DS is the premium brand of Groupe PSA. 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. The name is also a play on words, as in French it is pronounced like the word déesse, meaning goddess. Since 2015 (and since 2012 in China), the Citroën branding has been dropped from the DS line models, and DS has continued as a standalone premium brand developed and part from Citroen.