► Lancia Pu+Ra HPE concept revealed
► Our first look at Lancia’s future design direction
► New electrified Ypsilon in ’24; new Gamma in ’26 and electric Delta in 2028
This is Lancia’s Pu+Ra HPE, a brand and design concept that will define both the exterior and interior look of the Italian marque’s models for the next 10 years. Unveiled on Saturday 15 April at Milan Design Week, the Pu+Ra HPE also signposts Stellantis’ intentions to make Lancia an all-electric brand by 2028, spearheaded by three all-new models – the Ypsilon urban crossover, the luxurious Gamma hatchback flagship and compact Delta hatchback.
That’s a pretty ambitious set of plans for a near-dead brand…
Quite. Hence the importance Lancia is attaching to this concept. Riffing off the Lancia Pu+Ra Zero sculpture that Lancia unveiled in late November 2022, the Pu+Ra part of the Lancia’s moniker stands for Pure and Radical, so we’ll ignore that sort of designer lingo – along with other phrases Lancia uses including primitive architectural, geometric shapes, radicality, and brutal soul – and simply refer to it as the HPE. Why? Because it harks back to the HPE badge that adorned Lancia’s 1979 Beta-based HPE shooting brake. Back then, it stood for High Performance Estate, but now it’s a convenient abbreviation for High Performance Electric.
Will this Stratos-inspired electric shooting brake be hitting Lancia showrooms?
Not quite. Think of it more as an in-the-metal design guide that encompasses the look and feel of future Lancia models. The closer you look the more hat-tips to Lancia’s greatest hits you can spot – squint your eyes, and elements of the Aurelia, Flaminia, Stratos and Beta HPE are all there.
Talk me through what’s for real and what’s fantasy
Given its concept status, technical specifications for the HPE are light on the ground. At 4450mm long, 1950mm wide and 1350mm high, it’s 230mm shorter than Kia’s EV6, but 70mm wider and a significant 200mm lower. The concept is a runner, rather than a static unit, and is underpinned by much of the modular componentry that we’ll find beneath next year’s Ypsilon.
The combination of what Lancia’s design team call elementary iconic forms – circles, triangles and rectangles to you and I – results in the wedgy profile, blunt nose and tail, and circular sunroof.
The face of the HPE is dominated by a reworking of the company’s Y-shaped ‘calice’ grille and the large Lancia script, with central vertical arm doubling up as a display for charging status.
The transparency and colour of the glass used in the extensive glasshouse can be adjusted, those alloys are actually single-piece units, and the floating circular rear lights have us wistfully thinking of Sandro Munari and Björn Waldegård racing their Stratos to world rally gold in the late 1970s. According to the HPE’s design team, the bold geometric proportions, the Lancia badging on the nose, tail and flanks, the calice grille and the eye-catching rear lights on this concept are accurate design elements that will define future Lancias.
That cabin looks a bit special
Doesn’t it just? That circular sunroof is mirrored by the semi-circular dashboard that displays key data on its leading edge, and then tilts to become a screen for the integrated twin projectors to display movies, social media feeds, online gaming and charging data.
Those onboard will set and adjust audio, climate and lighting controls using Lancia’s SALA virtual interface – that’s Sound, Air, Light and Augmentation – and its three key Immersive, Wellbeing and Entertainment modes.
And, for a rather handy segue, sala is also for Italian for living room. The HPE’s interior has been intentionally designed with individual pieces of furniture – chairs, tables, carpeting – to create the sense of a room rather than a one-piece cabin.
Lancia’s interior design team, lead by Gianni Colonello, worked with Italian furniture specialist Cassina, maker of furniture designed by Le Corbusier, Eames, Mackintosh, Starck and Kita to reinforce the cabin’s living room feel. Most of the cabin innovative materials are from sustainable sources, and Lancia claims its future line-up will focus heavily on recycled or carbon-neutral materials.
Tell me more about the upcoming Ypsilon, Gamma and Delta
As part of the Stellantis group, Lancia will have a wide range of matrix sets and modular architecture to choose from, with the 2024 Ypsilon expected to leave its urban roots and arrive as a compact crossover underpinned by hybrid-friendly CMP platform deployed in the Peugeot 2008.
Read more about the Stellantis STLA platforms here
The comfort-oriented Gamma is likely to run on the STLA Medium platform when it launches in 2026, and is expected to be an in-house rival to the Peugeot 408 and Citroen C5 X. The Vauxhall Astra-sized Delta is also thought to run the STLA Medium architecture, with the focus on chunky geometric styling and high performance. Lancia’s STLA Medium cars are expected to use battery pack sizes between 88 and 104kWh.
How will Lancia differentiate itself and find new buyers for whom many have never heard of a Stratos or Delta Integrale?
Lancia is relying on a similar approach that combines stand-out design and innovative technology to successfully accelerate its move to an all-electric brand. The same external and internal design teams behind the HPE also worked on all three upcoming production models, so expect them to turn heads at the very least.
It claims its future models will set best-in-class goals of a 435-mile range, efficiency levels of 16 kWh per 100 miles, and an 80% charging time of just 10 minutes. No doubt Kia, Hyundai and Tesla will have something to say about that. It also believes its SALA technology and its ability to collectively manage audio, climate control and lighting functions will attract younger tech-oriented drivers.
Does Lancia’s brave new world also herald a sales move back to the UK?
No, or at least not for a good long while. Lancia will focus on rebuilding European market share, with half of sales expected to be made online, and the rest coming through 100 new dealers in 60 major cities in France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Don’t expect any right-hand drive models before the end of the decade, then.