Lancia: the brand that refused to die

Until recently, Lancia was withering away on death row, reduced since 2017 to a single model in a single market. One could almost sense hard-headed FCA chief Sergio Marchionne’s irritation as the Fiat 500-based Ypsilon continued to sell in droves.

It’s thanks only to Italian drivers’ patriotism and indifference to needless expense and the latest tech that Lancia survived for long enough to be saved by Stellantis.

Credit must go to founding Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares for appreciating Lancia’s value enough to hand the brand sufficient funding for a 10-year revival of its core model lines.

Precisely what is that inherent value, though? That’s what I’m hoping to discover, driving the new Ypsilon in Turin – home to the first factory that employed Vincenzo Lancia way back in 1898, the first site he opened under his own name and the famous Mirafiori plant, now also host to the Fiat and Lancia historic car collection.

The Ypsilon comes in Ibrida and Elettrica forms, and I’ve chosen the Elettrica, it being Lancia’s electric car. The former uses a 99bhp mild-hybrid 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol triple, the latter a 154bhp motor and a 51kWh battery.

Those specs feel very familiar because they are, from the many small cars based on Stellantis’s e-CMP platform.

The Ypsilon Elettrica drives virtually indistinguishably from a Peugeot 208 or Vauxhall Corsa EV, then. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Those cars have sold extremely well and the finer points of ride and handling aren’t priorities for many buyers in this market.

The Ypsilon is smooth, comfortable and refined on the autostrada, and in town it has a healthy reserve of power and it will round corners sharply. And if that really isn’t enough for you, exciting news: there’s a rally-inspired HF version coming.

What really sets everyday cars apart, prices aside, is design. The reason one person falls in love with the Jeep Avenger may well be why another orders an Alfa Romeo Junior instead, despite their identical specs.

Lancia has always been a design brand and, in this coming era of increasing mechanical and technical similarity, going all in on that appears to be an ideal strategy.

“Many people came expressly to ask me to work for Lancia. There was passion in their eyes, and when I told them about the possible plans for the rebirth of this glorious brand, they lit up,” creative chief Jean-Pierre Ploué (designer of such favourites as the Mk1 Renault Twingo, Citroën C6 and DS 3) recently told Italian publication Auto & Design.