Citroën is displaying a 1988 2CV6 Spécial and a 1971 DS 21 on its stand at the Paris Motor Show. The display officially pays homage to the company’s heritage but there is a little more to it than that.

The company’s recent premium DS-badged cars are sold in standalone showrooms in China, but they’ve been part of the Citroën lineup in Europe since the name was revived in 2010. Effective immediately, DS is a standalone brand with its own CEO that will grow over the coming years in an ambitious bid to take on luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. Citroën will move slightly down on the market and build more basic and affordable cars like the C4 Cactus, and Peugeot will shift up a notch in order to fight head-to-head against Volkswagen.

This isn’t wild speculation, the information comes straight from a press release sent out by Peugeot – Citroën. In short, showing a DS and a 2CV is a symbolic way of announcing that Citroën as we know it has branched off into two companies.