PARIS -- The first jointly developed models for Stellantis’ three premium brands -- Alfa Romeo, DS and Lancia -- could appear by 2024, as the newly created group seeks to break through in the profitable segment.
Marion David, the product director at DS, said this week that future models from the brands would share common premium features including drivetrains that would separate them from mainstream Stellantis brands such as Peugeot.
“We are working with our Italian colleagues on specific premium modules, powertrains and features to differentiate the premium brands from the mainstream brands,” she said Wednesday at a launch event for the DS 4 compact hatchback.
Under the Stellantis organization chart, Alfa Romeo, DS and Lancia are designated as premium brands, with new Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato as the synergies coordinator for all three. Imparato was CEO of the Peugeot brand at PSA Group.
David said that a DS product plan announced in 2017, in which one new model would be launched every year for six years until 2023, would remain in place. The DS 4 is the fourth model in the cycle.
DS was originally a subbrand of Citroen but became a stand-alone brand in 2014, with high ambitions for Chinese sales and production that fizzled out, although European sales have outpaced the market in the last two years.
"The cars that are already a work in progress will continue and be launched," she said, "and then for the next generation we are focused on making the synergies that are the reason for the [Stellantis] merger." Those models will appear in 2024 or 2025, she said.
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The Alfa Romeo Stelvio premium midsize SUV will be joined by two more other SUVs in the next two years. Targeting Audi, BMW, Mercedes Stellantis' three premium brands sell in small volumes compared with market leaders Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has committed to strengthening Alfa Romeo, which has failed to reach ambitious sales targets under Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' stewardship. Last year Alfa sold 36,526 in Europe, according to industry group ACEA.
Lancia, which sells one model, the Ypsilon small car, in one market, Italy, had a 2020 volume of 43,109; DS sold 43,028 vehicles in Europe last year, according to ACEA's figures. In comparison, Mercedes sold more than 120,000 units of A-Class in Europe last year, figures from JATO Dynamics show.
Alfa Romeo has just two models in its 2021 lineup, the midsize Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV, although production of a new compact SUV will start in the second half of the year. A small SUV will follow. The small SUV it will be built in Poland using PSA's CMP architecture and could arrive in 2023.
DS volumes could be poised to jump this year, too, as the DS 4 and DS 9 midsize sedan join the DS 3 Crossback small SUV and DS 7 Crossback compact SUV.
Notizia importante per Stellantis: i 3 marchi premium del gruppo, Alfa Romeo, DS e Lancia stanno iniziando a sviluppare modelli insieme. Secondo il ceo di DS si sta discutendo di come adottare moduli comuni da condividere tra i 3 marchi in modo da ottenere maggiori sinergie e distinguere questi marchi da quelli generalisti (cosa che non riesce molto bene a DS). Altra notizia importante è che Imparato non è solo ceo di Alfa ma anche il coordinatore di questi 3 marchi. Nel breve termine Stellantis si attende un balzo delle vendite di DS e di Alfa grazie ai nuovi modelli (DS9 e 4, Tonale e B-suv per Alfa).
N.b. Lancia, which sells one model, the Ypsilon small car, in one market, Italy, had a 2020 volume of 43,109; DS sold 43,028 vehicles in Europe last year, according to ACEA's figures.
Lancia con un solo modello, in un solo mercato, vende come DS con 2 modelli nuovi fiammanti in segmento in crescita.
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