DS marque.
Sharing its platform and powertrain line-up with the equally sized Vauxhall Mokka, Jeep Avenger and Peugeot 2008, the DS 3 has performed an important position in serving to Stellantis’s French premium marque to determine a foothold within the European market – notably within the UK, the place it has been by far the model’s best-seller.
Xavier Peugeot urged the model plans to keep up a small automobile providing, however hinted that – like the brand new DS N°8 saloon-SUV – a successor to the three could be prone to straddle conventional segments in a bid to each stand out in a crowded section and attraction to completely different demographics.
“There’s room for a premium automobile within the small, medium or massive segments, however I believe we also needs to most likely invent some new segments, if we will,” he mentioned. “There’s room within the varied segments for a premium participant.”
He stopped wanting giving any concrete particulars of DS’s plans for a brand new entry mannequin, however DS product director Audrey Amar mentioned Xavier Peugeot is all the time asking her to “invent a brand new idea” for upcoming automobiles and urged that future fashions will comply with the N°8 in straddling varied market segments.
She mentioned: “While you take a look at earlier segments, it was very clear that you just had B-hatch, B-SUV, C-hatch, C-SUV… Now it isn’t that apparent any extra.”
Amar added that the N°4, which occupies an analogous footprint to the likes of its Audi A3 and BMW 1 Sequence rivals however adopts extra of an SUV-inspired silhouette, is “the start of this new segmentation”.
Equally, the brand new N°8 is referred to internally as “a D-Cross”, referencing its conception as a D-segment ‘crossover’ that is not simply described as both a saloon or an SUV.
“We’re mixing the completely different codes of the completely different segments to create new ideas,” mentioned Amar.
The following-generation DS 3 – set to be renamed N°3 underneath the model’s new naming technique – would little question comply with the Vauxhall Corsa and Peugeot 208 in swapping from the present CMP platform onto Stellantis’s new STLA Small structure.
That platform is designed primarily for electrical automobiles and certainly Vauxhall has mentioned the following Corsa can be electrical solely – however the present automobile is prone to stay on sale in an effort to preserve a combustion providing within the price-focused small automobile section.
DS may comply with swimsuit, introducing a new-generation, electric-only ‘N°3’ on STLA Small, whereas additionally closely overhauling the present mannequin consistent with its new design language and holding each automobiles on sale concurrently.
The model has given no indication of a possible launch date and check prototypes have but to look on public roads, however with the Corsa and 208 each due on sale subsequent 12 months and the present 3 now having been on sale for seven years, first particulars could possibly be anticipated within the coming months.
