automobiles s.p.a. formerly called lancia & c. fabbrica automobili type societ per azioni industry automotive founded 29 november 1906 founder vincenzo lancia headquarters turin italy key people john elkann president saad chehab ceo of lancia and chrysler brand ceo of lancia antonella bruno since 23 april 2013 products cars production output 71 223 2013 owner fiat chrysler automobiles parent fca italy website lancia.com lancia italian pronunciation lant a is an italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by vincenzo lancia as lancia & c. . it became part of the fiat group in 1969 ; the current company lancia automobiles s.p.a. was established in 2007 . the company has a strong rally heritage and is noted for using letters of the greek alphabet for its model names . lancia vehicles are no longer sold outside of italy and comprise only the ypsilon supermini range as fiat ceo sergio marchionne foreshadowed in january 2014 . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 foundation and early years 1.2 1969 to present 1.3 logo 1.4 lancia family 2 automotive 2.1 current models 2.1.1 lancia ypsilon 2.2 past car models 2.3 concept cars 2.4 special cars 3 export markets 3.1 united states 3.2 united kingdom 3.3 japan 4 lancia in motorsport 4.1 formula one 4.2 rallying 4.3 sports car racing 4.3.1 titles 5 commercial vehicles 5.1 light commercial vehicles 5.2 heavy commercial vehicles 5.3 buses 5.3.1 trolleybuses 5.4 military vehicles 5.5 other 6 engines 7 media and sponsorship 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history edit lancia beta torpedo 1909 lancia production 1998 2013 2 year cars 1998 175 215 1999 161 019 2000 170 348 2001 134 812 2002 110 529 2003 108 989 2004 118 201 2005 115 543 2006 122 956 2007 118 036 2008 113 307 2009 113 810 2010 97 757 2011 100 007 2012 98 733 2013 71 223 this section needs expansion . you can help by adding to it . june 2008 foundation and early years edit lancia & c. fabbrica automobili was founded on 29 november 1906 in turin by fiat racing drivers vincenzo lancia 1881 1937 and his friend claudio fogolin 1872 1945 . the first car manufactured by lancia was the tipo 51 or 12 hp later called alfa which remained in production between from 1907 to 1908 . it had a small four cylinder engine with a power output of 28 hp . 3 in 1910 lancia components were exported to the united states where they were assembled and sold as sgv s by the sgv company . 4 in 1915 lancia also manufactured its first truck the jota that continued as a dedicated series . in 1937 vincenzo died of a heart attack and both his wife adele miglietti lancia and his son gianni lancia took over control of the company . they persuaded vittorio jano to join as an engineer . jano had already made a name for himself by designing various alfa romeo models including some of its most successful race cars ever such as the 6c p2 and p3 . lancia is renowned in the automotive world for introducing cars with numerous innovations . these include the theta of 1913 which was the first european production car to feature a complete electrical system as standard equipment . 5 lancia s first car adopting a monocoque chassis the lambda produced from 1922 to 1931 featured sliding pillar independent front suspension that incorporated the spring and hydraulic damper into a single unit a feature that would be employed in subsequent lancia s up to the appia that was replaced in 1963 . 1948 saw the first 5 speed gearbox to be fitted to a production car series 3 ardea . lancia premiered the first full production v6 engine in the 1950 aurelia 6 after earlier industry leading experiments with v8 and v12 engine configurations . it was also the first manufacturer to produce a v4 engine . other innovations involved the use of independent suspension in production cars in an era where live axles where common practice for both the front and rear axles of a car and rear transaxles which were first fitted to the aurelia and flaminia range . this drive for innovation constant quest for excellence fixation of quality complex construction processes and antiqued production machinery meant that all cars essentially had to be hand made . with little commonality between the various models the cost of production continued to increase extensively while demand did not eventually affecting lancia s viability . citation needed gianni lancia a graduate engineer was president of lancia from 1947 to 1955 . in 1956 the pesenti family took over control of lancia with carlo pesenti 1907 1984 in charge . 1969 to present edit fiat launched a take over bid in october 1969 which was accepted by lancia as the company was losing significant sums of money with losses in 1969 being gb 20m . 7 this was not the end of the distinctive lancia marque and new models in the 1970s such as the stratos gamma and beta served to prove that fiat wished to preserve the image of the brand it had acquired . during the 1970s and 1980s lancia had great success in rallying winning many world rally championships . during the 1980s the company cooperated with saab automobile with the lancia delta being sold as the saab 600 in sweden . the 1985 lancia thema also shared a platform with the saab 9000 fiat croma and the alfa romeo 164 . during the 1990s all models were closely related to other fiat models . starting from 1 february 2007 fiat s automotive operations were reorganised . 8 fiat auto became fiat group automobiles s.p.a. fiat s.p.a. s branch handling mainstream automotive production . simultaneously the current company lancia automobiles s.p.a. was created from the pre existing brand and controlled 100 % by fga . 8 in 2011 lancia moved in a new direction and added new models manufactured by chrysler and sold under the lancia badge in many european markets . conversely lancia built models began to be sold in right hand drive markets under the chrysler badge . in 2015 lancia s parent company fiat group automobiles s.p.a. became fca italy s.p.a. reflecting the earlier incorporation of fiat s.p.a. into fiat chrysler automobiles . logo edit 1907 lancia radiator script 1929 1957 lancia logo 1974 2000 lancia logo 1907 from 1907 to 1910 lancia cars didn t bear a true badge but rather a brass plaque identifying the manufacturer lancia & c. and chassis code ; although some models did have a brass lancia script on the grille . 9 1911 the original lancia logo was designed by count carlo biscaretti di ruffia . in 1910 vincenzo lancia asked biscaretti di ruffia to design a badge for the company ; the count submitted six watercolour proposal sketches . vincenzo lancia chose a round one composed by a blue lance and flag bearing a lancia script lancia means lance in italian in gold over a four spoke steering wheel with a hand throttle detail on the right spoke . 9 the first car to bear the lancia logo was the gamma 20 hp in 1911 . 9 1929 in 1929 the logo acquired its final layout the previous round badge was superimposed on a blue shield in the shape of a reuleaux triangle as found in one of biscaretti di ruffia s six original proposals . 9 though first applied on the 1929 dikappa this badge was only used consintently starting with the 1936 aprilia . 9 1957 beginning with the 1957 flaminia lancia cars switched from the traditional vertical split grille to an horizontal full width one . the logo was therefore moved inside the grille opening and changed to a more stylized chromed metal open work design ; shield and steering wheel became chrome frames the only remaining enameled surface being the blue field of the flag . this new metal logo was used on most models with some exceptions namely zagato bodied lancia fulvias and flavias the lancia 2000 berlina which reprised the traditional upright grille and the round enameled badge and the stratos hf whose ornaments lacked the triangular shield . 1974 in 1974 the badge was redesigned on gianni agnelli s request ; 9 it went back to a modernised silver white and blue version of the 1929 design . flag and lance were unified in a single shape and dispensed with the earlier minute detailing the lancia letters became all of the same size and the steering wheel became also outlined in blue and lost the hand throttle detail . this logo debuted on the 1979 lancia delta 9 and made its way on the other models as they adopted the split grille introduced by the delta . though lightly revised in 2000 with the addition of a chrome shield surround the 1974 logo was used through four decades up to 2006 . 2007 the current logo designed by robilant associati was presented at the 2007 geneva motor show a couple of months after the creation of lancia automobiles . 9 while the traditional chrome framed blue shield has been retained and made three dimensional for the first time since 1911 lance and flag are absent ; the steering wheel has been stylized into a chromed circle from which two spikes converge towards the modern lancia logotype in the centre . lancia family edit cavalier giuseppe lancia 1860 cuneo 1919 bordighera is an italian businessman and father of vincenzo lancia . when he was sixteen he started a business with food in italy . later for few years he made relationships with south america and he created a food industry in argentina . his efforts and innovations made his company a great success . his company was one of the first food companies in the country and showed new methods in this sector . when he made a fortune he returned to italy . when he goes back his rang in turin go to town advisor . by his education giuseppe is a translator . in 1875 he is married for marianna orazzi . in 1876 their first son giovanni is born . he loves education humanities and the greek language . in 1879 their daughter margherita was born . unfortunately she died in 1894 . in 1881 their third child vincenzo lancia was born . their second daughter was born at 1884 anna maria later anna maria giacobinni . the lancia family at that time was important for turin . the members of the family liked to go on opera and theatre . in their free time . the lancias spend their time at a villa near turin . vincenzo lancia was born on 24 of august 1881 in fobello near turin . his father wanted vincenzo to be a lawyer but didn t have much interest in the humanities . he met the battista brothers as well as giovanni ceirano and became interested in science and technology especially automobiles . he saw his first cars in turin and milan . one of his friends carlo bishareti di ruffia had a benz and that was the first important automobile in his life . when fiat was founded in 1899 vincenzo was very active in the company and later became one of the most famous test drivers of italian automobile brands . in 1922 vincenzo married his secretary adele miglietti . vincenzo and adele had three children gianni eleonora and maria . he died on february 15 1937 . gianni lancia was born on 24 november 1924 in turin . he finished his education with his sisters at the technical university of pisa . from the time he was a little boy gianni loved sports but his greatest passion was motor racing . this led him to become a driver for the lancia team . gianni became the boss of lancia in