New Lancia Ypsilon’s interior designed to make you right feel at home
There are no plans to bring Lancia’s latest creation to the UK
Lancia has provided us with our first look at its new information technology that will feature in all models going forward, and debut in the upcoming Ypsilon supermini when it’s unveiled in February 2024 in Milan.
The new Lancia Ypsilon is the Vauxhall Corsa and Peugeot 208’s latest sister car, but while the CMP platform underneath and the three cars’ proportions will be the same, Lancia is hoping to distinguish its creation with some unique touches.
Among them will be the brand’s S.A.L.A infotainment setup, which stands for ‘Sound Air Light Augmentation’. It’s a fully customisable, widget-based system that utilises two HD displays, with the homepage serving as a centralised control panel for ‘Sound, Air and Light’, according to Lancia, or the radio, climate controls and lighting settings as we like to call them.
The word ‘sala’ in Italian means living room, which is fitting as Lancia claims the new technology will make its customers “feel at home wherever they go.” How exactly? Lancia CEO Luca Napolitano says “S.A.L.A enables the driver and the passenger to adapt the in-car environment, simply by touching a button or with the sound of their voice.”
We’re assuming the button he’s referring to is the glowing orb that Lancia has stuck on the Ypsilon’s dashboard, although its blue light does remind us of an Amazon Echo so perhaps it will be animated and react to voice commands.
This isn’t the first time Lancia has given us a sneak peek of the Ypsilon’s interior, as a previous teaser image focused on a unique circular platform beneath the central touchscreen that likely includes a wireless charging pad. It looks to be finished in a high-end leather and embossed with the Cassina special edition logo. 1906 examples of the Ypsilon Cassina first edition will be made, with the limited-run variant due to be revealed alongside the full range next year.
We’ve also snapped a prototype out and about undergoing testing, with spy shots revealing that the new Ypsilon will feature a row of physical buttons similar to the Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600 – two more of its stablemates from the Stellantis family – plus some distinctive bronze trim and art deco-inspired seat upholstery. We can also see the two large displays Lancia mentioned, which we expect will be the same seven-inch digital driver’s display and 10-inch central touchscreen as you now get in the Corsa.
It looks like the Ypsilon will bring some high-design and luxury features to the supermini class, which should put it in direct competition with the new MINI Cooper Electric, also arriving in 2024.
Meanwhile Lancia’s first official picture of the Ypsilon’s exterior reinforces the fact the design will take inspiration from the Lancia Pu+Ra HPE concept that was revealed in April 2023. The most obvious detail is the three-element front daytime running lights, which Lancia calls ‘the calice’. On the bonnet above sits Lancia’s nameplate, rather than the brand’s logo. To the rear we can expect to see an interpretation of the concept’s layered rear end with circular rear lights.
TrustpilotUnder the skin the new Lancia Ypsilon will share its fundamental underpinnings with the Peugeot 208 and Corsa. It will be available with both petrol and all-electric powertrain options, and in the case of the all-electric models, will probably share technical specifications with other e-CMP products, which boast up to 248 miles of range from the 54kWh battery they use. Beyond this, we expect the combustion models to also share their powertrains with the Peugeot and Corsa.
The Ypsilon will be the only new-era Lancia model to be offered with a combustion engine option, with the next two models in the pipeline due to be EV-only. Unfortunately, a possible Lanica relaunch in the UK is still off the table, with the brand not committing to anything beyond saying that it might be considered at some point in the future.
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