Lancia Unveils Pu+Ra HPE Concept

Lancia has unveiled a brand new concept car, which packs several interesting bits from the future, as well as the past. And most of it is quite radical, including the name - Lancia Pu+Ra HPE. The ‘Pu’ stands for Pure, ‘Ra’ for Radical, and the ‘HPE’ is an ode to the Lancia Beta HPE. But while the HPE in Beta stood for ‘High Performance Estate’, here, the ‘E’ would be ‘Electric”.

Everything else about the concept is just like its name - thoughtful, yet somewhat confusing. It gets circular tail-lights from the legendary Stratos and a rear glass with horizontal lines from the Beta HPE. There’s also more than a few Y-shaped touches, with the wheels being 3 spoked, and a huge Y-shaped DRL up front, separating the hood and the bumper. The tiny headlights also get their own Y-shaped DRLs.

Just like the Y-shape, there’s also plentiful circular shapes in and outside the car. The Pu+Ra HPE gets a circular roof which Lancia says will allow more light into the cabin than a traditional panoramic sunroof. But it doesn't just end there. The two rows inside the cabin get their own circular tea tables separating the two seats, with no evident way to actually retain the tea cups one would place there. Then there’s the huge semi-circular dashboard, which folds to an angle to display a screen, which Lancia calls S.A.L.A. - short for Sound Air Light Augmentation. The centre console houses a few buttons which will control certain features within the car, while the rest may be operated from that screen itself, which will include self driving. The steering wheel - contrastingly - isn’t entirely circular, but it houses a display in the wheel itself, which has circular graphics. The display also gets a semicircular metallic insert around it.

The seats are shaped like a bucket, but they look like they belong in a furniture store rather than a car. The front seats are finished in a yellow fabric, while the rest of the interior - including the rear seat fabric - is a greenish shade of grey. Lancia says that up to 70% of the ‘aesthetic’ surface is made from sustainable materials; carpet being made out of natural fibre, and the glass components made from recycled material.

Apart from self driving, the car will also pack some serious tech in terms of the powertrain. Lancia is targeting a high-efficiency all-electric powertrain with an energy consumption of less than 10 kWh per 100 km. That should give the concept about 700 km range in a single charge, with a charging time of “a little more than 10 minutes”.