About Fiat
Fiat has motorized more of Italy than any other company, and a good slice of Europe and South America besides. Founded in Turin in 1899 as Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, it built its legend on small, clever, affordable cars: the 1936 Topolino, Dante Giacosa's Nuova 500 of 1957, the Giugiaro-designed Panda of 1980 and the Uno. Its old Lingotto factory, with a test track on the roof, remains one of the great industrial buildings of the century. For generations the Agnelli family's company was less a carmaker than an Italian institution.
Fiat's modern history is one of mergers. It took over Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, rescued Chrysler in 2009 to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and in 2021 merged with PSA to create Stellantis, where Fiat sits as a mass-market brand alongside Peugeot, Citroen and Opel. The 2007 revival of the 500 was a design triumph that the company leaned on for years, while American buyers, wooed back in 2011, mostly drifted away again. Brazil, where Fiat has built cars for half a century, remains one of its strongest markets.
The current range centers on small cars: the 500 in electric and hybrid forms, the Grande Panda built on a shared Stellantis platform, the older Panda kept on as the Pandina, the 600 crossover, the Topolino electric quadricycle and, in Latin America, the Strada and Toro pickups. Rivals range from Renault, Dacia and Hyundai to a fast-growing wave of inexpensive Chinese EVs. Coverage tracks new models and concepts, Stellantis strategy, factory decisions at Mirafiori, sales reports, recalls and the persistent question of whether Fiat can make small cars profitably in Europe.