The Lancia Ypsilon HF Brings The Lancia Hot Hatch Back From The Dead

Once upon a time, Lancia’s HF badge was a symbol of performance and racing prowess, appearing on legendary cars like the Stratos and Delta Integrale. During the last 25 years or so, as the Lancia brand underwent an unceremonious slide into obscurity, it all but disappeared. Now, though, as part of Lancia’s grand rebirth plan under Stellantis, it’s back, and its first appearance is on this: the Lancia Ypsilon HF.

Unsurprisingly, there are no boosty turbochargers or sonorous V6s to be found here. While the standard Ypsilon is available with electric or petrol powertrains, the hot HF version is electric only. It’s based on Stellantis’ e-CMP platform, which underpins a truly vast array of small cars produced by the mega-company’s many, many brands.

In HF guise, it uses a setup that’s becoming very familiar with an upcoming wave of other small, performance-oriented EVs from Stellantis, including the Abarth 600e and Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce. That means it gets a 237bhp motor driving the front wheels, and a mechanical limited-slip diff on the front axle, all of which points to this whole electric performance thing being taken quite seriously.

Next to the standard Ypsilon, it sits lower and wider, and gets lots of aggro black cladding, because performance. On the inside, it’s all fairly similar to ‘lounge-inspired’ setting of the cooking model, down to the little ‘coffee table’ platform jutting out of the dash. It gets some new, sporty seats, clad in blue leather.

It’s also full of little ‘elefantino rosso’ – little red elephant – badges, marking the return of the performance symbol that the ever-esoteric Lancia used in its rallying heyday. Coinciding with the reveal of the road car, Lancia has also announced its factory return to rallying, although so far only in the junior Rally4 class, with the Ypsilon Rally4 HF.

While there’s a chance we might see that car tearing up the forests of Britain at some point, what we won’t see for the foreseeable is the roadgoing Ypsilon HF in UK showrooms. While Lancia’s expansion plans involve reintroducing the brand to markets outside of its Italian homeland, British sales aren’t currently part of that plan.