Due to a game of musical chairs at the Stellantis factories, the future Lancia Ypsilon will be produced at the Opel plant in Zaragoza, Spain, which will also host the production of the restyled Peugeot e-208 in 2023.
In the month of February, The argus revealed that the electric version of the Peugeot 208 will no longer be produced in Trnava in Slovakia but in the Opel plant in Zaragoza which also produces the Corsa. This change is explained by the transfer of production of the future Citroën C3 Aircross and Opel Crossland to Trnava, a factory dedicated to the Smart cars program. To make room in the Slovak factory, the production of the Peugeot e-208 will be transferred to Spain in 2023 on the occasion of its restyling. According to the Italian press (relying on an internal document), the Iberian unit will also take care of the future Lancia Ypsilon which, for reasons of development costs and delays, will be a technical clone of the Corsa and 208.
TO READ. Peugeot 208 (2023). A new claw for the restyled version
Italian elegance
The rebirth of the Italian brand and its expansion in Europe will be based on a three-car program by 2028 : the Ypsilon, a family electric SUV and a compact sedan respectively. For now, the priority is to renew the small city car that keeps the brand alive and which was restyled again in 2021. Since the summer of 2021, the project has taken shape and the first sketches have been presented by the French duo Jean-Pierre Ploué (head of the style of the European brands of Stellantis) and Frédéric Duvernier (responsible for the Lancia style from Citroën). According to our information, the Ypsilon will play on the register of Italian elegance knowing that its size will lengthen to around 4 m.
Petrol and electric
For the rest, it will share the CMP platform of its cousins with under the bonnet the new 1.2 PureTech engine (with timing chain) which will also be available in a mild-hybrid version thanks to the new e-DCT electrified automatic transmission from Punch Powertrain. For its electric version, the Italian will immediately benefit from the new features of the Corsa-e and e-208, namely a new engine developed by the joint venture Nidec/PSA while the Chinese CATL battery will welcome changes in its chemistry which will allow an increase in autonomy.
