Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as Fiat, is an Italian automobile manufacturer.
Fiat Automobiles was formed in January 2007 when Fiat Group reorganized its automobile business,[2] and traces its history back to 1899, when the first Fiat automobile, the Fiat 4 HP, was produced.
It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis.
Fiat Automobiles is the largest automobile manufacturer in Italy. During its more than century-long history, it remained the largest automobile manufacturer in Europe and the third in the world after General Motors and Ford for over 20 years, until the car industry crisis in the late 1980s.[3] In 2013, Fiat was the second-largest European automaker by volumes produced and the seventh in the world, while FCA was the world's eighth-largest automaker.
In 1970, Fiat Automobiles employed more than 100,000 in Italy when its production reached the highest number, 1.4 million cars, in that country.[4] As of 2002, it built more than 1 million vehicles at six plants in Italy and the country accounted for more than a third of the company's revenue.[4] Fiat has also manufactured railway engines, military vehicles, farm tractors, aircraft, and weapons such as the Fiat–Revelli Modello 1914.
Fiat-brand cars are built in several locations around the world. Outside Italy, the largest country of production is Brazil, where the Fiat brand was the market leader for many years.[5][6] The group also has factories in Argentina, Poland and Mexico (where Fiat-brand vehicles are manufactured at plants owned and operated by Stellantis North America for export to the United States, Brazil, Italy and other markets) and a long history of licensing manufacture of its products in other countries.
Fiat Automobiles has received many international awards for its vehicles,[7] including nine European Car of the Year awards, the most of any other manufacturer, and it ranked many times as the lowest level of emissions by vehicles sold in Europe.[8]
History
On 11 July 1899, Giovanni Agnelli was part of the group of founding members of FIAT, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino. The first Fiat plant opened in 1900[9] with 35 staff making 24 cars. Known from the beginning for the talent and creativity of its engineering staff, by 1903 Fiat made a small profit and produced 135 cars; this grew to 1,149 cars by 1906. The company then went public selling shares via the Milan stock exchange.
Agnelli led the company until his death in 1945, while Vittorio Valletta administered the firm's daily activities. Its first car, the 3 ½ CV (of which only 24 copies were built, all bodied by Alessio of Turin)[10] was based on a design purchased from Ceirano GB & C and had a 697 cc boxer twin engine.[11] In 1903, Fiat produced its first truck.[12] In 1908, the first Fiat was exported to the US.[12]
Leadership
Presence
Europe
Fiat's main market is Europe, mainly focused on Italy. Historically successful in building city cars and Superminis, currently Fiat has a range of models focused on those two segments (accounting for the 84% of its sales in 2011). Fiat does not currently offer any large family cars, nor executive cars: these market segments are to some extent covered by the Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, which Fiat also owns.
Fiat's share of the European market shrank from 9.4 percent in 2000 to 5.8 percent in the summer of 2004. At this point Sergio Marchionne was appointed as Fiat's chief executive. By March 2009 its market share had expanded to 9.1 percent.[33] Marchionne introduced an informal climate and reduced the links in the chain of command from nine to five.[34] He unilaterally decided to leave the Fiat group from Confindustria and Federmeccanica, and to cancel the national collective labor agreement in the engineering sector by starting separate negotiations with some trade union organizations for a new specific company agreement in the automotive sector, starting from the
Current production
EMEA
- A-segment - Fiat New 500
- A-segment - Fiat Panda
- C-segment - Fiat Tipo
- B-segment - Fiat 600
- B-segment - Fiat Grande Panda
- Minivan - Fiat Ulysse
- Minivan - Fiat E-Doblò
LATAM
- Fiat Mobi
European Cars of the Year
The European Car of the Year award has been awarded twelve times to the Fiat Group over the last forty years, more than any other manufacturer. Nine of these awards were won by Fiat Automobiles models. Fiat models awarded the title:
- 1967: Fiat 124
- 1970: Fiat 128
- 1972: Fiat 127
- 1984: Fiat Uno
- 1989: Fiat Tipo
- 1995: Fiat Punto
- 1996: Fiat Bravo/Brava
- 2004: Fiat Panda
- 2008: Fiat 500[63]
Electric vehicles
Fiat started the development of electric vehicles back in the mid-1970s, with the Fiat X1/23 concept. In 2008, Fiat showed the Phylla concept,[65] and the Fiat Bugster concept in Brazil.[66]
Fiat joined utility companies Cemig and Itaipu to develop new electric vehicles for Brazil, with production in 2009 of the Palio Weekend Electric.[67]
Fiat launched the electric 500e, a compliance car, in California in 2013, but no sales were planned for Europe.[68] Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne claimed in 2014 that each one was sold at a loss of $14,000.[69]
Concept vehicles
- 1952 Fiat Abarth 1500 Biposto (Abarth, Bertone)
- 1954 Fiat Turbina[71]
- 1956 Fiat 600 Multipla Eden Roc
- 1957 Fiat 1200 Stanguellini Spider
- 1961 Fiat 600 Model Y Berlinetta
- 1964 Fiat 2300 S Coupe Speciale
- 1967 Fiat 125 Executive Concept
- 1967 Fiat 125 GTZ
- 1967 Fiat Dino Parigi
- 1968 Fiat Abarth 2000[72]
- 1969 Fiat 128 Coupe
- 1969 Fiat 128 Teenager
Motorsport
In 1971, the Fiat 124 Sport Spider was prepared for the World Rally Championship when Abarth became involved with its production and development and from 1972 had relative success with two wins in 1972, one in 1973, and won 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 1974 Portuguese TAP Rally.[74]
The Fiat 131 Abarth was a very successful rally car replacing the 124. Between 1976 and 1981 the Fiat 131 won 18 World Rally Championship events,[75] resulting in winning the WRC Drivers Championship two times: in 1978, and in 1980, and winning the WRC Constructors Championship three times: in 1977, 1978, and in 1980.[76]
Lancia took over the role of motorsport for the Fiat Group during the 1980s. After a long break of factory-supported entries, in 2003 a Fiat Punto
Marketing
Logo
The FIAT initials were first used in the distinctive logo form in 1901.[78] Beginning in 1931, the company began using a single red shield without a wreath. In 1968 the "rhomboid" logo (as it was known internally) was introduced which featured the FIAT initials spelled out on four interconnected rhombuses. The rhomboid was slowly phased in during the early 1970s, although the older "laurel wreath" style FIAT badge was used to denote sporting models such as the 124 Spider, 127 Sport, X1/9, and the tuned Abarth models. A new corporate nose based on the rhomboid logo was first introduced in 1983 on the Uno, which consisted of five chrome bars inclined at an angle of 18 degrees to mirror the rhomboid, which usually appeared in reduced size at the corner of the grille.
In 1999, the wreath-style logo was reintroduced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the company.[79]
- Notes
Motor Village and flagship stores
See also
External links
References
- {{YouTube|id=tSn3l0GYUW8|time=1147s|title=FIAT 125th Anniversary – “Smiling to the future” Press Conference}}^
- Aijaz Hussain. Fiat SpA reorganizes auto business, changes name to Fiat Group Automobiles AP Worldstream, 23 January 2007, retrieved 22 September 2009^
- Valerio Castronovo. Il Piemonte nel processo di integrazione europea Giuffrè Editore, 2008^