Stellantis relaunches Lancia as all-electric marque, teases radical EV design
Italian automotive brand Lancia is experiencing a new renaissance in its 116 year history, and it involves going all electric. During a “Design Day” event today, the Stellantis subsidiary kicked off a ten year strategy that will introduce three bespoke Lancia EVs between 2024-2028. While it didn’t share any glimpse of its future EVs, Lancia did share an interesting looking automotive sculpture that encompasses the radical design we will see in all three of the future models. See more below.
Lancia was originally founded in Turin, Italy 1906 as Lancia & C. Fabbrica Automobili by Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin. The automaker spent its first 60 years building combustion vehicles rich with innovation, including the first full-production V6 engine.
In 1969, Fiat purchased Lancia, but the marque lived on producing vehicles through the ’70s and ’80s, where it found a successful niche in rally car racing. When Fiat Auto became Fiat Group in 2007, Lancia again pivoted along with it before rebranding in 2011 to design new vehicles built by Chrysler. Under FCA in 2015, Lancia continued to sell just one model – the Ypsilon, which is currently only sold in Italy.
There was worry that the Lancia named would be wiped altogether when FCA morphed once again, this time into Stellantis in 2021. We’ve covered this umbrella company plenty since then, but have not heard anything about its plans for Lancia. Now, under its “Dare Forward 2030” electrification strategy, Stellantis has given Lancia new life as an EV-centric brand.
It’s flagship model isn’t scheduled to arrive for a couple years, but Lancia shared its new logo, and the unique design elements it will keep in mind when manufacturing its first-ever EVs.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a… Lancia sculpture?
Executives and designers for the Italian marque kicked off their new era during a “Design Day” event, which included the sculpture you see above. No, it’s not an EV, but the driving design force that will (hopefully) inspire a few someday.
Lancia calls this sculpture the Pu+Ra Zero – a three-dimensional “manifesto” that encapsulates the “pure” and “radical” language of the three electric vehicles the Stellantis subsidiary intends to deliver every two years beginning in 2024. This journey will begin with an all-electric, redesigned version of the aforementioned Ypsilon, followed by a Delta EV. Per the release:
Lancia’s new Pu+Ra Design language creates a space with both pure and radical forms with a language not typical of the automotive industry and where the interiors of future Lancia vehicles will be perfectly consistent with the design of their exteriors. Once on board, the drivers and passengers will be embraced by the typical Lancia elegance, with interiors inspired by the icons of the past like the Gamma, Thema, and Flavia, which today have been enhanced by simple and intuitive technology in line with the brand DNA. The result is an authentic ‘living room atmosphere, providing a home feeling similar to the one experienced in a typical Italian home.
In addition to the Pu+Ra “art installation,” Lancia debuted its eighth logo, which, like the sculpture, is described as “Progressive Classic.” At its core, it is inspired by the 1957 logo that first debuted on the Flaminia, but it also revisits many of the brand elements of its century-plus long history. The lettering itself is entirely new, representing its renaissance into a new, all-electric era. Company CEO Luca Napolitano spoke during the event and shared his excitement for a new chapter in the Italian automaker’s history:
The new era of Lancia starts today with a new Logo and a clear design vision. In anticipation of the new Ypsilon, the first vehicle of the new Lancia, we are introducing Lancia Pu+Ra Zero, a sculpture, a three-dimensional manifesto which inspires the vehicles that will be launched between 2024 and 2028. A work of art in which the past and the future are in continuous contact, in which elegance is balanced with the radical spirit of forms. Today is the beginning of our Renaissance that will amaze Lancia fans all over the world. Lancia will once again be a desirable, respected, and reliable brand in the European premium market. Today is the beginning of the new Lancia!
Lastly, Lancia debuted a trailer for a three-part series documenting the rebirth of the Italian brand with episode one peeking behind the scenes leading up to today’s Design Day event. You can check out that trailer below, ahead of its premiere in January. It will be followed by a second episode in April 2023 and a final installment sometime in 2024, alongside the official launch of the all-electric Ypsilon.
Check back with Electrek soon for updates surrounding this reborn EV brand.
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Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
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Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.
The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.
The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.
Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.
The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.
“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.
Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus
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