TURIN – Lancia’s first new model as part of Stellantis is still more than a year away, but the Italian brand has already designed three new cars that it hopes will seal its entry into the premium segment.
Lancia has not shown any previews of those models, the first of which will appear in early 2024, but this week it offered a glimpse of the key design elements that will be common to its future lineup through a mockup called Pu+Ra Zero, for “pure” and “radical.”
“We wanted to show that Lancia could be faithful to its roots without having to choose between being pure or radical, offering both with our Pu+Ra design language,” Lancia CEO Luca Napolitano said at a media event in Turin on Monday.
Jean-Pierre Ploue, head of Stellantis design as well as of Lancia design, pointed to two concept cars by Bertone, the Lancia Stratos Zero from 1970 and the Alfa Romeo Carabo from 1968 as sources of inspiration.
The Pu+Ra Zero mockup has volumes clearly inspired by the Stratos Zero, a new visual identity in the front, a new logo displayed on the C pillar area and circular tail lights that recall the production Lancia Stratos, that launched in 1973.
“These are all the defying elements that you will find in the future Ypsilon,” Ploue said.
Napolitano said that Lancia is designing its three future models simultaneously to ensure that they will deliver the maximum possible visual consistency with the Pu+Ra design language.
Lancia currently sells just one model, the Ypsilon small car, and only in its home market of Italy. It is part of the premium brand group at Stellantis, along with Alfa Romeo and DS.
The new Ypsilon will be launched in early 2024 as a five-door small car. It will be the first full-electric Lancia as well as the last to offer an internal-combustion engine variant.
It will be followed by a midsize electric-only model due in 2026. Napolitano said the design of this model had changed direction since its inception and was no longer internally referred to as the Aurelia, the name of Lancia’s groundbreaking sedan, coupe and spyder from the 1950s.
The third new Lancia model revisits the Delta name and will be an electric-only compact model that is due in 2028. Even though its launch is more than five years away, the design has already been frozen, Napolitano said, because “everyone at Lancia Design wanted to pen the new Delta.”
Lancia unveiled a new version of its shield-shaped logo that includes a flag, a circle (for a steering wheel) and a lance, as the brand’s name means “spear” or “lance” in Italian.
All those elements were used in Lancia’s 1929 logo (the first logo appeared in 1907); this new interpretation most closely resembles a variation introduced in 1957.
Lancia says it is purposely bucking the trend toward two-dimensional logos that are optimized for social media and digital use.
“We did not create a new, flat logo to stand out in the digital word only, but a ‘progressive classic’ jewel that will shine in our next cars,” said Teresa Mendicino, Lancia’s global design director.
The new logo will not appear on the front or rear of future models, but will appear on the side of the vehicle, possibly on the B or C pillar.
Instead, the front end will feature a Y-shaped lighting bar spanned by the word “Lancia,” in the brand’s new font, in which the “A” appears as an inverted “V.” The same lettering will be applied to the rear, inscribed between the circular tail lamps.
Lancia is deploying a 10-year “Renaissance” strategic plan, with only full-electric vehicles sold after 2028. The three coming models will cover 50 percent of the market, the brand says. It is expanding its dealer network to add 100 additional showrooms in Europe, with a focus on online sales and an expected “agency” distribution model.