Lancia hasn’t exactly been in rude health these past few decades. It managed to make selling rebadged Chryslers in Europe seem like a high watermark after it resigned itself to offering the old Ypsilon in Italy alone after 2017 - a state of affairs roughly equivalent to Mini subsisting on Clubman sales in Oxford.
Now, at last, it has some good news to share.
On the basis that Lancia’s roll-out does not for the moment include the UK, the second announcement is probably more interesting than the first. The Lancia Ypsilon Rally 4 HF is powered by a 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder motor that delivers 212hp, making it the sister car of the Rally4-prepped Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa. It gets a five-speed manual ‘box, a mechanical limited-slip diff and looks quite spiffy in legacy-happy Lancia livery.
In any case, the rally version is mostly about helping to sell production cars, and that’s where the HF comes in. No one reading this needs reminding about the significance of the lucky elephant ‘Hi-Fi’ badging, and Lancia reckons it can live up to its high-performance legacy with a 240hp all-electric version of the Ypsilon that will launch next year. Expect a lower, wider chassis and a 0-62mph time of 5.8 seconds.