Citroen may have left the U.S. market in 1974 but the company is still thinking about a return to our shores, this time with the upscale DS sub-brand, according to a report from Automotive News.

DS, a spinoff brand from Citroen named for the futuristic DS sedan made between 1955 and 1975, has become a global premium sub-brand for PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, the corporate parent of Citroen, which is now sold mainly in Europe and China. Launched in 2010 with the debut of the compact DS3, the DS sub-brand has gone on to sales topping 500,000 cars worldwide.

DS CEO Yves Bonnefont recently told Automotive News that a decision on a U.S. return would be made sometime in 2017, and that if the plan is approved, DS cars could be on sale in the U.S. sometime after 2020.

"We want to make DS a global premium brand, and you cannot be global without the U.S.," Bonnefont told Automotive News in an interview at the Paris motor show.

The DS5 is the top offering the three-model lineup at this moment. Citroen

PSA/Peugeot-Citroen's overarching plan is to sell DS cars in 200 large cities worldwide after 2020, though there are several major obsctacles when it comes to selling in North America. First, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen no longer has a dealer network in U.S. or Canada, Peugeot being the last to leave the U.S. market in 1991. Second, current DS cars are also not compliant with U.S. federal crash safety standards, a bar to easy entry into the market.

Peugeot had at times tested the waters for a U.S. return, letting former dealers test out Peugeot 406 sedans in 1996, five years after leaving the U.S. Peugeot had also maintained a representative office in New Jersey until just a few years ago, dropping hints from time to time about staging a comeback. When it comes to Citroen, the very last cars sold in the U.S. were the Citroen XM luxury sedans, gray-imported and modified by CXA Automotive in the 1990s.

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