05 April 2012

Automotive industry in Italy

Automotive industry in Italy


The Automotive industry in Italy is a quite large employer in the country, with a labour force of over 196,000 (2004) working in the industry. Italy is the 5th largest automobile producer in Europe (2006). Today the Italian automotive industry is almost totally dominated by Fiat Group, in 2001 over 90% of vehicles were produced by it. As well as its own, predominantly mass market model range, Fiat also owns the upmarket Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands as well as the exotic Lamborghini and Maserati. Over the years it has also been involved in numerous enterprises outside Italy, many of which have involved the production of Fiat based models, including Lada in Russia, Yugo in the former Yugoslavia, FSO in Poland and SEAT (now part of Volkswagen) in Spain.
Italian automotive part industry covered over 2,131 firms and employed almost 250,000 people in 2006. Italy's automotive industry is best known of its automobile designs and small city cars, sports and supercars. The automotive industry makes a significant contribution of 8.5% to Italian GDP.

File:Fiat 3,5hp 1899.jpg


History

Beginnings

The automobile industry in Italy started a little bit later than in France. The Stefanini-Martina of 1896 is thought of as the inaugural vehicle of the industry. However, Enrico Bernardi had built a petrol fueled tri-cycle car in 1884. Fiat SpA was founded in 1899 and built its first car in same year, the 3½HP (or 4HP), with a 679 cc engine. It was capable of 35 km/h (22 mph).  Isotta Fraschini was founded in 1900, at first assembling Renault model automobiles.
The automobile industry grew quickly and soon many companies were founded, including Zust, Lancia, Aquila Italiana, Diatto, Itala, SPA and Società Anonima Italiana Darracq.


Production figures



Italian motor vehicle production 1997-2006
 
(100,000 units)
Year12345678910111213141516171819
1997 1827592
1998 1692737
1999 1704326
2000 1741478
2001 1581908
2002 1429678
2003 1324481
2004 1145181
2005 1038352
2006 1211594
 
 
 
Italian motor vehicle production 1961-1996
 
(100,000 units)
Year12345678910111213141516171819
1961 759000
1971 181700
1981 143300
1991 187800
1994 153400
1995 166700
1996 154500
 
 
Italian motor vehicle production 1913-1935
 
(1,000 units)
Year12345678910111213141516171819
1913 2
1924 35
1928 55
1935 44



Italian automobile manufacturers include:






Defunct manufacturers:





From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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