The brand is known for its strong rallying heritage, and technical innovations such as the unibody chassis of the 1922 Lambda and the five-speed gearbox introduced in the 1948 Ardea.

Despite Lancia's much smaller brand presence, the Ypsilon continues to be popular in Italy; in fact it was the second best-selling car there in 2019.

Jano had already made a name for himself by designing various Alfa Romeo models, including some of its most successful race cars ever such as the 6C, P2 and P3.

These include the Theta of 1913, which was the first European production car to feature a complete electrical system as standard equipment.

This drive for innovation, constant quest for excellence, fixation of quality, complex construction processes and antiquated production machinery meant that all cars essentially had to be hand-made.

With little commonality between the various models, the cost of production continued to rise, while flat demand eventually affected Lancia's viability.

[13] This was not the end of the distinctive Lancia marque, and new models in the 1970s such as the Stratos, Gamma and Beta proved that Fiat wished to preserve the image of the brand it had acquired.

Since then, the Lancia brand has remained alive, only by continuing to manufacture and sell the Ypsilon - which received another slight facelift in 2020 - exclusively in the Italian market.

[17][18][19] As part of Stellantis' recovery plan for Lancia, Luca Napolitano was appointed the car maker's CEO,[20] and Jean-Pierre Ploué its chief designer.

[27][4][6] On November 28, 2022, Luca Napolitano laid the cornerstone of Lancia's "renaissance" by revealing a new logo and introducing the new Pu+Ra (Pure + Radical) Design language - through a sculpture called Pu+Ra Zero.

As of July 2024, Lancia Ypsilon closed the first half of 2024 with 24,709 units sold, with a 3% increase in volumes and a market share of 2.8%, in line with last year's performance, confirming itself as one of the best-selling cars in its segment.

In this context, Lancia will close the year 2024, if massive incentives and tax breaks do not intervene with sales of approximately 30,000 units only for italian market.

Lancia has shown several concept cars to the public including the Flaminia Loratmo (1958), Stratos Zero (1970), the Megagamma by Italdesign Giugiaro and Sibilo by Bertone in 1978, Hit (1988) by Pininfarina, the Bertone-designed Kayak (1995), the Dialogos (1998) and Nea in 2000.

In January 2014, in an interview with La Repubblica, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne foreshadowed that Lancia would become an Italy–only brand, and focus only on the Ypsilon supermini range.

[62] The brand never recovered from the damage inflicted during the Beta recall and, combined with a range of related factors (including poor residual values, which made their range uncompetitive), decided to withdraw from the United Kingdom (and other right-hand drive markets) in February 1994.

[68] In 2011, Lancia Ypsilon and Delta models were eventually reintroduced to the United Kingdom, but were sold under the Chrysler marque.

After Vincenzo Lancia's son Gianni became director of the firm, it started to take part more frequently in motorsport, eventually deciding to build a Grand Prix car.

With Ascari's death and Lancia's financial problems the company withdrew from Grand Prix racing.

[71] Remnants of the Lancia team were transferred to Scuderia Ferrari,[72] where Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1956 championship with a Lancia-Ferrari car.

Among other drivers to take several World Rally Championship wins with Lancia were Markku Alén, Didier Auriol, Sandro Munari, Bernard Darniche, Walter Röhrl, Björn Waldegård and Henri Toivonen.

The same year Lancia introduced the D24 sports racer, which was an evolution of D23 model, but rebodied as a spider by Pinin Farina.

The LC2 was a match for the standard-setting Porsche 956 in terms of raw speed, securing 13 pole positions over its lifetime; however, its results were hampered by poor reliability and fuel economy, and it only managed to win three European and World Endurance Championship races.

In 1910 Vincenzo Lancia asked Biscaretti di Ruffia to design a badge for the company: the Count submitted six watercolour proposal sketches.

[74] In 1929 the logo acquired its final layout: the previous round badge was superimposed on a blue shield in the shape of a Reuleaux triangle (as found in one of Biscaretti di Ruffia's six original proposals).

[74] Beginning with the 1957 Flaminia, Lancia cars switched from the traditional vertical split grille to a horizontal, full-width one.

In 1974 the badge was redesigned on Umberto Agnelli's request;[74] it went back to a modernised silver, white and blue version of the 1929 design.

A redesigned logo, designed by Robilant Associati, was presented at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show—a couple of months after the creation of Lancia Automobiles.

[74] While the traditional chrome-framed blue shield has been retained and made three-dimensional, for the first time since 1911 lance and flag are absent; the steering wheel has been stylized into a chromed circle, from which two spikes converge towards the modern Lancia logotype in the centre.

[29] In 2009, the British motoring television show Top Gear suggested that Lancia had more 'great' models than any other car company.

[76] Lancia was sponsor of the ninth and eleventh World Summits of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.