Theautomotive industry in Italy is a large employer in the country, it had over 2,131 firms and employed almost 250,000 people in 2006.[2]Italy'sautomotive industry is best known for its automobile designs and small city cars, sports and supercars. The automotive industry makes a contribution of 8.5% to ItalianGDP.[3]
Italy is one of thesignificant automobile producers both inEurope and around the world.
Today the Italian automotive industry is almost totally dominated byStellantis (formerly calledFiat Group); in 2001 over 90% of vehicles were produced by it. As well as its own, predominantly mass market model range, Stellantis owns the mainstreamFiat brand, the upmarketAlfa Romeo andLancia brands, and the exoticMaserati brand.
TheBarsanti-Matteucci engine was the first inventedinternal combustion engine using the free-piston principle in an atmospheric two cycle engine.[4][5] In late 1851 or early 1852Eugenio Barsanti, a professor ofmathematics, andFelice Matteucci, anengineer and expert inmechanics andhydraulics, joined forces on a project to exploit theexplosion andexpansion of a gaseous mix ofhydrogen and atmospheric air to transform part of the energy of such explosions intomechanical energy. The idea originated almost ten years earlier with Barsanti when, as a young man, he was teaching at St. Michael's College inVolterra, Italy. An engineer fromMilan Italy, Luigi de Cristoforis, described in a paper published in the acts of the Lombard Royal Institute of Science, Literature and Art, a pneumatic machine (later built and shown to work) that ran onnaphtha and an air mixture, and which constituted the first liquid fuel engine. During the twelve years of collaboration between Barsanti and Matteucci several prototypes ofinternal combustion engines were realized. It was the first real internal combustion engine,[6] constituted in its simplest realization by a vertical cylinder in which an explosion of a mixture ofair andhydrogen or anilluminating gas shot apiston upwards thereby creating avacuum in the space underneath. When the piston returned to its original position, due to the action of theatmospheric pressure, it turned a toothed rod connected to asprocket wheel and transmitted movement to the driving shaft. Numerouspatents were obtained by the twoinventors: the 1857 English[7] and Piedmont patents, the 1861 Piedmont patent of Barsanti, Matteucci and Babacci which was then used as a base to construct the engine of theEscher Wyss company ofZurich and put on exhibit during the first National Expo of Florence in 1861, and the 1861 English patent.
The Italian automotive industry started in the late 1880s, with the Stefanini-Martina regarded as the first manufacturer[8] althoughEnrico Bernardi had built a petrol fueled tri-cycle in 1884. Bernardi completed hissecondary education in Verona and enrolled in theUniversity of Padua in October 1859. He received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Padua in June 1863 and remained at the university as an assistant to the chairs of the departments ofGeodesy,Hydrometry,Rational Mechanics, andExperimental Physics. In 1867, Bernardi became the chair of Physics and Mechanics at the Royal Institute of Vocational Industry in Vicenza. He became dean of the Royal Institute and remained in that position until 1878, when he became a Professor of Hydraulic and Agricultural Machinery at the University of Padua and directed the Institute of Machinery there from 1879 until 1915.[9]
In 1888Giovanni Battista Ceirano started buildingWelleyes bicycles, so named because English names had more sales appeal,[10] and in October 1898 he co-foundedCeirano GB & C with his brothersMatteo, andErnesto to build theWelleyes motor car. As they encountered challenges of scale and finance they contacted a consortium of local nobility and business-men led byGiovanni Agnelli and in July 1899Fiat SpA purchased the plant, design and patents – so producing the firstF.I.A.T. – theFiat 4 HP. The Welleyes / F.I.A.T 4 HP had a 679 cc engine and was capable of 35 km/h (22 mph).[11] Known from the beginning for the talent and creativity of its engineering staff, by 1903 Fiat made a small profit and produced 135 cars; this grew to 1,149 cars by 1906. The company then went public selling shares via theMilan stock exchange.
Agnelli led the company until his death in 1945, whileVittorio Valletta administered the firm's daily activities. Its first car, the3 ½ CV (of which only 24 copies were built, all bodied byAlessio of Turin)[12] was based on a design purchased fromCeirano GB & C and had a 697 cc (42.5 cu in) boxer twin engine.[13] In 1903, Fiat produced its first truck.[14] In 1908, the first Fiat was exported to the US.[14] That same year, the first Fiat aircraft engine was produced. Also around the same time, Fiat taxis became popular in Europe.[15]
Isotta Fraschini, an Italian luxury car manufacturer, was founded in 1900 at first assembling Renault model automobiles. It was founded inMilan by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo, Antonio, and Oreste Fraschini. The firm was named for its founders, Cesare Isotta and Vincenzo Fraschini, who had been importingMors andRenault automobiles as well asAster proprietary engines since 1899.[16] Prior to establishing their own products in 1904, Isotta and Fraschini assembled cars very similar to Renaults, with Aster engines. They differed from the real Renaults in having a neater underslung front radiator arrangement.[17] The first automobile bearing this marque featured a four-cylinder engine with an output of 24 horsepower (18 kW).
Itala was a car manufacturer based inTurin, Italy, from 1904 to 1934, started byMatteo Ceirano and five partners in 1903. Three cars were offered in the first year, an 18 hp, a 24 hp and a 50 hp. In 1905 they started making very large-engined racing cars with a 14.8-litre 5-cylinder model which won theCoppa Florio and the year after that theTarga Florio. In 1907 a 7,433 cc (453.6 cu in) 35/45 hp model driven by CountScipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona who won thePeking to Paris motor race by three weeks. These sporting successes helped sales dramatically; the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable-stroke,sleeve-valve, and "Avalve" rotary types and at the beginning of World War I, offered a wide range of cars. During the war, Itala built aeroplane engines but made a loss producing them. An Itala mod. 35/45 HP, now exposed at theMuseo Nazionale dell'Automobile ('National Automobile Museum') inTurin,[18] became famous for the victory at thePeking to Paris.[19]
Alfa Romeo was founded on 24 June 1910 inMilan as A.L.F.A—an acronym for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. The company was established by Cavaliere Ugo Stella to acquire the assets of the ailing Italian subsidiary of French carmakerDarracq, of which he had been an investor and manager.[20] Its first car was the24 HP, designed byGiuseppe Merosi, which became commercially successful and participated in the 1911Targa Florio endurance race. In August 1915, ALFA was acquired byNeapolitan entrepreneur and engineerNicola Romeo, who vastly expanded the company's portfolio to include heavy machinery and aircraft engines. In 1920, the company's name was changed to Alfa Romeo, with theTorpedo 20–30 HP being the first vehicle to bear the new brand.
Lancia was founded in 1906 inTurin byVincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin. It became part ofFiat in 1969. The brand is known for its strongrallying heritage, and technical innovations such as theunibody chassis of the 1922Lambda and the five-speed gearbox introduced in the 1948Ardea.[21] Despite not competing in theWorld Rally Championship since 1992, Lancia still holds moreManufacturers' Championships than any other brand. Sales of Lancia-branded vehicles declined from over 300,000 annual units sold in 1990 to less than 100,000 by 2010. Despite Lancia's much smaller brand presence, theLancia Ypsilon continues to be popular in Italy; in fact it was the second best-selling car there in 2019.[22]
Gruppo Bertone was an Italianindustrial design company which specialized incar styling,coachbuilding andmanufacturing. It was also a car manufacturing company. The company was based inGrugliasco,northern Italy. Gruppo Bertone was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 byGiovanni Bertone. DesignerNuccio Bertone took charge of the company afterWorld War II and the company was divided into two units:Carrozzeria for manufacturing andStile Bertone for styling. Until its bankruptcy in 2014, the company was headed by the widow of Nuccio Bertone, Lilli Bertone. At the time of bankruptcy, it had around 100 direct employees. In 2014, most employees lost their jobs and were not absorbed by following acquisitions. Cars from the company museum went to other museums, likeAutomotoclub Storico Italiano andVolandia. After its bankruptcy, the Bertone name was acquired by anarchitect and retained by some of its former employees, who continued as aMilan-based small external design office, Bertone Design, more focused on industrial design and architecture. Bertone Design was sold to the group AKKA Technologies in the second quarter of 2016, which already had automotive design activities through Mercedes-Benz Technologies. The AKKA Technologies group subsequently sold the Bertone brand in 2020 to Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, the new owners. In 2022, Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci revived the Bertone brand. The first in a series of limited edition vehicles, theGB110, was presented in December 2022, then unveiled in June 2024.
Maserati was established in 1914 inBologna.[23] The company's headquarters are now inModena, and its emblem is atrident. The company has been owned byStellantis since 2021. Maserati was initially associated withFerrari. In May 2014, due to ambitious plans and product launches, Maserati sold a record of over 3,000 cars in one month. This caused them to increase production of theQuattroporte andGhibli models.[24] In addition to the Ghibli and Quattroporte, Maserati offers theMaserati GranTurismo and two SUV models, theMaserati Levante (the first ever Maserati SUV) and theMaserati Grecale.[25] Maserati has placed a yearly production output cap at 75,000 vehicles globally.[26]
Zagato is acoachbuilding company founded byUgo Zagato in 1919. The design center of the company is located in Terrazzano, a village nearRho, Lombardy,Italy. Ugo Zagato was an Italian automotive designer and builder. He was born inGavello, nearRovigo (June 25, 1890). He began his coach building career in 1919 when he left "Officine Aeronaut Aluminum Ti Che Pomilio" to set up his own business inMilan. He intended to transfer various construction techniques from aeronautics to the automotive sector. Cars of the time were often bulky and heavy; Ugo Zagato conceived them as lightweight structures with a frame in sheetaluminum similar to an aircraft fuselage.
The automobile industry grew quickly and manufacturers includedAquila Italiana,Fratelli Ceirano,Diatto,Itala,Junior,Società Ceirano Automobili Torino,S.T.A.R. Rapid,SPA, andZust. During the first and the second World Wars and the economic crisis of the 1970s, many of these brands disappeared or were bought by FIAT or foreign manufacturers. Over the years, the Italian automobile industry has also been involved in numerous enterprises outside Italy, many of which have involved the production of Fiat-based models, includingLada inRussia,Zastava andYugo in the formerYugoslavia,FSO (Polski Fiat) inPoland andSEAT (now part ofVolkswagen) inSpain.
Pininfarina is acar design firm andcoachbuilder, with headquarters inCambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded byBattista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian multinationalMahindra Group acquired 76.06% of Pininfarina S.p.A. for about €168 million.[27] Pininfarina is employed by a wide variety of automobile manufacturers to design vehicles. These firms have included long-established customers such asFerrari,Alfa Romeo,Peugeot,Fiat,GM,Lancia, andMaserati, to emerging companies in the Asian market with Chinese manufactures likeAviChina,Chery,Changfeng,Brilliance,JAC andVinFast inVietnam and Korean manufacturersDaewoo andHyundai.
Innocenti was a machinery works, originally established byFerdinando Innocenti in 1933 in Lambrate, a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Milan.[28] Over the years, they producedLambretta scooters as well as a range of automobiles, mainly ofBritish Leyland origins. The brand was retired in 1996, six years after being acquired byFiat. AfterWorld War II, the company was famous for many years forLambretta scooters models such as theLambretta 48,[29] LI125, LI150, TV175,TV200, SX125, SX150,SX200, GP125, GP150 and GP200.
Piaggio Group is a motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeledmotor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under four brands: Piaggio,Vespa,Aprilia,Moto Guzzi andDerbi. Its corporate headquarters are located inPontedera, Italy. The company was founded byRinaldo Piaggio in 1884, initially producinglocomotives andrailway carriages. Piaggio Group's subsidiaries employ a total of 7,053 employees and produced a total of 519,700 vehicles in 2014.[30] The manufacturer has six research-and-development centres and operates in over 50 countries.[31]
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Iso Rivolta is an Italian car and motorbike manufacturer active[32] in the motor vehicle sector since 1938. Over the years, the company has taken various names, including Isothermos, Iso Autoveicoli Spa in 1952, Iso Rivolta in 1962, Iso Motors in 1973 and, in 2017, a return to ISO Rivolta. ISO Rivolta has its origins in Isothermos of Bolzaneto, a factory producing electric heaters and chillers, purchased by the engineerRenzo Rivolta in 1939 and moved toBresso in 1942, after a bombing raid onGenoa destroyed the offices. Immediately after the end ofWorld War II, Renzo Rivolta decided to devote his company to the production ofmotorbikes, a type of market that offered significant commercial profits in those years. In the early 1950s, Renzo Rivolta developed the concept for a car that was halfway between a car and a motorbike, to bridge the gap between the classic motorcycle and the cheapest Italian car of the time, theFiat Topolino. The idea was to create a motorbike with a body in order to have a vehicle that was equally as economical, but with the protection offered by a normal car. The company register changed to Iso Autoveicoli and in 1953 theIsetta was launched. With the start of sales in theUnited States and the signing of a stable powertrain contract withGeneral Motors, the company began the production of a new lineup of models based on the GT 300 chassis (standard, extended or shortened). The result was theGrifo sports coupé (1965), with engines from 5.4 to 7 liters, theFidia luxury saloon (1968) and theLele 2+2 grand tourer (1969) designed byMarcello Gandini, chief designer at Bertone.
Abarth is a racing- and road-car maker andperformance division founded by Italo-AustrianCarlo Abarth in 1949.[33] Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned byStellantis through itsItalian subsidiary. Its logo is a shield with a stylizedscorpion on a yellow and red background.[34] Carlo Abarth wassporting director of theCisitalia racing team starting in 1947.[35] The following year, the manufacturer folded, and founderPiero Dusio flew to Argentina.
Ferrari is a luxurysports car manufacturer based inMaranello. Founded in 1939 byEnzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company builtits first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and began to produce its current line of road cars in 1947. Ferrari became apublic company in 1960, and from 1963 to 2014 it was a subsidiary ofFiat S.p.A. It wasspun off from Fiat's successor entity,Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, in 2016. The company currently offers a large model range which includes severalsupercars,grand tourers, and oneSUV. Many early Ferraris, dating to the 1950s and 1960s, count among themost expensive cars ever sold at auction. Ferrari is one of the world's strongestbrands, and it maintains a brand image built around racing heritage, luxury, and exclusivity. As of May 2023, Ferrari is also one of the largest car manufacturers bymarket capitalisation, with a value of approximately US$85.5 billion.[36]
Autobianchi was anautomobile manufacturer, created jointly byBianchi,Pirelli andFiat in 1955. Autobianchi produced only a handful of models during its lifetime, which were almost exclusively small cars, with the biggest being the short-livedAutobianchi A111, asmall family car. Autobianchis were priced higher than Fiat models of similar size and the brand was used by Fiat to test innovative concepts which later found their way into mainstream Fiat vehicles; these concepts includedfibreglass bodies andfront-wheel drive. The most famous Autobianchi models include theA112 released in 1969, a smallhatchback very popular inItaly for racing, and which ceased production in 1986; as well as theY10, which was the first car to useFiat's new FIRE (Fully Integrated Robotised Engine).
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De Tomaso is acar-manufacturing company. It was founded 1959 byAlejandro de Tomaso inModena. It originally produced varioussports prototypes andauto racing vehicles, including aFormula One car forFrank Williams Racing Cars in 1970. Most of the funding for the automaker came fromAmory Haskell Jr. In 1971Ford Motor Company acquired an 84 percent stake in De Tomaso with Alejandro de Tomaso himself holding the balance.[37] Ford sold back their stake in the automaker in 1974. The De Tomaso brand was acquired in 2014 by Hong Kong–basedIdeal Team Ventures and in 2019 the newly formed company presented their first product, a retro-styledsports car called theDe Tomaso P72.[38]
Italdesign Giugiaro is a design and engineering company and brand based inMoncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. byGiorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best known for its automobile design work, Italdesign also offers product design, project management, styling, packaging, engineering, modeling, prototyping and testing services to manufacturers worldwide. As of 2019, Italdesign employs 917 people. On August 9, 2010,Lamborghini (Volkswagen Group) acquired 90.1% of the shares of Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A., including the brand name rights and patents. The remaining shares were sold toAudi (Volkswagen Group) on 28 June 2015, when Giorgetto Giugiaro resigned from the firm.[39] Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani founded Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. (SIRP), the company that would eventually become Italdesign, on February 13, 1968, in Moncalieri, Italy.
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In the 1960s and 1970s, Italy restored its own large auto industry that was 3rd or 4th in Europe and 5th or 6th in the World. In the 1980s, Italy overtook the United Kingdom but conceded to the Soviet Union which, like Spain, Poland and Yugoslavia, began large-volume production of cars with Italian FIAT help.Lamborghini is a manufacturer of luxurysports cars andSUVs based inSant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by theVolkswagen Group through its subsidiaryAudi.Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993), an Italianmanufacturing magnate, founded Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A. in 1963 to compete withFerrari. The company was noted for using arear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. Lamborghini grew rapidly during its first decade, but sales plunged in the wake of the1973 worldwide financial downturn and theoil crisis. The firm's ownership changed three times after 1973, including a bankruptcy in 1978. AmericanChrysler Corporation took control of Lamborghini in 1987 and sold it to Malaysian investment group Mycom Setdco and Indonesian group V'Power Corporation in 1994. In 1998, Mycom Setdco and V'Power sold Lamborghini to the Volkswagen Group where it was placed under the control of the group's Audi division. New products and model lines were introduced to the brand's portfolio and brought to the market and saw an increased productivity for the brand. In the late 2000s, during theGreat Recession, Lamborghini's sales dropped nearly 50%.
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of great change for the car industry in Europe. Rear-wheel drive, particularly on family cars, gradually gave way to front-wheel drive. The hatchback bodystyle, first seen on theRenault 16 fromFrance in 1965, became the most popular bodystyle on smaller cars by the mid-1980s. Fiat moved into the hatchback market at the small car end in 1971 with the127 hatchback, followed by theRitmo family car in 1978. By the end of the decade, the more upmarketAlfa Romeo andLancia marques had also added hatchbacks to their ranges. The Italian motor industry's flair for innovative design continued in the 1980s, with itsUno supermini (1983) andTipo family hatchback (1988) both being votedEuropean Car of the Year mostly in recognition of their up-to-date and practical designs. The Uno was one of the most popular cars in Europe throughout its production life, although the Tipo was not so popular outside Italy.
Iveco is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters inTurin, Italy.[42] It designs and builds light, medium, and heavycommercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger of Italian, French, and German brands.[43] Its production plants are in Europe, China, Russia, Australia and Latin America and it has about 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 countries. The worldwide output of the company amounts to around 150,000 commercial vehicles with a turnover of about€10 billion.[44]
The Uno's replacement, thePunto, was launched at the end of 1993 and achieved success similar to that of its predecessor, while its earlierCinquecento played a big part in boosting the size of the city car sector inEurope during the 1990s. Fiat entered the new compact MPV market in 1998 with the quirky six-seaterMultipla, having already entered the full size MPV market halfway through the decade with theEurovan as part of a joint venture withPeugeot.
In the 1990s, the Italian auto industry again was 3rd in Europe and 5th in World with an annual output near 2 million (with 2,220,774 maximum in 1989). In 2011, however, it fell below 800,000 for the first time in half a century and is now6th place in Europe and 19st place in the World.[45][46][47]
Pagani Automobili is a manufacturer ofsports cars andcarbon fiber components. The company was founded in 1992 by Argentine businessman and engineerHoracio Pagani and is based inSan Cesario sul Panaro, nearModena, Italy.Horacio Pagani, who formerly created and managedLamborghini's composites department, founded Pagani Composite Research in 1988. This new company worked with Lamborghini on numerous projects, including the restyling of theLamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition, theLamborghini LM002, theP140 design concept, and theDiablo. In the late 1980s, Pagani began designing his own car, then referred to as the "C8 Project". Pagani planned to rename the C8 the "Fangio F1" to honour his friend, the Argentine five-timeFormula One champion,Juan Manuel Fangio.
Italy today remains one of the significant players of car design and technology, and Fiat has large investments outside Italy including a 100% stake in the American automakerChrysler as of January 2014. Fiat's fortunes have been helped since 2007 by the huge success across Europe of its newFiat 500 city car, although the 500 is manufactured in Poland and Mexico, rather than in Italy.
Over the decades, the Italian automotive industry has been almost totally dominated by theFiat Group, which later becameFiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014; in 2001 over 90% of vehicles were produced by Fiat. From 1 January 2021, the FCA group becomes part of the Dutch companyStellantis.
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TheMuseo Nazionale dell'Automobile ('National Automobile Museum'), known as MAUTO, is an automobile museum inTurin, Italy, founded byCarlo Biscaretti di Ruffia. The museum has a collection of almost 200 cars[48] among eighty automobile brands representing eight countries (Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, United States of America, Poland).[49]The museum is situated in a building dating from 1960, and it has three floors. After restructuring in 2011 the museum is open again, and its exhibition area has been expanded from 11,000 square metres (120,000 sq ft) to 19,000 square metres (200,000 sq ft).[50]The museum also has its own library, documentation centre, bookshop and auditorium.[51] The museum's collection includes the first Italian cars, aBernardi from 1896 and aFiat from 1899, aRolls-Royce Silver Ghost from 1914, and racing cars byFerrari andAlfa Romeo. Also included are for instance an 1893Benz Victoria, an 1894Peugeot, a 1904Oldsmobile, the 1907Itala from thePeking to Paris race, a 1913De Dion-Bouton, a 1916Ford T and the 1929Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A that starred inSunset Boulevard.
Museo Ferrari is aFerrari company museum dedicated to the Ferrarisports car marque. The museum is not purely for cars; there are also trophies, photographs and other historical objects relating to the Italianmotor racing industry. In addition to that, the exhibition introduces technological innovations, some of which had made the transition from racing cars to road cars. It is located just 300 m (980 ft) from the Ferrari factory in Ferrari's home town ofMaranello, nearModena, Italy. The museum first opened in February 1990,[52] with a new wing being added in October 2004. Ferrari itself has run the museum since 1995. The total surface area is now 2,500 square metres. The number of annual visitors to the museum is around 180,000.[53] The exhibits are mostly a combination of Ferrari road and track cars.
Museo Alfa Romeo ('Alfa Romeo Historical Museum') isAlfa Romeo's official museum, located inArese (Milan), and displaying a permanent collection of Alfa Romeo cars and engines. After being closed down in 2011, the museum reopened in June 2015.[54] The museum was officially inaugurated on 18 December 1976,[55][56] and is located in the formerAlfa Romeo Arese factory area. Production of cars ended in 2002 and engine production in 2006 in Arese factory complex. At the beginning of 2009 the museum was closed down a first time for renovations and opened in the end of the year, to celebrate Alfa Romeo's 100th birthday in 2010. It was closed once more in February 2011, reportedly for renovation work again.[57]The renovation project was laid down at the end of 2013, and restoration work only started in Summer 2014.[54]Centerpiece of the renewed structure areAlfa red projecting roofs added to the original 1970s structure.[54] After four years the Museum officially reopened on 24 June 2015, when it hosted the press unveiling of the all-newAlfa Romeo Giulia and Alfa Romeo logo, both key steps in the relaunch of the brand.[54] On 30 June 2015 the museum reopened to the public.[54] The museum is dedicated to over 100 years of history of the Alfa Romeo marque, whose production included automobiles, commercial vehicles, railway locomotives, tractors, buses, trams, marine and aircraft engines. The museum spreads over 4,800 square metres (52,000 sq ft). Its six floors are divided into four theme areas, including a historical review of all Alfa Romeo road cars produced since 1910, prototypes anddream cars,aircraft and aeronautical projects, and scale models and awards. The museum collection numbers over 250 cars and 150 engines, of which approximately half were on display. These included at least one example of each model produced, plus prototypes and racing cars.[55]Some of the museum cars are regularly on loan for festivals and historical events, likePebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, theGoodwood Festival of Speed andMille Miglia.
TheMuseo Lamborghini ('Lamborghini Museum') is an automobile museum owned and operated byAutomobili Lamborghini S.p.A. inSant'Agata Bolognese,Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The two-storey museum opened in 2001, and was renovated in June 2016 to provide exhibit space for more models.[58] The goal of the museum is to cover all major milestones in the Lamborghini's history. For this purpose, the museum displays a family tree that shows all the models ever produced by the company. The current gallery contains supercars such as the350 GT and theSesto Elemento, and one-off and concept cars such as theVeneno and theMiura concept.[59]
TheMuseo Mille Miglia is anautomobile museum founded on 10 November 2004 at the initiative of the Automobile Club of Brescia and of some private enthusiasts of the famousMille Miglia race.It is located in the ancient monastery of St. Euphemia in Via delle Rimembranze inBrescia, and more precisely on the outside of the neighborhood is Saint Euphemia.[60][61][62][63] The route is divided into nine sections of time, seven dedicated to the Mille Miglia races from 1927 to 1957, one at Mille Miglia from 1958 to 1961 and one at the Mille Miglia contemporanea, and in each of these sections there are historic cars, periodically replaced to allow their participation in various historic car racing, including Mille Miglia.
Lancia Museum (onItalian: Museo Vincenzo Lancia) is a museum of the Lancia family and the car brandLancia. The museum is located inFobello,Italy.[64] Inaugurated on 20 September 2009, the exhibition is on the second floor of the Palazzo GiuseppeLancia thatVincenzo Lancia himself built as a school building. The museum is established in the honor of the great engineer Vincenzo Lancia.[65] In the house there are photographs, family trees and documents connected with the family. The museum is divided into four rooms that each carry the name of a well-known Lancia model:Augusta,Artena,Astura andAprilia.[66][67]
Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari is a museum inModena focused on the life and work ofEnzo Ferrari, the founder of theFerrari sports car marque. The museum complex includes two separate buildings, a former house and workshop that belonged to Enzo Ferrari's father, and a new building designed by the architectural practiceFuture Systems. The new 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) building houses, in a large gallery, a permanent exhibition displaying some of the most noteworthy Ferrari automobiles, including rare cars of the 1950s,Formula One race cars and more recent sports cars. The museum exhibition gallery was substantially renewed and updated in February 2014.[68] The exhibits feature Ferrari,Alfa Romeo andMaserati cars and also a large video-projection depicting the life of Enzo Ferrari.
Museo Ferruccio Lamborghini is an Italian museum inArgelato, a few kilometres from the centre ofBologna,Emilia-Romagna, focused on the life and work ofFerruccio Lamborghini, the founder of theLamborghini sports car marque. It has recently been relocated from its first Ferrarese site (Dosso diS. Agostino) to a new site located in a former Lamborghini factory in Argelato. In 1995, the first Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum was inaugurated next to the Lamborghini Calor plant, nestled in theFerrara countryside birthplace ofFerruccio Lamborghini. After 19 years and thousands of visitors from all over the world, his son,Antonio (Tonino) Lamborghini, with the entrepreneurial spirit and avant-garde character that distinguishes his every project, decided to bring the Museum closer to the city of Bologna and to give more emphasis to the history of his father, the genius of mechanics andCavaliere del Lavoro, dedicating him a new exhibition space. It collects all the industrial productions of the Doctor of Engineering (Hon. Causa) Lamborghini, from the first Carioca tractor which started his company in 1947 to the sports cars of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Ferruccio Lamborghini's personal collection in the museum includes theMiura SV, the Fiat Barchetta Sport, modified to participate in the 1948Mille Miglia competition, theCountach, theJarama models, theUrraco and theEspada.
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Italian motor vehicle production:[71][72][47][46][45][73]
| Year | Units |
|---|---|
| 1913 | 2,000 |
| 1924 | 35,000 |
| 1928 | 55,000 |
| 1929 | 33,436 |
| 1931 | 15,000 |
| 1934 | 30,000 |
| 1935 | 44,000 |
| 1936 | 20,000 |
| 1937 | 34,208 |
| 1938 | 38,765 |
| 1948 | 33,000 |
| 1949 | 48,883 |
| 1950 | 129,000 |
| 1960 | 645,000 |
| 1961 | 759,000 |
| 1970 | 1,854,252 |
| 1971 | 1,817,000 |
| 1980 | 1,610,287 |
| 1981 | 1,433,000 |
| 1989 | 2,220,774 |
| 1990 | 2,120,850 |
| 1991 | 1,878,000 |
| 1994 | 1,534,000 |
| 1995 | 1,667,000 |
| 1996 | 1,545,000 |
| 1997 | 1,827,592 |
| 1998 | 1,692,737 |
| 1999 | 1,704,326 |
| 2000 | 1,741,478 |
| 2001 | 1,581,908 |
| 2002 | 1,429,678 |
| 2003 | 1,324,481 |
| 2004 | 1,145,181 |
| 2005 | 1,038,352 |
| 2006 | 1,211,594 |
| 2007 | 1,284,312 |
| 2008 | 1,023,774 |
| 2009 | 843,239 |
| 2010 | 838,400 |
| 2011 | 790,348 |
| 2012 | 671,768 |
| 2013 | 658,206 |
| 2014 | 697,864 |
| 2015 | 1,014,223 |
| 2016 | 1,103,516 |
| 2017 | 1,142,210 |
| 2018 | 1,060,068 |
| 2019 | 915,305 |
| 2020 | 777,057 |
| 2021 | 797,243 |
| 2022 | 796,394 |
| 2023 | 880,085 |
| 2024 | 591,067 |
Italian current automobile manufacturers include:
Defunct manufacturers:
 Auto Shows in Italy | |
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