Citroen Readies Premium Small SUV For China
The rest of the world is becoming just as crossover obsessed as North America, and in the premium segment, a crossover is an absolute must for any car maker. PSA’s most recent round of efforts have been pretty poor, using the Mitsubishi Outlander as a starting point, but for their upscale DS brand, PSA is starting from scratch.
The DS Wild Rubis may have a silly name, but the concept previews what will be the flagship of Citroen’s premium DS sub-brand in China. Meant to compete against the BMW X3 and Audi Q5, the Wild Rubis is a plug-in hybrid SUV that will be slightly longer and wider than the Q5.
Curiously, the Wild Rubis will not use the EMP2 modular platform, but instead use the old Citroen C5 underpinnings – not only does this save costs for the Chinese market, but Citroen’s famous[s] air suspension[/s] hydro-pneumatic suspension can also be employed. The Wild Rubis will be just the first of an onslaught of new DS products. Next up will be a large car meant to replace the C6, based on the DS Numero 9 concept, and then a smaller sedan. Hopefully this design theme extends to production cars. The C6 was a tough act to follow, but the design team seems to be capable of creating faithful successors.
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Cool lookin car. Why can't this be the new Jeep?
Should be wildly popular with neckless narcos if it comes to the Americas. They don't need no stinkin' headroom.