Fiat: Over A Century in the Automobile Industry

The world's automobile industry is dominated by giant corporations; one of them being Fiat S.p.A. Short for the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, Fiat is the holding company for the subsidiary Fiat Automobiles, a business that was founded over a century ago in Turin, Italy. With its headquarters still in Turin, Fiat's scope covers not only automobile manufacturing, but commercial vehicles, automobile parts, newspapers, production and media systems, and in the past, railway engines and train carriages, military vehicles, farm vehicles and aircraft. Recent records have pegged Fiat as the 9th largest automaker in the world, and the biggest in Italy. Its 2011 profits alone were at 1.334 billion euros. Fiat is now run by John Elkann, Chairman and Sergio Marchionne, CEO.

Fiat was founded by Giovanni Agnelli and other investors in 1899. In just a few years, Fiat was exporting to the USA and to the rest of Europe. In 1910, Fiat had grown to become the largest Italian automobile corporation, a position it has held for 103 years. In its early years, Fiat vehicles were akin to social symbols, their prices being much heftier than competitors'. During World War II, Fiat was Italy's supplier for fighter aircraft and military machinery. The founder's family, the Agnellis, was pulled out of Fiat when Mussolini was thrown from power, but Gianni Agnelli, Giovanni's grandson, returned as general manager of the company in 1966, eventually becoming chairman of Fiat.

Fiat continued making automobiles and holding its own in the industry throughout the succeeding years, forming an alliance with USA's Chrysler in 2009 in order to enter the North American market successfully. The partnership eventually turned Fiat claiming a majority stake in Chrysler. Fiat also formed a partnership with Mazda. Aside from private and commercial vehicles, publishing and communications, Fiat also holds business interests in information technology, public services, economics and finance, research and development, real estate and recreation. Fiat's largest base of operations outside of Italy is in Brazil, with manufacturing going on in Argentina, Serbia, Poland and Russia.