Turn the clock back to 1899, the dawn of the automobile. At the time, cars catered to the select few who could afford such a novelty. But a group of entrepreneurs with a passion for the very latest in engineering technology decided to create an automobile company on a grand scale with the clear objective of bringing the automobile to the people.
The Early Years
Società Anonima Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili was born on July 11, 1889 at Palazzo Bricherasio, in Turin, with a start-up capital of 800,000 lire and the plan to build a factory on Corso Dante. The scale of the project made it a very different proposition from the dusty workshops operated by the many pioneers of this new mode of locomotion. Shortly after, Torino was added to Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili, giving rise to the trade name F.I.A.T. Among the signatories of the company’s “birth certificate” were Lodovico Scarfiotti, Giovanni Agnelli and Vicenzo Lancia. The Agnelli family is still the major shareholder of Fiat while Lancia went on to create his own company, now owned by Fiat.
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