2023-08-01 19:19:48
The Stellantis factory in Figueruelas has closed the shutter for holidays until August 18 with an impact news: the manufacture of its first unit of Lancia Ypsilon, the first vehicle of the Italian brand to be manufactured in Spain. It is the third plug-in –although it will also have a hybrid version– that is already running on the production lines of the Zaragoza factory, through which the Opel Corsa-e is already running and, in tests until September, the Peugeot e-208.
The Ypsilon is set to spearhead Lancia’s renaissance under the Stellantis umbrella., who wants to relaunch the firm as a luxury vehicle brand. With an electric version and a hybrid version, the historic brand that treasures 116 years of life He hopes to leave behind a black stage with a crisis of reputation and sales. The firm’s new model will begin rolling down the factory lines of the Figueruelas factory for mass production in April 2024, with production estimated at 60,000 units per year.
In fact, Lancia has not yet released the real image of how its new vehicle will lookwhich he keeps under summary secrecy due to the importance that the Italian brand gives to the car that will mean the return of the firm to the European market, since now it is only manufactured and sold in Italy.
The announcement from Zaragoza
This was announced by the CEO of Lancia, Luca Napolitano, last Friday on his social networks after visiting the Figueruelas plant at the beginning of the week together with its director, José Luis Alonso Mosquera. “Today we see the beginning of a new chapter in Lancia’s Renaissance Plan. I am happy to announce that the first new Lancia Ypsilon has been manufactured. We are prepared”, Napolitano wrote about information confirmed by union sources from the factory. This fact does not mean that he has already rolled in tests along the lines until assembling the first complete vehicle.
In any case, the Ypsilon tests will continue after the summer holidays, since the Figueruelas plant, the largest industry in Aragon with more than 5,200 workers, closes its doors from yesterday until August 27. Thus, in the Ribera Alta del Ebro factory, a crucial course for the future of the factory was completed, in which the crisis due to the shortage of microchips was giving its last throes –it has forced the stoppage of production for several full days– added to the collapse in car carrier companies, whatand flooded the fields of Figueruelas with brand new vehiclesr. And that without naming the key of the year and possibly of the medium-term future of the factory: the negotiation of the collective agreement.
The landing of the Ypsilon in Figueruelas was confirmed just a couple of months ago by Stellantis herself and confirms the migration of the plant to sustainable mobility. Along with the model of the Italian brand, the factory will electrify its lines to host the production of the plug-in models of the Corsa and the Peugeot 208 before the arrival of the platform that will exclusively assemble electric vehicles, known as STLA in Stellantis jargon.
Related news
The arrival of this production chain was a priority objective for both the management of the plant and the works council because guarantees the survival of the factory beyond 2030, when the multinational will stop producing combustion vehicles. The platform is guaranteed because this is how it was signed in the last collective agreement, sealed on May 5, a certainty of Figueruelas can boast before the factories of Vigo and Villaverde (Madrid), which will negotiate their company agreements with the same objective but knowing that Zaragoza will host the electric vehicle assembly platform.
Lancia has a 10-year strategic plan that includes a light and efficient range: the New Ypsilon in 2024, the Gamma in 2026 and the Delta in 2028, giving rise to a new product every two years that ends the launch drought that the Italian firm was going through before being acquired by Stellantis. This commitment to the electrification of the transalpine brand implies that, from 2026, the new cars that it launches on the market will only be 100% electric, while from 2028 it will exclusively sell this type of purely plug-in vehicle.
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