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Fiat contemplating sub-brand to compete with Dacia, Datsun

You can add Fiat to the admittedly short list of automakers considering a low-cost brand to rival Dacia. The inexpensive Eastern European brand from Renault-Nissan has performed on the balance sheet like a premium model line, and the money the alliance is taking off the table is encouraging other players to deal themselves in. Pretty soon Nissan's Datsun sub-brand will join the Dacia party, going on sale in Russia, Indonesia and India and will claim even more rubles, rupiahs and rupees for the parent company. Volkswagen recently said it will make a decision this year on a budget line for the Chinese market. With the euthanasia of Lancia and plans to move the Fiat brand upmarket, company CEO Sergio Marchionne wonders aloud to Automotive News Europe whether there could be room for a new budget brand underneath Fiat.
We're told that the initiative has been in the idea box for five years and even moved to the stage of name considerations, like Innocenti, but worries about profit kept it from realization. If such a range were to be developed, Marchionne says it couldn't be built in Italy and stay within budget, and the company is "analyzing its manufacturing capacity outside of Europe to see if a low-cost brand is viable."

Battery fire destroys Lancia Delta Evo-e RX team cars, shuts down World RX event in UK

A battery fire has destroyed both of Speed ONE Racing's electric Lancia Delta World Rallycross cars, Carscoops reports. The two Lancia Delta Evo-e race cars were reportedly in the paddock at Lydden Hill Race Circuit in the UK on Friday morning when a fire originating in one of the cars' battery packs spread and consumed the team's road tent, taking both cars with it. The fire shut down the World Rallycross Championship event while race authorities attempted to ascertain the cause of the fire.            View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Rallycross - all about it! (@_rallycross_) "Following a fire in the service area of the Special ONE Racing team at Lydden Hill Race Circuit in Kent, England today (Friday, 21 July), the FIA World Rallycross Championship races scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday, 22 July) will not take place while investigations continue regarding the cause of the fire," FIA World Rallycross's promoter said in a statement released Friday.  "The fire began just before 08:45, with fire crews working hard to bring it under control and extinguish it as swiftly as possible. Regrettably, the entire Special ONE Racing area was burnt down, including both of their RX1e cars. There were no injuries and no other racing cars were affected," the statement continued. "The venue was not open to the public as there was no track action scheduled for the day." The Lancia Delta Evo-e race car is built on the World RX series' spec battery-electric platform supplied by by Austrian firm Kreisel. Its twin motors produce a combined 671 horsepower and 649 pound-feet of torque. Everything built on top of that chassis is a pure Lancia throwback produced by Green Corp Konnection (GCK), which was responsible for the fenders and wings that make the car look the part. GCK says the race car will do zero to 62 miles per hour in 1.8 seconds.  Related Video Attend Rally School + Drive A Pro 2 Truck | The List

All-new Lancia Ypsilon teased, and this one's not dripping wet

The last time we wrote about the coming all-new Lancia Ypsilon, the French authorities were fishing a pre-production prototype out of a canal. Although the hatchback had been ditched (canal'ed?) near a Peugeot factory, later reporting indicated (translated) the car had been stolen a month earlier near a Stellantis factory in Spain. Recent teases from Lancia aim to put a more attractive wheel forward, the automaker wanting to make the most of what will be an very important offering. This will be the first new Ypsilon since 2011, the first public step in the company's 10-year Renaissance Plan, pathway to a new battery-electric Lancia flagship in 2026 and an electric Delta revival in 2028. The teaser model comes from Lancia's partnership with Italian furniture company Cassina, one of the initial Ypsilon trims reported to be an Edizione Limitata Cassina restricted to 1,906 numbered units, that number honoring the carmaker's founding in 1906. The official shots go big on classic Lancia elegance while referring to the Pu+Ra HPE concept the brand revealed in April 2023 as a design touchstone. There's going to be some intriguing tech as well, one of the shots centered on a glowing blue disc that could sit above the infotainment screen. The word "SALA," also glowing blue on the disc, is Italian for "living room" but signifies Lancia's tech interface, an initialism for Sound, Air, Light, and Augmentation. The in-car assistant is programmed to "centralize the audio, climate control and lighting functions, enabling the environment inside the car to be adapted at the touch of a button or by the sound of your voice." The Ypsilon also brings Stellantis' TAPE, which stands for Tailored Predictive Experiences. This dresses the cabin ambience in one of three modes: Immersive, Wellbeing, and Entertainment.  The Pu+Ra HPE concept went beyond traditional elegance, and it seems the Ypsilon will, too. Instagram user gaetanogiordano63 posted clipped images of the front and back of what looks like an early production model in white. Even though we've seen most of the Ypsilon already, from the canal images, we're surprised by the vastly different impression these spy shots make on us.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Gaetano Giordano (@gaetanogiordano63) More complete answers are on the way shortly, Lancia planning to debut the new crossover in February in battery-electric trim.