From 1890s to 1920s (1899) is the first model of car produced by
Fiat. (1910) exhibited in the
Museo Alfa Romeo (1925) exhibited in the
Museo Alfa Romeo SS 4.9 Coupe , produced from 1939 to 1953 , produced from 1957 to 1970 , produced from 1954 to 1965 , produced from 1972 to 1984 In 1888
Giovanni Battista Ceirano started building
Welleyes bicycles, so named because English names had more sales appeal, and in October 1898 he co-founded
Ceirano GB & C with his brothers
Matteo, and
Ernesto to build the
Welleyes motor car. As they encountered challenges of scale and finance they contacted a consortium of local nobility and business-men led by
Giovanni Agnelli and in July 1899
Fiat SpA purchased the plant, design and patents – so producing the first
F.I.A.T. – the
Fiat 4 HP. The Welleyes / F.I.A.T 4 HP had a 679 cc engine and was capable of . 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) was based on a design purchased from
Ceirano GB & C and had a boxer twin engine. In 1903, Fiat produced its first truck. In 1908, the first Fiat was exported to the US.
Isotta Fraschini, an Italian luxury car manufacturer, was founded in 1900 at first assembling Renault model automobiles. It was founded in
Milan by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo, Antonio, and Oreste Fraschini. The firm was named for its founders, Cesare Isotta and Vincenzo Fraschini, who had been importing
Mors and
Renault automobiles as well as
Aster proprietary engines since 1899. Prior to establishing their own products in 1904, Isotta and Fraschini assembled cars very similar to Renaults, with Aster engines. They differed from the real Renaults in having a neater underslung front radiator arrangement. The first automobile bearing this marque featured a four-cylinder engine with an output of .
Itala was a car manufacturer based in
Turin, Italy, from 1904 to 1934, started by
Matteo Ceirano and five partners in 1903. Three cars were offered in the first year, an 18 hp, a 24 hp and a 50 hp. In 1905 they started making very large-engined racing cars with a 14.8-litre 5-cylinder model which won the
Coppa Florio and the year after that the
Targa Florio. In 1907 a 35/45 hp model driven by Count
Scipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona who won the
Peking to Paris motor race by three weeks. These sporting successes helped sales dramatically; the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable-stroke,
sleeve-valve, and "Avalve" rotary types and at the beginning of World War I, offered a wide range of cars. During the war, Itala built aeroplane engines but made a loss producing them. An Itala mod. 35/45 HP, now exposed at the
Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile ('National Automobile Museum') in
Turin, became famous for the victory at the
Peking to Paris. Its first car was the
24 HP, designed by
Giuseppe Merosi, which became commercially successful and participated in the 1911
Targa Florio endurance race. In August 1915, ALFA was acquired by
Neapolitan entrepreneur and engineer
Nicola Romeo, who vastly expanded the company's portfolio to include heavy machinery and aircraft engines. In 1920, the company's name was changed to Alfa Romeo, with the
Torpedo 20–30 HP being the first vehicle to bear the new brand.
Lancia was founded in 1906 in
Turin by
Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin. It became part of
Fiat in 1969. The brand is known for its strong
rallying heritage, and technical innovations such as the
unibody chassis of the 1922
Lambda and the five-speed gearbox introduced in the 1948
Ardea. Despite not competing in the
World Rally Championship since 1992, Lancia still holds more
Manufacturers' Championships than any other brand. Sales of Lancia-branded vehicles declined from over 300,000 annual units sold in 1990 to less than 100,000 by 2010. Despite Lancia's much smaller brand presence, the
Lancia Ypsilon continues to be popular in Italy; in fact it was the second best-selling car there in 2019. , designed by
Bertone Gruppo Bertone was an Italian
industrial design company which specialized in
car styling,
coachbuilding and
manufacturing. It was also a car manufacturing company. The company was based in
Grugliasco,
northern Italy. Gruppo Bertone was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 by
Giovanni Bertone. Designer
Nuccio Bertone took charge of the company after
World War II and the company was divided into two units:
Carrozzeria for manufacturing and
Stile Bertone for styling. Until its bankruptcy in 2014, the company was headed by the widow of Nuccio Bertone, Lilli Bertone. At the time of bankruptcy, it had around 100 direct employees. In 2014, most employees lost their jobs and were not absorbed by following acquisitions. Cars from the company museum went to other museums, like
Automotoclub Storico Italiano and
Volandia. After its bankruptcy, the Bertone name was acquired by an
architect and retained by some of its former employees, who continued as a
Milan-based small external design office, Bertone Design, more focused on industrial design and architecture. Bertone Design was sold to the group AKKA Technologies in the second quarter of 2016, which already had automotive design activities through Mercedes-Benz Technologies. The AKKA Technologies group subsequently sold the Bertone brand in 2020 to Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, the new owners. In 2022, Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci revived the Bertone brand. The first in a series of limited edition vehicles, the
GB110, was presented in December 2022, then unveiled in June 2024.
Maserati was established in 1914 in
Bologna. The company's headquarters are now in
Modena, and its emblem is a
trident. The company has been owned by
Stellantis since 2021. Maserati was initially associated with
Ferrari. In May 2014, due to ambitious plans and product launches, Maserati sold a record of over 3,000 cars in one month. This caused them to increase production of the
Quattroporte and
Ghibli models. In addition to the Ghibli and Quattroporte, Maserati offers the
Maserati GranTurismo and two SUV models, the
Maserati Levante (the first ever Maserati SUV) and the
Maserati Grecale. Maserati has placed a yearly production output cap at 75,000 vehicles globally.
Zagato is a
coachbuilding company founded by
Ugo Zagato in 1919. The design center of the company is located in Terrazzano, a village near
Rho, Lombardy,
Italy. Ugo Zagato was an Italian automotive designer and builder. He was born in
Gavello, near
Rovigo (June 25, 1890). He began his coach building career in 1919 when he left "Officine Aeronaut Aluminum Ti Che Pomilio" to set up his own business in
Milan. He intended to transfer various construction techniques from aeronautics to the automotive sector. Cars of the time were often bulky and heavy; Ugo Zagato conceived them as lightweight structures with a frame in sheet
aluminum similar to an aircraft fuselage. The automobile industry grew quickly and manufacturers included
Aquila Italiana,
Fratelli Ceirano,
Diatto,
Itala,
Junior,
Società Ceirano Automobili Torino,
S.T.A.R. Rapid,
SPA, and
Zust. During the first and the second World Wars and the economic crisis of the 1970s, many of these brands disappeared or were bought by FIAT or foreign manufacturers. Over the years, the Italian automobile industry has also been involved in numerous enterprises outside Italy, many of which have involved the production of Fiat-based models, including
Lada in
Russia,
Zastava and
Yugo in the former
Yugoslavia,
FSO (
Polski Fiat) in
Poland and
SEAT (now part of
Volkswagen) in
Spain. , 1967
European Car of the Year, the ancestor Soviet (
Lada) and Turkish (
TOFAŞ Murat 124,
TOFAŞ Serçe) mass car industry , 1972
European Car of the Year, the catalyst of Spanish (
SEAT) and Yugoslavian (
Zastava) automotive industry
From 1930s to 1960s Pininfarina is a
car design firm and
coachbuilder, with headquarters in
Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by
Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian multinational
Mahindra Group acquired 76.06% of Pininfarina S.p.A. for about €168 million. Pininfarina is employed by a wide variety of automobile manufacturers to design vehicles. These firms have included long-established customers such as
Ferrari,
Alfa Romeo,
Peugeot,
Fiat,
GM,
Lancia, and
Maserati, to emerging companies in the Asian market with Chinese manufactures like
AviChina,
Chery,
Changfeng,
Brilliance,
JAC and
VinFast in
Vietnam and Korean manufacturers
Daewoo and
Hyundai. Li 125 Special
Innocenti was a machinery works, originally established by
Ferdinando Innocenti in 1933 in Lambrate, a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Milan. Over the years, they produced
Lambretta scooters as well as a range of automobiles, mainly of
British Leyland origins. The brand was retired in 1996, six years after being acquired by
Fiat. After
World War II, the company was famous for many years for
Lambretta scooters models such as the
Lambretta 48, LI125, LI150, TV175,
TV200, SX125, SX150,
SX200, GP125, GP150 and GP200. 90
Piaggio Group is a motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled
motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under four brands: Piaggio,
Vespa,
Aprilia,
Moto Guzzi and
Derbi. Its corporate headquarters are located in
Pontedera, Italy. The company was founded by
Rinaldo Piaggio in 1884, initially producing
locomotives and
railway carriages. Piaggio Group's subsidiaries employ a total of 7,053 employees and produced a total of 519,700 vehicles in 2014. The manufacturer has six research-and-development centres and operates in over 50 countries.
Iso Rivolta is an Italian car and motorbike manufacturer active in the motor vehicle sector since 1938. Over the years, the company has taken various names, including Isothermos, Iso Autoveicoli Spa in 1952, Iso Rivolta in 1962, Iso Motors in 1973 and, in 2017, a return to ISO Rivolta. ISO Rivolta has its origins in Isothermos of Bolzaneto, a factory producing electric heaters and chillers, purchased by the engineer
Renzo Rivolta in 1939 and moved to
Bresso in 1942, after a bombing raid on
Genoa destroyed the offices. Immediately after the end of
World War II, Renzo Rivolta decided to devote his company to the production of
motorbikes, a type of market that offered significant commercial profits in those years. In the early 1950s, Renzo Rivolta developed the concept for a car that was halfway between a car and a motorbike, to bridge the gap between the classic motorcycle and the cheapest Italian car of the time, the
Fiat Topolino. The idea was to create a motorbike with a body in order to have a vehicle that was equally as economical, but with the protection offered by a normal car. The company register changed to Iso Autoveicoli and in 1953 the
Isetta was launched. With the start of sales in the
United States and the signing of a stable powertrain contract with
General Motors, the company began the production of a new lineup of models based on the GT 300 chassis (standard, extended or shortened). The result was the
Grifo sports coupé (1965), with engines from 5.4 to 7 liters, the
Fidia luxury saloon (1968) and the
Lele 2+2 grand tourer (1969) designed by
Marcello Gandini, chief designer at Bertone. 500, derived from the
Fiat Nuova 500 Abarth is a racing- and road-car maker and
performance division founded by Italo-Austrian
Carlo Abarth in 1949. Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned by
Stellantis through its
Italian subsidiary. Its logo is a shield with a stylized
scorpion on a yellow and red background. Carlo Abarth was
sporting director of the
Cisitalia racing team starting in 1947. The following year, the manufacturer folded, and founder
Piero Dusio flew to Argentina.
Ferrari is a luxury
sports car manufacturer based in
Maranello. Founded in 1939 by
Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built
its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and began to produce its current line of road cars in 1947. Ferrari became a
public company in 1960, and from 1963 to 2014 it was a subsidiary of
Fiat S.p.A. It was
spun off from Fiat's successor entity,
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, in 2016. The company currently offers a large model range which includes several
supercars,
grand tourers, and one
SUV. Many early Ferraris, dating to the 1950s and 1960s, count among the
most expensive cars ever sold at auction. Ferrari is one of the world's strongest
brands, and it maintains a brand image built around racing heritage, luxury, and exclusivity. As of May 2023, Ferrari is also one of the largest car manufacturers by
market capitalisation, with a value of approximately US$85.5 billion. , an
executive car produced between 1984 and 1994
Autobianchi was an
automobile manufacturer, created jointly by
Bianchi,
Pirelli and
Fiat in 1955. Autobianchi produced only a handful of models during its lifetime, which were almost exclusively small cars, with the biggest being the short-lived
Autobianchi A111, a
small family car. Autobianchis were priced higher than Fiat models of similar size and the brand was used by Fiat to test innovative concepts which later found their way into mainstream Fiat vehicles; these concepts included
fibreglass bodies and
front-wheel drive. The most famous Autobianchi models include the
A112 released in 1969, a small
hatchback very popular in
Italy for racing, and which ceased production in 1986; as well as the
Y10, which was the first car to use
Fiat's new FIRE (
Fully Integrated Robotised Engine). , produced from 1967 to 1971
De Tomaso is a
car-manufacturing company. It was founded 1959 by
Alejandro de Tomaso in
Modena. It originally produced various
sports prototypes and
auto racing vehicles, including a
Formula One car for
Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1970. Most of the funding for the automaker came from
Amory Haskell Jr. In 1971
Ford Motor Company acquired an 84 percent stake in De Tomaso with Alejandro de Tomaso himself holding the balance. Ford sold back their stake in the automaker in 1974. The De Tomaso brand was acquired in 2014 by Hong Kong–based
Ideal Team Ventures and in 2019 the newly formed company presented their first product, a retro-styled
sports car called the
De Tomaso P72.
Italdesign Giugiaro is a design and engineering company and brand based in
Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by
Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best known for its automobile design work, Italdesign also offers product design, project management, styling, packaging, engineering, modeling, prototyping and testing services to manufacturers worldwide. As of 2019, Italdesign employs 917 people. On August 9, 2010,
Lamborghini (
Volkswagen Group) acquired 90.1% of the shares of Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A., including the brand name rights and patents. The remaining shares were sold to
Audi (
Volkswagen Group) on 28 June 2015, when Giorgetto Giugiaro resigned from the firm. Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani founded Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. (SIRP), the company that would eventually become Italdesign, on February 13, 1968, in Moncalieri, Italy. ("Giorgetto Giugiaro 50"), marking Giugiaro's 50 years in design. On display in the
Museo Ferrari From 1960s to present In the 1960s and 1970s, Italy restored its own large auto industry that was 3rd or 4th in Europe and 5th or 6th in the World. In the 1980s, Italy overtook the United Kingdom but conceded to the Soviet Union which, like Spain, Poland and Yugoslavia, began large-volume production of cars with Italian FIAT help.
Lamborghini is a manufacturer of luxury
sports cars and
SUVs based in
Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the
Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary
Audi.
Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993), an Italian
manufacturing magnate, founded Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A. in 1963 to compete with
Ferrari. The company was noted for using a
rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. Lamborghini grew rapidly during its first decade, but sales plunged in the wake of the
1973 worldwide financial downturn and the
oil crisis. The firm's ownership changed three times after 1973, including a bankruptcy in 1978. American
Chrysler Corporation took control of Lamborghini in 1987 and sold it to Malaysian investment group Mycom Setdco and Indonesian group V'Power Corporation in 1994. In 1998, Mycom Setdco and V'Power sold Lamborghini to the Volkswagen Group where it was placed under the control of the group's Audi division. New products and model lines were introduced to the brand's portfolio and brought to the market and saw an increased productivity for the brand. In the late 2000s, during the
Great Recession, Lamborghini's sales dropped nearly 50%. , produced from 1972 to 1981. An updated version of the 132, called the
Argenta, was produced from 1981 to 1985 , 1984
European Car of the Year, eighth
bestselling automobile platform in history . , nearly nine million units had been sold globally. The 1970s and 1980s were a time of great change for the car industry in Europe. Rear-wheel drive, particularly on family cars, gradually gave way to front-wheel drive. The hatchback bodystyle, first seen on the
Renault 16 from
France in 1965, became the most popular bodystyle on smaller cars by the mid-1980s. Fiat moved into the hatchback market at the small car end in 1971 with the
127 hatchback, followed by the
Ritmo family car in 1978. By the end of the decade, the more upmarket
Alfa Romeo and
Lancia marques had also added hatchbacks to their ranges. The Italian motor industry's flair for innovative design continued in the 1980s, with its
Uno supermini (1983) and
Tipo family hatchback (1988) both being voted
European Car of the Year mostly in recognition of their up-to-date and practical designs. The Uno was one of the most popular cars in Europe throughout its production life, although the Tipo was not so popular outside Italy.
Iveco is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in
Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy
commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger of Italian, French, and German brands. Its production plants are in Europe, China, Russia, Australia and Latin America and it has about 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 countries. The worldwide output of the company amounts to around 150,000 commercial vehicles with a turnover of about 10 billion. The Uno's replacement, the
Punto, was launched at the end of 1993 and achieved success similar to that of its predecessor, while its earlier
Cinquecento played a big part in boosting the size of the city car sector in
Europe during the 1990s. Fiat entered the new compact MPV market in 1998 with the quirky six-seater
Multipla, having already entered the full size MPV market halfway through the decade with the
Eurovan as part of a joint venture with
Peugeot. In the 1990s, the Italian auto industry again was 3rd in Europe and 5th in World with an annual output near 2 million (with 2,220,774 maximum in 1989). In 2011, however, it fell below 800,000 for the first time in half a century and is now
6th place in Europe and 19st place in the World.
Pagani Automobili is a manufacturer of
sports cars and
carbon fiber components. The company was founded in 1992 by Argentine businessman and engineer
Horacio Pagani and is based in
San Cesario sul Panaro, near
Modena, Italy.
Horacio Pagani, who formerly created and managed
Lamborghini's composites department, founded Pagani Composite Research in 1988. This new company worked with Lamborghini on numerous projects, including the restyling of the
Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition, the
Lamborghini LM002, the
P140 design concept, and the
Diablo. In the late 1980s, Pagani began designing his own car, then referred to as the "C8 Project". Pagani planned to rename the C8 the "Fangio F1" to honour his friend, the Argentine five-time
Formula One champion,
Juan Manuel Fangio. Italy today remains one of the significant players of car design and technology, and Fiat has large investments outside Italy including a 100% stake in the American automaker
Chrysler as of January 2014. Fiat's fortunes have been helped since 2007 by the huge success across Europe of its new
Fiat 500 city car, although the 500 is manufactured in Poland and Mexico, rather than in Italy. Over the decades, the Italian automotive industry has been almost totally dominated by the
Fiat Group, which later became
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014; in 2001 over 90% of vehicles were produced by Fiat. From 1 January 2021, the FCA group becomes part of the Dutch company
Stellantis. ==Automobile museums==