The Lancia Ypsilon has been officially unveiled, although the full debut won’t happen until the middle of February, so details are thin on the ground right now.
Overnight the Italian brand unveiled the Lancia Ypsilon Edizione Limitata Cassina. Just 1906 units of this limited edition will be built in honour of the year of Lancia’s founding.
Designed in collaboration with furniture firm Cassina, the first limited edition variant of the fourth-generation Ypsilon has an exclusive sapphire blue exterior with matching interior, which seemingly has a mixture of leather and velour trim.
With the car’s full launch still a few weeks away, Lancia has only issued official photographs of the new Ypsilon exterior from directly in front and directly behind, as well as select shots of its cabin.
The company did also post a video on YouTube (below) showing off more of the car’s angles. It’s from the filming of this video where our first fully undisguised leaks of the production-ready car came from in the middle of January.
Under the skin, the new Ypsilon is based on the Stellantis Common Modular Platform (CMP) that’s used in a wide variety of light cars, including the Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208, and DS 3.
While the Ypsilon has a completely unique exterior to its siblings, the proportions of all four cars are very similar.
The new hatch forgoes the deep shield grille that’s been a signature of the Ypsilon for the past two generations. In its place is a gloss black swathe of plastic with a T-shaped driving light bar and the brand’s supersized word mark.
Lancia’s word mark also appear prominently on the boot, with the marque’s flag logo relegated to the blacked out C-pillar trim where the rear door handle is hidden. Like the outgoing car, the rear door is partially disguised to make the Ypsilon seem a little more like a three-door hatch.
Thanks to the new-to-Lancia CMP architecture the new model will probably grow about 200mm in length and cross the four-metre barrier, which should result in a more spacious interior.
Inside the new Ypsilon will be available with a digital instrumentation display, a large infotainment touchscreen, and a unique circular table-like protrusion on the centre tunnel.
The car will also be equipped with the SALA (Sound Air Light Augmentation) system that promises “simplify the digital experience” and allow the owner “reproduce the welcoming atmosphere of your home” with the press of button or the utterance of a voice command.
By adopting a more modern Stellantis architecture, the Ypsilon will be Lancia’s first ever pure electric drivetrain, which a claimed range of up to 404km using the WLTP standard.
Both the related Corsa-e and e-208 have a 100kW/260Nm electric motor driving the front wheels, and a 50kWh battery good for a WLTP driving range estimate of 330km.
While the Cassina edition will be offered solely with electric motivation, regular versions of the new Ypsilon will also be available with internal combustion engine options. It will be the last Lancia with a tailpipe, however, as all subsequent new models, including the Delta, will be electric only.
