Name
F.I.A.T.

Variant name
Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Società Anonima)

Gender
Not Applicable (General Information Indicator)

Descriptive Note

In 1900, entrepreneur Giovanni Agnelli opened the first factory in Turin, Italy with a group of fellow investors. They called their factory Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT). 

Their first factory employed about 150 people. Just before World War Two, Fiat had grown to employ more than 50,000 workers and has become a leading force in the Italian economy. 

Fiat underwent a period of massive growth during the 1960s, selling more than 1.75 million vehicles, and sales over $2.1 billion. During this period, Fiat purchased Ferrari, Lancia, and airline Alitalia. In the 1980s and 1990s FIAT had a hard time competing with Japanese and Korean auto manufacturers and pulled out of critical international markets, such as Australia and the United States.

Fiat returned to the American market with the introduction of the new Fiat 500 in 2009 and the acquisition of Chrysler. Today the FIAT 500 is a global icon.

For the Turin 1911 World's Fair FIAT had its own pavilion, and its exhibits were classified under different groups:

• group IV General Mechanics, class 19 Engines of every kind, with gasoline engines, generator sets, and two-stroke engines.

• group IV General Mechanics, class 22 Materials for fire rescue, with firetrucks and car pumps.

• group IV General Mechanics, class 25 Machines and tools for metal cutting.

• group VII Transportation Industry - railways and tramways, class 38 vehicles and accessories, with trucks, and taxi cars.

• group VII Transportation Industry - railways and tramways, class 40 Railway technology with photographs.

• group IX Aerial navigation, class 50 Aircrafts, hangars, etc.

• group X Postal services, class 54 Postal services, with automobiles for postal and radio-telegraph transportation.

• group XI Sport Industries, class 60 Automobile, motorcycling.

• group XII Modern City, class 64 Police.

• group XVIII  Extraction and Metallurgy, class 107 General Metallurgy. 

• group XXVI National Defense, class 165 Army, with machine guns, automobiles, generator sets, aircraft engines, etc.

• group XXVI National Defense, class 166 Navy, with machine guns, boat engines, generators sets, and torpedos.

The company was also featured in the Special Exhibit of the Ministry of War.

Roles
Exhibitors

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