DS is the
luxury vehicle division of
Citroën. The DS marque was first announced in early 2009 by Citroën as a premium sub-brand added to certain models, with
DS being an abbreviation of
Different Spirit or
Distinctive Series (although the reference to the historical
Citroën DS is evident), to run in parallel to its mainstream cars. Since 2015 (and since 2012 already in China), the Citroen branding was dropped from the DS line models, and DS continued as a standalone brand. According to
PSA CEO
Carlos Tavares, DS will keep using the same platforms and dealerships as other PSA models, but will distinguish itself from Citroën cars by using "separate manufacturing and engineering standards".