Lancia Pu+Ra concept looks to historic models to set brand's design direction

TURIN -- Lancia has set the design course for its next decade with the two-door Pu+Ra HPE concept, which includes design cues from historic models such as the Stratos and Beta.

The brand is moving upscale as it joins Stellantis’ premium cluster, which includes Alfa Romeo and DS Automobiles. It will reveal three new models, starting with the new Ypsilon small car to debut in early 2024, followed by the Gamma midsize flagship in 2026 and the Delta compact hatchback in 2028.

CEO Luca Napolitano said on Sunday at an event in Milan to reveal the Pu+Ra HPE that the flagship model, previously internally designated as Aurelia, would be called Gamma. 

The return of the nameplate is an homage to the first Gamma, launched in 1976 as a midsize fastback at a time when "three box" sedans were the only architecture for flagship models. Fastback designs have been enjoying a renaissance in recent years, most recently with the midsize Peugeot 408.

Napolitano said the Pu+Ra concept represents "the brand vision for the next 10 years that takes Lancia into the era of electric mobility and sums up our way of conceiving and experiencing the car."

Rear circular lamps are drawn from the 1973 Stratos two-seat sports and racing car, and horizontal slats across the rear window recall 1975 Beta HPE sports coupe.

The concept also displays Lancia's future lighting signature -- Y-shaped lighting bar spanned by the word "Lancia," in the brand’s new font, in which the As appear as inverted Vs.

The concept’s name refers to Lancia’s new design language, with Pu+Ra coming from "pure" and "radical." The HPE designation originally stood for High Performance Estate on the three-door shooting brake Beta HPE launched in 1975. It now stands for High Performance Electric, Lancia says.

The HPE badge will be reintroduced on a variant of the next-generation Ypsilon small car, due in 2025, which will reportedly offer 240 hp. 

The Ypsilon will be a roughly four-meter long five-door hatchback, which will be both the first Lancia to offer a full-electric option, and it will also be the brand’s last new model with an internal combustion engine. The model will be based on the second generation of Stellantis eCMP architecture, already used by the Jeep Avenger and is expect to be built in Spain.

Lancia did not release the dimensions of the Pu+Ra HPE concept, but said it is a full-electric model with a range of more than 700 kms, suggesting the car could be based on the new STLA Medium architecture that the Italian company will use for the Gamma and Delta. This architecture also permits all-wheel drive.

The interior of the Pu+Ra HPE concept, which will also influence future Lancia models, is inspired by the world of furniture, thanks to a collaboration with the brand Cassina for a typically Italian "home feeling" experience, Napolitano said.

Working with Cassina, Lancia has developed a new ocher velvet cloth that reinterprets the brand’s panno wool cloth used on earlier models. The cloth has GreenGuard certification, based on low emissions of chemicals and GWP environmental impact. 

The door panels are covered with MARM\MORE, a material whose name is taken from marmor, the Latin word for marble. It contains up to 50 percent waste from marble dust and recycled fabric.

This concept has a new virtual interface that Lancia calls SALA, which stands for Sound Air Light Augmentation ("sala" means living room in Italian). A technology called Chameleon automatically adjusts the sound, climate and lighting of the passenger compartment according to the external environment. It can be controlled with a button or voice commands.

After launching the new Ypsilon in 2024, which will have a 48-volt mild hybrid gasoline engine as well as a full electric variant, the Gamma and Delta will be only full-electric, and by 2028 Lancia will sell only electric models, meaning it will discontinue the internal combustion engine on the Ypsilon after four years from its launch.

Lancia currently sells just one model, the Ypsilon small car, and only in its home market of Italy. 

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, starting with France, Germany, Spain, Benelux, Portugal and the Netherlands from 2024. Napolitano said that 30 dealers outside of Italy have already signed a contract to distribute Lancia and that this number is expected to grow to 70 by mid-2024.

Lancia, as well as the other Stellantis premium brands, will move to a direct-sales agency distribution model from January 2024. Lancia will pilot agency in Benelux and the Netherlands from this July, Napolitano said.