Fiat has maintained the position as Italy’s largest producer of the economy to the mid-range motor car for well over a century. The company was founded during the last few months of the nineteenth century, initially as a partnership between Count Emanuele Cacherano of Bricherasio, who had been attempting to establish a company who would be involved in the development of the first “ horseless carriages” produced in mainland Europe.
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With a desperate need to increase their production capacity, in 1916 Fiat laid the foundation stone on what was to become the Lingotto plant. Situated on the outskirts of Turin, befitting the Fiat image, the Lingotto plant was many decades ahead of its time.
To minimize its footprint, the Lingotto plant was a single building, although immense in proportion at five stories high and half a kilometer in length.
When com
pleted in 1922, the Fiat Lingotto plant was, for many years, the most substantial factory in Europe, with its five-story production line topped off by futuristically designed test track on the building's roof.
On the domestic front, Fiat gradually began to expand their product range, not only producing cars but also light vans, as well as establishing separate divisions to build aircraft engines and farming equipment.
With their massive factory now fully operational, Fiat was going from strength to strength. It was evident to all industry observers that there was no better person to lead the company through these times of dramatic expansion than Giovanni Agnelli.
Agnieli'
s decisive leadership had led him to develop close ties to the car industry in the US, saw the future for Fiat as being the principal supplier for a broad range of vehicles from entry level to medium range.
Under the wily and experienced entrepreneur's guidance, Fiat set a fixed policy to remain in the mass market and had no aspirations of competing against the other Italian manufacturers in the sports car or luxury automobile sector, instead providing simple, well-constructed value for money cars for the domestic market.
In the mid-Thirties, Fiat introduced a new model, the Topolino, which was their version of the “ people’s car” – a style that was very much in demand during these times.
No model better represented the Fiat manufacturing and marketing philosophy than the Topolino which remained in production till 1955, when it was replaced by the Fiat 600, to which it bore more than a faint resemblance.
With demand for Fiat cars on a seemingly never-ending rise, and with no ground available around the Lingotto plant, the company purchased a large plot of land, also in Turin, on which they built their Mirafiori Plant.


Less dramatic in appearance than the Lingotto, with considerably fewer frills, the Mirafiori was designed and constructed to meet the demands mass production. When the Mirafiori opened its doors in 1937 Fiat's output capacity increased dramatically almost overnight.
In 1940 Italy found themselves once again at war, meaning that production at both Fiat’s plants was utilized to help the war effort. Not long after hostilities ceased with Italy defeated and in disarray, Fiat, already having to face the challenges of reconstruction and retooling, were dealt a tragic blow when Giovanni Agnelli, the President of Fiat, passed away suddenly in December of 1945. Agnelli
