Lancia History

Cavalier Giuseppe Lancia (1860 (Cuneo) – 1919 (Bordighera) was an Italian businessman and father of Vincenzo Lancia. When he was sixteen he started a business with food in Italy. Later, for a few years, he made relationships with South America and he created a food industry in Argentina. His efforts and innovations made his company a great success. His company was one of the first food companies in the country and showed new methods in this sector. When he made a fortune, he returned to Italy. By his education, Giuseppe was a translator. In 1875, he married Marianna Orazzi. In 1876, their first son Giovanni was born. In 1879 their daughter Margherita was born. She died in 1894. In 1881, their third child, Vincenzo Lancia, was born. Their second daughter, Anna Maria (later Anna-Maria-Giacobinni), was born in 1884. In their free time, the Lancias spent their time at a villa near Turin.

Vincenzo Lancia was born on 24 August 1881 in Fobello near Turin. His father wanted Vincenzo to be a lawyer, but did not have much interest in the humanities. He met the Battista brothers as well as Giovanni Ceirano and became interested in science and technology, especially automobiles. He saw his first cars in Turin and Milan. One of his friends, Carlo Bishareti di Ruffia, had a Benz and that was the first important automobile in his life. When FIAT was founded in 1899, Vincenzo was very active in the company and later became one of the most famous test drivers of Italian automobile brands. In 1922, Vincenzo married his secretary – Adele Miglietti. Vincenzo and Adele had three children: Gianni, Eleonora and Maria. He died on February 15, 1937.

Gianni Lancia was born on 24 November 1924 in Turin. He finished his education with his sisters at the Technical University of Pisa. From the time he was a little boy Gianni loved sports, but his greatest passion was motor racing. This led him to become a driver for the Lancia team. Gianni became the boss of Lancia in 1950. He invested a lot of money in expensive prototypes and other unprofitable ventures that led him to sell a big part of the company to Carlo Pesenti in 1957. After that he started a business in the food industry. For a few years he lived in Brazil. He had a daughter and son, Mariele and Vincenzo, from his first marriage, and one son, Lorenzo Lancia, from his marriage to Jacqueline Sassard. He died on 30 June 2014.

Lancia & C. Fabbrica Automobili was founded on 27 November 1906 in Turin by Fiat racing drivers, Vincenzo Lancia (1881-1937) and his friend, Claudio Fogolin (1872-1945). The first car manufactured by Lancia was the “Tipo 51” or “12 HP” (later called “Alfa”), which remained in production from 1907 to 1908. It had a small four-cylinder engine with a power output of 28 PS (21 kW; 28 hp)

In 1910, Lancia components were exported to the United States where they were assembled and sold as SGVs by the SGV Company.[8] In 1915, Lancia also manufactured its first truck, the Jota, that continued as a dedicated series. In 1937, Vincenzo died of a heart attack. His wife, Adele Miglietti Lancia, and his son, Gianni Lancia, took over control of the company. They persuaded Vittorio Jano to join as an engineer. 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.

Lancia is renowned in the automotive world for introducing cars with numerous innovations. These include the Theta of 1913, which was the first European production car to feature a complete electrical system as standard equipment.[9] Lancia’s first car adopting a monocoque chassis – the Lambda produced from 1922 to 1931 – featured ‘Sliding Pillar’ independent front suspension that incorporated the spring and hydraulic damper into a single unit (a feature that would be employed in subsequent Lancias, up to the Appia that was replaced in 1963). In 1948, the first 5-speed gearbox was fitted to a production car (Series 3 Ardea).

Lancia premiered the first full-production V6 engine, in the 1950 Aurelia, after earlier industry-leading experiments with V8 and V12 engine configurations. It was also the first manufacturer to produce a V4 engine. Other innovations involved the use of independent suspension in production cars (in an era where live axles were common practice for both the front and rear axles of a car), and rear transaxles, which were first fitted to the Aurelia and Flaminia range. 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.

Gianni Lancia, a graduate engineer, was president of Lancia from 1947 to 1955. In 1956, the Pesenti family took over control of Lancia with Carlo Pesenti (1907–1984) in charge of the company.

With the end of the First World War, of course, Lancia also had to reckon with reconversion. The company’s founder, Vincenzo Lancia, decided to concentrate on automobiles at this time, as road freight transport was still modest and wartime vehicles somehow met demand.

It was not until 1921 that Lancia Veicoli Industriali started production of trucks for civil use. These were the Lancia Trijota and the Lancia Tetrajota, which were fitted with the four-cylinder 70 hp engine at 2,200 rpm. While the former was mainly bodied as a truck, the latter was mainly used as a bus. In total, however, 585 trucks were produced until 1924. In this year, in fact, Lancia Veicoli Industriali introduced a new vehicle, the Lancia Pentajota. A true giant of the road, which in terms of capacity was able to compete with American vehicles. The Pentajota, which once again mounted the 70 HP engine, was able to reach a maximum speed of 65 km/h. Production of this vehicle, divided into two series, continued until 1928 when 1,721 units had rolled off the Turin lines.

The next model, the Lancia Esajota, was a mere experiment produced in only thirteen examples, and the Lancia Eptajota came along in 1928. Thanks to this model, Lancia trucks once again came to dominate the market: up to 1934, the comfort and power of the vehicle led to around two thousand orders. Subsequently, insufficient power and significant competition forced Lancia to design a new industrial vehicle. The next model, the Lancia Omicron represented a big step forward. Starting with the engine, an inline six-cylinder with 7,069 cm3, which was capable of delivering an impressive 92 hp at 1,600 rpm. What convinced the market of the vehicle’s worth, however, was its proverbial indestructibility. One example: some vehicles are said to have exceeded a mileage of two million kilometres. When Lancia acquired the manufacturing licence for the Junkers diesel engine, then the Lancia Ro was born, which was also produced in a military version: thus the Ro-Ro was born, on which the Junkers three-cylinder 4,771 cm3 engine was mounted, and the 3 Ro, which instead was equipped with a five-cylinder 6,871 cm3 engine. The latter, in particular, was produced until after the Second World War for a total of around 12,700 vehicles.

Despite doubts about the brand’s future following the completion of the Stellantis merger in 2021, Lancia was made part of a joint group with sister companies Alfa Romeo and DS Automobiles, to develop new premium models for the 2024 model year. As part of Stellantis’ recovery plan for Lancia, Luca Napolitano was appointed the car maker’s CEO, and Jean-Pierre Ploué its chief designer.

Three new electric models were announced in June 2021: a replacement city car for the Ypsilon; a compact crossover (codenamed L74 and rumoured to be named the Aurelia); and a compact hatchback, likely to be a new Delta.

In late 2021, Luca Napolitano and Jean-Pierre Ploué celebrated Lancia’s 115th anniversary with a docufilm entitled Elegance on the move.

In November 28th, 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. Inspired by historic models such as the Aurelia, Flaminia, Delta and the 1970 Stratos Zero concept car, future electric models will be adorned by both organic lines and geometric shapes at the same time. The iconic calice grille was reinterpreted as a new Y-shaped LED light signature, with the new wordmark above them, instead of the shield. At the rear, round taillights pays homage directly to the Stratos sports car.

On 15 April 2023, Luca Napolitano presented the Lancia Pu+Ra HPE Concept in Milan. The L74 crossover was confirmed to be a new Gamma, a five-door fastback like the original.