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Lancia Ypsilon HF gets back to brand's rally racer heritage

At the end of 1992, Lancia walked away from the Martini-sponsored Delta HF Integrale 8V race car and the World Rally Championship a winner, drivers Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol delivering the Constructor's Championship. We haven't seen a racy factory-backed Lancia since, nor one that races. The dry spell is over, the Italians unveiling their new Ypsilon HF, the hot-hatch version of the standard Ypsilon, and a motorsports version for FIA Group Rally4. Starting with the street car, it gets the powertrain shared with the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce, a single electric motor turning the front axle. Instead of the e-motor making 154 horsepower as in the standard Ypsilon, the Ypsilon HF makes 237 hp, shortening the dash to 62 miles per hour to 5.8 seconds, which is 2.9 seconds quicker than the plain Ypsilon.  Handling credentials get upgraded with a wider track and lowered suspension. The package is made to look the part with a sharper front fascia, the much larger lower intake bearing the HF logo and the side intakes getting black underlining. We haven't been given a view of the rear, but we expect there are flourishes there as well, perhaps even the large black bumper seen on the rally racer. A set of six-spoke wheels complete the attitude adjustment.     Because the World Rally Championship hasn't gone electric yet — and gave up on hybrids after just three years — the Ypsilon Rally 4 HF slides a 1.2-liter three-cylinder gas-powered mill up front. That engine sends 209 hp to the front wheels through a five-speed transmission and a limited-slip differential. A pair of hood scoops aid engine cooling, a roof scoop at the top of the windshield does the same for driver and co-driver. The white, 15-spoke wheels look back to the multi-spoke wheels on the Delta Integrale, and we'll be looking to the start line next year to see if the real racer gets Martini sponsorship. The way Lancia worded its press release, we suspect the Rally 4 car will also be pitched to privateers as "a serious candidate for drivers aspiring to victory in the R4 class and in the two-wheel drive championships." These two cars set the template for future HF makeovers already promised for the eventual Gamma crossover and reborn electric Delta. Another question we have, especially now that hybrids are taking the fore, is whether the Ypsilon with the mild-hybrid powertrain has a chance of getting the HF treatment.

Stellantis will give its brands 10 years to prove they deserve to live

Formed by the merger of PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Stellantis has 14 brands under its roof, a number that makes it one of the largest groups in the industry. Rumors claimed not every brand would survive, with Chrysler often earmarked to get axed, but the firm said it will give them all a chance to shine. "We're giving each (brand) a chance, giving each a time window of 10 years and giving funding for 10 years to do a core model strategy. The CEOs need to be clear in brand promise, customers, targets, and brand communications," announced Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares during the Financial Times' Future of the Car event. His comments confirm Chrysler fans and dealers don't need to worry about the future — at least not yet. And, against all odds, Lancia enthusiasts can breathe a sigh of relief, too. Former FCA head Sergio Marchionne warned of the brand's demise on several occasions. Alfa Romeo is safe for now, too, as is Vauxhall, which are basically just Opels sold in the United Kingdom with a different badge. The engagement made by Tavares also means Stellantis won't divest any of its brands to raise capital until at least 2031. It's now up to each executive team to make a case for the brand they run, an unusual survival-of-the-fittest strategy in an era when cutting costs is more common than spending cash. Diving into the vast Stellantis parts bin should help even the most troubled brands turn their fortunes around on a relatively tight budget. It seems likely that survive Chrysler will need to look beyond the 300 and the Pacifica/Voyager, the only models in its range, and completely reinvent its image, which is currently nebulous at best. Lancia, once the champion of luxury, performance, and innovation, faces the same challenge. It's not starting quite from scratch, it's relatively popular in its home country of Italy, but it will need to think globally and expand outside of the city car segment to survive. Featured Gallery 2020 Chrysler 300 View 24 Photos Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM Citroen Lancia Opel Peugeot Vauxhall

New electric Ypsilon city car is Lancia's last bid for relevance

Stellantis-owned Lancia has unveiled its first new model in well over a decade. Offered only with an electric drivetrain, the new Ypsilon is a small, premium four-door hatchback developed to make the 118-year-old Italian brand relevant again after an extended period of decline. We shouldn't be writing this story, because Lancia shouldn't be around to release a new Ypsilon. Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles until his death in 2018, planned to close the brand. It was too small, too heavily reliant on the European market, and ultimately more of a burden than anything else. He executed his plan gradually: first, he tried giving Lancia a handful of Chrysler models to sell in Europe, which didn't work. Then, he gradually pulled the plug on Lancia's range and foreign operations, leaving the company with a single model (the last-generation Ypsilon) to sell in a single country (Italy). Rewind to the 1990s, and that's exactly how Autobianchi shut down. History didn't repeat itself this time. Stellantis executives decided to give every brand in the group a chance to prove why it deserves to exist. The third-generation Ypsilon (we're counting the Y launched in 1995 as the original) is Lancia's first argument. Having access to its parent company's parts bin helped keep development costs in check, and the hatchback shares its Common Modular Platform (CMP) with other small hatchbacks you'll see meandering across Europe such as the Peugeot 208 and the Opel Corsa. Visually, it borrows a handful of styling cues from the Pu+Ra HPE concept unveiled in 2023, like low-mounted headlights and three thin strips of LEDs on the front end. Out back, you'll find a pair of round headlights ostensibly inspired by the ones fitted to the Stratos, a coupe that cemented Lancia's reputation as a force to reckon with in the World Rally Championship (WRC) during the 1970s. That's as much of Lancia's rallying heritage the brand chose to channel, however. Instead, it's highlighting the upmarket chapter of its history: for decades, the brand was associated with luxury rather than with performance. Italian presidents rolled around in purpose-built Flaminia sedans in the 1960s. Rallying was the brand's claim to fame in the 1970s and the 1980s, and Lancia unceremoniously became associated with badge-engineering during the 1990s. This is where its decline began. The new Ypsilon's job is to reverse it by giving buyers a more stylish alternative to, say, the 208 it's based on.