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Like many others, I was initially skeptical when news broke some years back that Lancia was reviving the Delta nameplate. I still wasn’t swayed when the company announced that its vaunted “HF” badge—High Fidelity—was also making a return, for especially sporty models. What has been sporty about Lancia in the last 30 years? Stellantis was preying on the nostalgia of rally fans, and I was having none of it. But now that the company is actually involved in the lower classes of the sport again, and the Ypsilon HF looks decent, they’ve got my attention. And they’ll have it next year, too, when the brand says it will launch the upcoming “Delta with the ‘HF Integrale’ label.”
That’s a quote from Lancia’s latest press release, where it spills details about a new version of the Ypsilon HF rally car built to Rally6 specifications. Further down, Lancia proclaims that the HF name is “back and ready to take a central role in the brand’s vision of the future,” and that it will extend to the Gamma sedan as well as the new Delta.
First things first: Yes, it will be electric, but perhaps not exclusively. Though it may be hard to remember considering how much, well, everything has changed since the early part of the decade, Lancia was always eyeing a 2026 debut for the new Delta, and it seems to have kept its word.
The new Lancia Ypsilon HF Racing, an entry-level rally car in the FIA’s Rally6 category. Stellantis
That alone is a commendable thing in this industry. But the all-electric prophecies that began the 2020s have mostly been walked back, and since Stellantis stablemate Peugeot hasn’t ruled out a gas-powered version of its new e-208 GTi, per Autocar, there is a possible lane for a Delta HF Integrale with a combustion engine. Besides, Lancia has already signaled that the Gamma will be offered as a hybrid.
All that said, the Delta HF we see next year is expected to be a dual-motor EV. It’s said to be a twin of the Vauxhall Mokka and, therefore, many other small Stellantis crossovers we don’t really get here on this side of the pond. Platforms aren’t everything, though, and what will really make or break this Delta is the body style Lancia goes for. The difference between a modern hatchback and an SUV mostly lives within inches of ground clearance. If Lancia doesn’t jack the thing up, then it could look and handle pretty nicely.
Of course, that’s unfortunately a big assumption to make at a time when automakers are burning bridges in bringing back beloved models. We have pretty much no info on this new Delta, but fortunately, we shouldn’t have to wait forever to see what Lancia’s vision is. Surely it won’t measure up to the old Delta Integrale—but what could? All I’m asking for is an honest effort. The brand is back in rallying, after all, so I want to believe its heart is in the right place.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
