Scandal at Stellantis: the Lancia Ypsilon designer accuses Peugeot of copying him!

Update: this article was obviously an April Fool's joke! Some of the information below has been made up.

It's a statement that has shaken the automotive design world! the lead designer of the all-new Lancia Ypsilonunveiled in early 2024, makes an explosive accusation against Peugeot. According to him, the French manufacturer copied the design of its model to create the Peugeot 208, launched five years earlier, in 2019. A statement which, at first glance, defies the logic of time and space, but which conceals a story worthy of an industrial espionage novel.

The two models, produced in Spain, not only share the same platform and engines, but now also boast disturbing aesthetic similarities. "I was stunned to discover the existence of the 208 after finalizing the design of the Ypsilon. How could Peugeot have launched such a similar model five years before us?" asks the Lancia designer, visibly shaken by this temporal coincidence.

The case takes an even more dramatic turn with the revelation that its Ypsilon prototype was stolen and found in the Montbéliard river in December 2023. "It's irrefutable proof that Peugeot anticipated our design and used it for the 208," he says, insisting that it wasn't Lancia that followed Peugeot, but the other way around.

Despite the apparent absurdity of the situation, the designer doesn't give up And he's already promising that his next creation, the Lancia Gamma, will bear an uncanny resemblance to the Peugeot 408: "As luck would have it!" he says with a knowing smile, suggesting that the design war between the two historic brands is not about to die down.