Lancia Pu+Ra HPE, the brand shows its future without forgetting its successful past

Absent from the market for seven years, it has not disappeared from the drawing boards: since then the Stellantis group has been preparing a grand return for Lancia, a great brand once renowned for its exquisite design, sports cars and the impressive technology they carried.

Fortunately, Lancia is already counting down the days until it presents its new models to the world, models that will arrive with an electric powertrain of sporting character and a design worthy of both exterior and interior. This is reflected in the Lancia Pu+Ra HPE we now know, a prototype that showcases the brand’s future design language and draws inspiration from past models that marked a milestone.

With one eye on the exciting future of the brand but without losing sight of its finest years, Lancia shows the world the Pu+Ra HPE, a two-door coupé with a pronounced sporting character that lays the foundations of this new era for the brand. Its bodywork catches the eye from every angle, recalling its past first and foremost through the “Verde Progressive” colour inspired by the Lancia Flaminia Azzurro Vincennes.

But the great inspirations behind the Pu+Ra HPE are undoubtedly the Lancia Stratos and the Beta HPE. From the former it takes the sporting lines reflected in the coupé silhouette of the Pu+Ra HPE, with a steeply raked windscreen, a low ride height to further emphasise its sportiness, and a rear end with a spoiler integrated into the bodywork, which also houses the round headlights that clearly recall the Stratos.

The Beta HPE was in its day a Gran Turismo that prized comfort and technology, which is why the Pu+Ra HPE aims to make occupants forget they are inside a vehicle, thanks to the large glazed surface overhead that connects directly with the front windscreen and rear window, complemented by cutting-edge details such as cameras that perform the function of rear-view mirrors, as well as three-spoke wheels that draw attention, together with a front end that looks back at us defiantly, partly thanks to the Y-shaped light signature.

The interior, seating four occupants, features a minimalist design, fully technological and oriented towards luxury, as befits a good Italian car. Once we open the doors, we see a clear distinction between the front and rear seats due to the colour chosen for the upholstery and, once seated at the driver’s position, the abundant light welcomes us to a technology-driven interior governed by the SALA system, implemented on an enormous touchscreen located on the dashboard.

Obviously this infotainment system will not make it to the production vehicle in this form, but it does offer a good showcase of the technological capability that brands possess and that we will perhaps see in vehicles in the not-too-distant future. This system also highlights the absence of physical buttons, although they have not been abandoned entirely, as the transmission tunnel still houses a few for basic functions.

Lancia has not yet revealed the technical specifications of the future electric powertrain, but it has given a new meaning to the initials HPE, previously known as “High Performance Estate” and now standing for “High Performance Electric“, which gives a good indication that it points towards sportiness. The only thing Lancia has hinted at in this regard is that the Pu+Ra HPE could cover 700 kilometres on the WLTP test cycle with a consumption of 10 kWh/100 km and, once its battery is depleted, could be recharged in just 10 minutes.