An icon returns? Lancia's classic design shows through in Pu+Ra HPE electric car concept

While its biggest splashes weren't made in Australia, the return of Italian sports car brand Lancia is reason for some old-school enthusiasts to take note of the electric car movement.

The brand known for sports and rally cars like the Stratos and Delta Integrale has revealed a car that signals the design and intention of its future models, called the Pu+Ra HPE.

Signalling the name of the car, Lancia calls the HPE concept a "symbiosis between past and present, between purity and radicalism, between innovation and emotion", with Pu+Ra being adjacent to a portmanteau of the words 'purity' and 'radicalism'.

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The HPE is a badge once applied to a variant of the Lancia Beta standing for High Performance Estate, though now stands for High Performance Electric according to the Stellantis-owned Italian brand.

While it's not slated for production yet, Lancia has published some basic stats with the concept, including a range of more than 700km, energy consumption of less than 10kWh per 100km, and a charge time under 10 minutes. Optimistic stuff.

In terms of actual production, the brand's first new model in its modern era will be a compact city car called the Ypsilon, coming in 2024, which CEO Luca Napolitano says will be followed by a series of cars inspired by the HPE concept.

"Today Lancia presents Lancia Pu+Ra HPE, the brand vision for the next 10 years that takes the brand into the era of electric mobility and sums up our way of conceiving and experiencing the car. Starting with the new Ypsilon, our cars of the future will be inspired by the Lancia Pu+Ra HPE," said Napolitano.

Lancia says it will focus on three main areas of model: city cars, flagships and compact sedans.