Thursday 28th October 2010

Citroen Metropolis Could Become DS9 Range-Topper

Double-chevron limo heading for production, but European sales uncertain

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Citroen's massive Metropolis luxo-barge concept is headed for production and will become the luxury range-topper for Citroen's new DS sub-brand, most likely badged DS9.

The Metropolis/DS9 - which is the first product of Citroen's Chinese design studio based in Shanghai - was revealed at the Shanghai Expo in May, and a production version would almost certainly be aimed at the lucrative Chinese market, says industry mag Automotive News.

Citroen has a strong presence in China, and Chinese buyers don't have the same hang-ups and perceptions about luxury automotive products as Western buyers. Thus, a 5.3-metre Audi A8 rival could quite easily carry off a Citroen badge.

The DS9 is likely to be built on a modified version of the platform that underpins the Citroen C6 and would almost inevitably be powered by a V6 coupled to an electric motor and a dual-clutch gearbox, at least in its top-end forms.

Whether the DS9 would find its way to European markets, where Citroen luxury cars are hardly big sellers - only a few hundred C6s have found their way onto UK driveways in half a decade on sale - is another question entirely. But it might at least persuade M Sarkozy out of his Vel Satis...

[anonymous-user]

Good looking car!!!

[ZOLLAR]

Quite like that, although the backend looks like the front end of a car..

[Alec]

Love it, might buy one for a fiver in few years once massive French car depreciation has taken over.

Edited by Alec on Thursday 28th October 10:01

[anonymous-user]

Very striking! Makes a change from the German/Jap Stuff!

[Nath88n]

I like that a lot but will a V6 be enough?

[paynter17]

ZOLLAR said:

Quite like that, although the backend looks like the front end of a car..

i never noticed that, but now its all i see.

Edited by paynter17 on Thursday 28th October 10:07

[RicksAlfas]

Looks great!!
Would love a C6, but never feel brave enough....

[deadmau5]

paynter17 said:

ZOLLAR said:

Quite like that, although the backend looks like the front end of a car..

i never noticed that, but now its all i see.

Edited by paynter17 on Thursday 28th October 10:07

Looks like a Dodge Ram

[Streps]

Nice to see the styling of the new range getting away from that gash grill style.
Look's fresh and nice.

[Luca Brasi]

Looks brilliant! Shame the C6 never caught on, really like that thing.

[LuS1fer]

Looks good in a shocking sort of new millenium way. It will never achieve the grace and beauty of the real DS and the SM though.

[bobbylondonuk]

The ride quality is where its all at!

[AndyM31]

Like this car, I can see this taking a chunck out of BMW and Mercedes.

Edited by AndyM31 on Thursday 28th October 10:23

[james_tigerwoods]

I like it - I like any big french car as it's good to know that there's a car company bonkers enough to build it - Probably at their own taxpayers' expense though....

I bet it looks nothing like that when it's built though.

[teen_cerbera]

olly22n said:

I can see one of these tempting me in the classifieds in a few years time....

Doubt it. They will still be releasing "teaser" shots in 2015 if their history is anything to go by...

[Yodafone]

[quote=CITROEN METROPOLIS COULD BECOME DS9 RANGE-TOPPER
]Citroen has a strong presence in China, and Chinese buyers don't have the same hang-ups and perceptions about luxury automotive products as Western buyers. Thus, a 5.3-metre Audi A8 rival could quite easily carry off a Citroen badge.
[/quote]

The Chinese do have hang ups and perception on brands, they really love the designer labels and see Citreon as unreliable.

Allot of them are materialistic and like big labels, and go for BMW, MB just for the badge but not as bad as the people who will go for the boggo version as they also like the cars to be able aswell and don't like showing that they can only afford the base version and normally avoid diesals.

Just look at the UK most Chinese who have a few pennies drive main BMW and MB.

[A Scotsman]

China is currently doing its best to corner the EV and hybrid market by cutting back on the export of the rare earth materials needed to manufacture the high efficiency motors. Their aim is to force Western manufacturers out of business and build everything in China.

[james_tigerwoods]

A Scotsman said:

China is currently doing its best to corner the EV and hybrid market by cutting back on the export of the rare earth materials needed to manufacture the high efficiency motors. Their aim is to force Western manufacturers out of business and build everything in China.

Really?

Are those "rare earth" elements not available anywhere else?

(Genuine question by the way)

[pugwash4x4]

james_tigerwoods said:

A Scotsman said:

China is currently doing its best to corner the EV and hybrid market by cutting back on the export of the rare earth materials needed to manufacture the high efficiency motors. Their aim is to force Western manufacturers out of business and build everything in China.

Really?

Are those "rare earth" elements not available anywhere else?

(Genuine question by the way)

there was a very interesting telegraph piece about rare earth metals a while ago- Australia and the US used to produce about 30% (or something like that- my memory of the figures is not very good)- but they all closed down a couple of decades ago as the stuff coming out of Chin was so cheap, and now about 99% of all rare earth materials are produced by China!

[durbster]

Great looking machine but Citroen have far too many quality issues before they'll ever compete at that end of the market. People seem to accept it in a cheap hatchback, but if bits of trim started falling off your huge executive saloon you'd be a bitnarked.

james_tigerwoods said:

A Scotsman said:

China is currently doing its best to corner the EV and hybrid market by cutting back on the export of the rare earth materials needed to manufacture the high efficiency motors. Their aim is to force Western manufacturers out of business and build everything in China.

Are those "rare earth" elements not available anywhere else?(Genuine question by the way)

Probably - but not at Chinese prices.