Lancia


Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but its history is traced back to Lancia & C., a manufacturing concern founded in 1906 in Turin by Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin. It became part of Fiat in 1969.
The brand is known for its strong rallying heritage, and technical innovations such as the unibody chassis of the 1922 Lambda and the five-speed gearbox introduced in the 1948 Ardea. Despite not competing in the World Rally Championship since 1992, Lancia still holds more Manufacturers' Championships than any other brand.
Sales of Lancia-branded vehicles declined from over 300,000 annual units sold in 1990 to less than 100,000 by 2010. After corporate parent Fiat acquired a stake in Chrysler in 2009, the Lancia brand portfolio was modified to include rebadged Chrysler products, for sale in most European markets. In the United Kingdom and Ireland however, Lancias were rebadged as Chryslers. As sales continued to drop the Lancia-badged Chryslers were no longer offered after 2015. Since then, the company's only product has been the Lancia Ypsilon, and sales outside of Italy ended in 2017. Despite Lancia's much smaller brand presence, the Ypsilon continues to be popular in Italy and managed to be the country's second best-selling car in 2019.
The newly merged Franco-Italian-American company Stellantis stated that it would try to revive Lancia, with the move also suggesting there would be more than one model for the brand, as well as sales outside of Italy for the first time in years.

History

Foundation and early years

Lancia & C. Fabbrica Automobili was founded on 27 November 1906 in Turin by Fiat racing drivers, Vincenzo Lancia and his friend, Claudio Fogolin. The first car manufactured by Lancia was the "Tipo 51" or "12 HP", which remained in production from 1907 to 1908. It had a small four-cylinder engine with a power output of.
In 1910, Lancia components were exported to the United States where they were assembled and sold as SGVs by the SGV Company. In 1915, Lancia also manufactured its first truck, the Jota, that continued as a dedicated series. In 1937, Vincenzo died of a heart attack. His wife, Adele Miglietti Lancia, and his son, Gianni Lancia, took over control of the company. They persuaded Vittorio Jano to join as an engineer. Jano had already made a name for himself by designing various Alfa Romeo models, including some of its most successful race cars ever such as the 6C, P2 and P3.
Lancia is renowned in the automotive world for introducing cars with numerous innovations. These include the Theta of 1913, which was the first European production car to feature a complete electrical system as standard equipment. Lancia's first car adopting a monocoque chassis, the Lambda produced from 1922 to 1931, featured 'Sliding Pillar' independent front suspension that incorporated the spring and hydraulic damper into a single unit. In 1948, the first 5-speed gearbox was fitted to a production car. Lancia premiered the first full-production V6 engine, in the 1950 Aurelia, after earlier industry-leading experiments with V8 and V12 engine configurations. It was also the first manufacturer to produce a V4 engine. Other innovations involved the use of independent suspension in production cars, and rear transaxles, which were first fitted to the Aurelia and Flaminia range. This drive for innovation, constant quest for excellence, fixation of quality, complex construction processes and antiquated production machinery meant that all cars essentially had to be hand-made. With little commonality between the various models, the cost of production continued to rise, while flat demand eventually affected Lancia's viability.
Gianni Lancia, a graduate engineer, was president of Lancia from 1947 to 1955. In 1956, the Pesenti family took control, with Carlo Pesenti in charge of the company.

Fiat (1969–2007)

Fiat launched a take-over bid in October 1969. It was accepted by Lancia as the company was losing significant sums of money, with losses in 1969 being 20 million. This was not the end of the distinctive Lancia marque, and new models in the 1970s such as the Stratos, Gamma and Beta proved that Fiat wished to preserve the image of the brand it had acquired. Autobianchi, bought by Fiat Group just a year before, was put under the control of Lancia.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Lancia had great success in rallying, winning many World Rally Championships.
During the 1980s, the company cooperated with Saab Automobile, with the Lancia Delta being sold as the Saab 600 in Sweden. The 1985 Lancia Thema also shared a platform with the Saab 9000, Fiat Croma and the Alfa Romeo 164. During the 1990s, all models were closely related to other Fiat models.

100th Anniversary Celebration (2006)

The celebrations for the brand's 100th anniversary took place in Turin between 4 and 10 September 2006.
The Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile held an exhibition dedicated to the brand, which retraced its entire history, with models ranging from the early 1900s to the late 1980s. The event was well attended by the public and enthusiasts: hundreds of Lancia cars were displayed in Turin's historic locations, such as Piazza San Carlo, and rallies and parades were held through the streets of Turin featuring cars belonging to Lancia Club members and their owners. In total, 360 cars from collections in 18 countries, including Japan, South Africa, United States and New Zealand, took part in the event.
Furthermore, the Lancia Clubs held rallies and automotive cultural initiatives to celebrate the brand in their respective and other locations throughout 2006, in Italy and abroad.

Fiat Group Automobiles (2007–2014)

Starting from 1 February 2007, Fiat's automotive operations were reorganised.
Fiat Auto became Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A., Fiat S.p.A.'s branch handling mainstream automotive production. Simultaneously the current company, Lancia Automobiles S.p.A., was created from the pre-existing brand, and controlled 100% by FCA.
In 2011, Lancia moved in another direction and added new models manufactured by Chrysler and sold under the Lancia badge in many European markets, such as the 300, 200 Convertible and Voyager. Conversely, Lancia-built models began to be sold in right-hand drive markets under the Chrysler badge.

FCA (2014–2021)

In 2015 Lancia's parent company Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. became FCA Italy S.p.A., reflecting the earlier incorporation of Fiat S.p.A. into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
After 2015, all models produced by Chrysler were discontinued in the European market. Since then, the Lancia brand has remained alive, only by continuing to manufacture and sell the Ypsilon - which received another slight facelift in 2020 - exclusively in the Italian market.

110th Anniversary Celebration (2016)

The 110th anniversary celebrations of the Lancia brand took place on 27 November 2016 with conferences, exhibitions and parades organised by Lancia and the Lancia Clubs in Turin, while the celebration in Milan took place within the Milano Autoclassica event with an exhibition of 15 of the most significant Lancia cars and the introduction of a special Lancia Classiche programme offering a new certification and restoration services for historic Lancia cars.

Stellantis (2021–present)

The relaunch of the brand

Despite doubts about the brand's future following the completion of the Stellantis merger in 2021, Lancia was made part of a joint group with sister companies Alfa Romeo and DS Automobiles, to develop new premium models for the 2024 model year. As part of Stellantis' recovery plan for Lancia, Luca Napolitano was appointed the car maker's CEO, and Jean-Pierre Ploué its chief designer.
Three new electric models were announced in June 2021: a new subcompact car - which became the fourth generation of Ypsilon; a compact crossover - confirmed later in April 2023 as a five-door fastback CUV named Gamma, scheduled for a 2026 release; and a compact hatchback, likely to be a new Delta.
On November 28, 2022, Luca Napolitano laid the cornerstone of Lancia's "renaissance" by revealing a new logo and introducing the new Pu+Ra Design language - through a sculpture called Pu+Ra Zero. Inspired by historic models such as the Aurelia, Flaminia, Delta and the 1970 Stratos Zero concept car, future electric models will be adorned by both organic lines and geometric shapes at the same time. The iconic calice grille was reinterpreted as a new Y-shaped LED light signature, with the new wordmark above them, instead of the shield. At the rear, round taillights pays homage directly to the Stratos sports car. All these design shapes were later applied into a fully-functional concept car: the Lancia Pu+Ra HPE Concept presented on 15 April 2023 in Milan.
On 12 December 2023, a prototype of the fourth generation of Ypsilon was found at the deep of a canal in the Montbeliard region, France, close to a Stellantis' plant in Sochaux; unveiling its final design few months before the official unveil. The model had been presumed stolen during development testing rides before the sinking.
On 14 February 2024, Lancia launched the fourth generation of Ypsilon, initially offered as a limited production edition called the Ypsilon Edizione Limitata Cassina. This edition was co-developed between Lancia and Italian high-end furniture manufacturer Cassina S.p.A. Production of the model was capped at 1,906 units to commemorate Lancia's founding year of 1906.
The Ypsilon dominated the Italian market in the early months of 2024, and concluded the first quarter with 12,923 sales, up 16.4% compared to the same period in 2023.