When Stellantis was forged in the 2021 fires of the PSA and Fiat Chrysler merger, the boardroom was practically overflowing with 14 brands. At the time, the management team promised a golden future for every single one of them. It was a beautiful, inclusive sentiment, even if half those brands were essentially automotive ghosts or shadows of their former selves. Fast forward to today, and the “happy family” vibe has officially evaporated alongside the group’s market share.
The word on the street, backed by recent reports, suggests that CEO Antonio Filosa is about to drop a strategic bombshell. Stellantis is narrowing its vision to just four “core” pillars: Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, and Fiat. If you’re a fan of Dodge, Alfa Romeo, or Citroën, you might want to start sweating, as they’ve been left off the VIP list for now. Then there is Lancia, the brand that refuses to go quietly into the night.
Lancia’s “renaissance” last year felt more like a slow-motion stumble. Despite expanding into markets like France, Germany, and Spain, the legendary Italian marque moved fewer than 12,000 units in 2025. You can’t exactly sustain a pan-European empire when your entire catalog consists of a single car, the new Ypsilon. While we’ve been promised a new Gamma by the end of the year and a Delta by 2027, the current reality is a bit like trying to run a five-star restaurant with only one appetizer on the menu.
Naturally, where corporate strategy fails, the digital art community steps in with some much-needed CPR. Artist Mirko Del Prete (mdpautomotive) has imagined a new Lancia Thesis that actually looks like it belongs in the 21st century.
Reinterpreting the polarizing “Tipo 841” from the early 2000s, this render brings back the “timeless elegance” that Lancia once owned. It’s got all the modern tropes wrapped in a classic two-tone paint job that screams “Italian diplomat”. It’s beautiful, sleek, and unfortunately, purely hypothetical.
