DS is a premium car brand, founded and developed from the French manufacturer, Citroën. DS was first announced in early 2009 by Citroën as the company's premium sub-brand, applied to select models and running in parallel with the main brand. DS has been a standalone brand since 2015 (and since 2012 in China). DS could stand for Different Spirit or Distinctive Series (although references to the historical Citroën DS born by Flaminio Bertoni and André Lefèbvre are evident). This name is also a play on words, as in French it is pronounced like the word déesse, which means "goddess".