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The Volvo S90 has been updated with a fresh face, upgraded interior technology and extra electric range for the plug-in hybrid version.

Visual changes include a new front grille, which matches those on the revised XC90 and XC60 SUVs, as well as sharper-looking lighting signatures front and rear, bringing it into line with the new ES90 EV.

Additional sound insulation is aimed at boosting interior refinement and adaptive suspension has been standardised across the range.

Inside, the 11.2in touchscreen infotainment system has been updated to improve its responsiveness and it can now be updated over the air.

The car will be offered with a choice of mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains. Volvo has yet to release performance figures but the PHEV’s electric range has been increased from 46 miles to 50.

The new S90 is not expected to arrive in the UK. The saloon was removed from Volvo's line-up in the UK two years ago due to poor sales and the brand’s emphasis on electric models at the time. That left Volvo buyers to choose from the smaller S60 saloon, the V90 estate or one of the firm’s SUVs.

Volvo is instead prioritising international markets for the S90. The model will be rolled out in China this summer, with other countries following thereafter.

“The S90 is a key part of our product portfolio for the coming years in some of our Asian markets,” said Volvo product and strategy chief Erik Severinson.

The S90’s de facto successor, the ES90, is due in the UK next year. Prices will range from around £70,000 to just below £90,000.

Until recently, Lancia was withering away on death row, reduced since 2017 to a single model in a single market. One could almost sense hard-headed FCA chief Sergio Marchionne’s irritation as the Fiat 500-based Ypsilon continued to sell in droves.

It’s thanks only to Italian drivers’ patriotism and indifference to needless expense and the latest tech that Lancia survived for long enough to be saved by Stellantis.

Credit must go to founding Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares for appreciating Lancia’s value enough to hand the brand sufficient funding for a 10-year revival of its core model lines.

Precisely what is that inherent value, though? That’s what I’m hoping to discover, driving the new Ypsilon in Turin – home to the first factory that employed Vincenzo Lancia way back in 1898, the first site he opened under his own name and the famous Mirafiori plant, now also host to the Fiat and Lancia historic car collection.

The Ypsilon comes in Ibrida and Elettrica forms, and I’ve chosen the Elettrica, it being Lancia’s electric car. The former uses a 99bhp mild-hybrid 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol triple, the latter a 154bhp motor and a 51kWh battery.

Those specs feel very familiar because they are, from the many small cars based on Stellantis’s e-CMP platform.

The Ypsilon Elettrica drives virtually indistinguishably from a Peugeot 208 or Vauxhall Corsa EV, then. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Those cars have sold extremely well and the finer points of ride and handling aren’t priorities for many buyers in this market.

The Ypsilon is smooth, comfortable and refined on the autostrada, and in town it has a healthy reserve of power and it will round corners sharply. And if that really isn’t enough for you, exciting news: there’s a rally-inspired HF version coming.

What really sets everyday cars apart, prices aside, is design. The reason one person falls in love with the Jeep Avenger may well be why another orders an Alfa Romeo Junior instead, despite their identical specs.

Lancia has always been a design brand and, in this coming era of increasing mechanical and technical similarity, going all in on that appears to be an ideal strategy.

“Many people came expressly to ask me to work for Lancia. There was passion in their eyes, and when I told them about the possible plans for the rebirth of this glorious brand, they lit up,” creative chief Jean-Pierre Ploué (designer of such favourites as the Mk1 Renault Twingo, Citroën C6 and DS 3) recently told Italian publication Auto & Design.

Of the four design pillars his Turin studio team defined, ‘meaningful’ perhaps isn’t the easiest to identify in the Ypsilon, but ‘iconic’ I can see in the Stratos-inspired tail-lights and, while ‘consistent’ and ‘eclectic’ might seem to clash, the exterior sparks interest in its many details – most unusually the, erm, Y-front – without becoming a hotchpotch.

Same inside, where unusual details abound: knurled gold air-vent adjusters, slices of wood, an art deco dashboard pattern and a table atop the centre console – whose round shape is replicated in the doors and ‘Sala Hub’ behind the touchscreen (short for Sound Air Light Augmentation and meant to simplify the digital experience, apparently). And then there are the rust-coloured, boiserie-patterned velvet seats – simply fabulous.

The Ypsilon’s official range is 250 miles, so I expect to finish the 160-mile drive to my hotel in Turin with plenty in reserve, but the number on the display plunges alarmingly as I cruise at 80mph, such that I have to rise early the next morning to get a big charge.

Thankfully, Zap-Map reveals that there are many chargers in this industrial city, and the Plentitude network (run by Italian oil giant Eni) offers both an easy app sign-up process and a slick-looking ‘CCS Hypercharger’.

The rate races to 89kW (the Ypsilon’s limit is 100kW) and all is well – until suddenly it isn’t. The charging process terminates halfway for no obvious reason and fails to restart.

Then the car bongs loudly and says: “Electric traction system failure: stop the vehicle, see user manual.” Ah.

There’s work to be done then, and the technicians tell me later they could find no fault with the car. When I visit the FCA Heritage Hub, the guide suggests some Italians aren’t too hot on the Ypsilon either, unconvinced by the design and annoyed that it’s built in Spain.

It’s evident that rebuilding Lancia is going to be difficult in many ways – but when you see the history the brand has and the passion it still evokes, you realise why it’s an effort worth making.