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french carmaker psa peugeot citroen and its chinese partner changan started production of upscale ds models at peugeot's fourth chinese factory, a new plant in longhua new area, shenzhen, on saturday.
the ds is citroen's up-market brand.
well-known french film star sophie marceau delivered the first shenzhen-made citroen ds5 to a driver at a ceremony at the 1.3-million-sqm plant saturday. the car will start at 235,000 yuan (us$37,000). the company will flank the ds5 with a high-end sedan and an suv next year.
the shenzhen plant will have the capacity to make as many as 200,000 vehicles a year, which will increase the company's annual production capacity in china to 950,000 vehicles by the end of 2015.
philippe varin, chairman of the peugeot citroen group, hopes the ds5 can attract young chinese, whom he considers a very important customer group in the country.
he said the tailored-for-china ds5 offers "a taste of real romance from paris."
the french automaker's other three china plants are in wuhan, capital of hubei.
china became peugeot citroen's largest market in the first quarter of this year, when it sold 142,000 vehicles. peugeot established its first joint venture with china's dongfeng motor group 18 years ago.
china sped past the united states as the world's largest auto market last year, with car sales up 40 percent year on year.
(source:shenzhen daily)