Why Stellantis chose the Zaragoza site to produce the Lancia Ypsilon
- The Lancia Ypsilon was produced in Italy from 1995 to 2011 then in Poland from 2011 to 2024. The new generation which was launched this year on the basis of the Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa is now produced in Spain (in Zaragoza). We can question the relevance of this new transfer, Poland still benefiting from lower production costs than those practiced in Western Europe.
- The main reason is that the new battery electric Ypsilon takes many elements from the battery electric Peugeot 208 and battery electric Opel Corsa (including the platform and the engine) which are produced in Zaragoza in Spain.
- This new arrival was made possible thanks to the transfer of the Citroën C3 Aircross and Opel Frontera (ex-Crossland) from Zaragoza to Trnava in Slovakia. The Trnava factory had seen the assembly of the Peugeot 208 transferred to Spain (for the electric versions) and to Morocco (for the thermal versions).
- As for the Polish factory in Tichy which assembled the old Lancia Ypsilon, it will suffer not only the end of production of this model but also of the Fiat 500 with a thermal engine. In compensation, this factory saw the arrival of the Jeep Avenger, Fiat 600 and Alfa-Romeo Junior, but these three models will probably not be able to completely offset the loss of the Lancia Ypsilon and Fiat 500, in particular because these three models are delivered partly in an electric version and that the electric market is stagnating. Stellantis has undoubtedly overestimated the electric market. This observation also applies to the sales of electric Fiat 500 which have been declining since the start of the year.