There's a lot of Italian stuff going on for 2024, and it's all flavored with Stellantis treats. However, we must decide- which is our digital favorite: the Lancia Ypsilon or the Fiat Panda and potentially its Abarth HF performance twin?
Stellantis, the conglomerate formed in 2021 from the merger (of equals) between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the PSA Group, has a lot of big brands under its car. It also packs a lot of 'spare change,' though. Marques like Alfa Romeo, Abarth, Fiat, or Lancia used to be worldwide heavyweights, but nowadays, most of them are mere shadows of their former selves.
Alfa Romeo is on a rising trend as it addresses the well-known reliability and quality issues at the same time while selling the refreshed Giulia sedan and Stelvio crossover SUV, plus rekindling the passion with the Tonale compact CUV and the upcoming limited-edition 33 Stradale supercar of the ICE and EV variety. Even better, it's also en route to present the Milano, an all-new smaller crossover SUV that will turn into its first-ever mass-market EV.
Abarth, meanwhile, is content with selling the new 500e model with zero emissions as it looks forward to Fiat and Lancia bringing out more models to play with. Fiat, for example, just launched the 600e – the subcompact sibling of the Peugeot e-2008, Opel Mokka Electric, DS3 E-Tense, and Jeep Avenger. As for Lancia, it's on its way to a much-awaited 'revival' with an all-new Ypsilon in tow and other more significant stuff teased by the Pu+Ra HPE concept.
Until then, Lancia needs to contend with yet another embarrassing situation – the 2024 Ypsilon, which hasn't been officially launched yet, leaked (literally, with lots of water) while impersonating a white (not yellow) submarine. This is all due to a mishap with a prototype that was taking an unwilling bath somewhere in France, probably due to an incident while filming a potential reveal commercial.
Anyway, that allowed some intrepid folks to cook up the unofficial design of the Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa sibling – the peeps over at Kolesa, along with their resident pixel master Nikita Chuicko, aka 'kelsonik' on social media, have imagined the styling of the little Italian hatchback ahead of its official unveiling. Frankly, this hypothetical rendering looks way cooler than the real (leaked) deal that we saw getting hoisted out of a river/lake/canal in France.
Indeed, I am afraid the real Lancia Ypsilon will look a lot blander than this, which is probably one of the main reasons I'm sorry this is merely wishful thinking. On the other hand, the Italian digital creator Tommaso D'Amico (aka tda_automotive' on social media) has a potentially more exciting proposal from Fiat – the fourth generation of the iconic Panda city car styled initially by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani of Italdesign. Even better, he also imagined the Abarth Panda HF to go along with it. So, which is your virtual Italian favorite?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News