Fiat began as four initials: Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili, Torino, founded in Turin on 11 July 1899. Its badge has since been a brass plaque, a laurel wreath, a shield, four rhombuses and a ruby red frame.
- Country
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Italy - Active
- Since 1899
- Founded by
- Giovanni Agnelli and fellow founders
- Website
- Official website ↗
Four initials and a deed in Turin
Fiat’s name is really a set of initials. On 11 July 1899, in Turin, a group of founders signed the deed that created the Società Anonima Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili, Torino. Italian Automobile Factory, Turin. Take the first letters and you get F.I.A.T.
The meeting took place at Palazzo Bricherasio, and Giovanni Agnelli was among the men around the table. He would go on to own the company and lead it until his death in 1945. Fiat has never really left home. In its own words, it has kept its head and heart in the Piedmontese capital where it was born.
Turin is also home to the Lingotto factory. It was designed by Giacomo Matté Trucco in the 1920s and rebuilt by Renzo Piano in the 1990s. For the brand’s 125th birthday in 2024, Fiat held its celebration on the Lingotto’s test track, La Pista 500.
A brass plaque, a rising sun and a wreath of laurel
The first badge was less a logo than a nameplate. In 1899 Fiat used a brass plaque in rococo style, carrying the company name, the F.I.A.T. acronym and the serial number. It first appeared on the 3½ HP, and its design was taken from an advertising poster by the painter Giovanni Carpanetto.
Fashions changed fast. In 1901 the 12 HP introduced an enamelled brass plaque in Liberty style, with a rising sun and shrubs. Three years later came an oval: the rising sun again, now on a Prussian blue background, with the same letters as 1901 drawn thicker. That oval stayed on Fiat radiators until 1926.
Then, in 1921, the badge turned round. Starting with the Superfiat and the 519, Fiat fitted round crests in several colour schemes, framed by a laurel wreath. Hold on to that wreath. It will come back more than once.
Shields, rhombuses and a badge that keeps coming home
In 1931 the Fiat 524 became the first Fiat product to use a rectangular logo: a vertical enamelled plaque with the letters stretched upwards. Variations followed, with softer corners and a narrower base in 1932 and a distinctive shield shape in 1938. In one form or another, that shield sat on the front of Fiat cars until 1968.
The year 1968 brought something completely different. The newly formed Fiat holding company adopted four rhombuses tilted at 18 degrees, with the Fiat name in italic Univers on a blue field. It later became the emblem of the whole group. Meanwhile the round laurel crest had already made a brief comeback from 1965 on sporty models such as the 850 Coupé and Spider and the Dino.
In 1991 the Cinquecento introduced a badge with five bars on a blue background, which served as the family feature of Fiat cars for the rest of the decade. Then came the centenary. In June 1999 Fiat announced that the new Punto would wear a round badge designed by the Fiat Style Centre: 72 millimetres across, with a silver frame and silver lettering on a matte, dotted blue background. It revived the laurel crest of the 1920s, and Fiat summed up the idea as change within continuity. The four rhombuses stayed on the back of the cars.
Seven years later Fiat went back to the shield. Unveiled in October 2006 and created by RobilantAssociati with the Fiat Style Centre, the new symbol was derived from the shield used from 1931 to 1968. It put the vertically elongated letters F I A T on a ruby red background inside a chromed frame. Fiat said its three dimensional look conveyed technology, Italian design, dynamism and a strong personality: a sign of the past rewritten in a modern key. It made its debut on the front of the new Bravo.
The latest step drops the frame altogether. According to Autocar, the simpler, retro styled logo was first seen on the Centoventi concept. The electric 500 of 2020 wore the plain FIAT lettering on its tail, with thinner, taller capitals, and the facelifted Tipo of late 2020 was, as AM reported, the first Fiat to wear the new wordmark on its grille. Fiat has not published an official meaning for it, so we won’t invent one.
Prussian blue to ruby red
For most of the twentieth century Fiat was a blue brand. The 1904 oval sat on Prussian blue, the 1968 rhombuses on a blue field, the 1991 bars on blue and the centenary badge of 1999 on dotted blue with silver. The switch to ruby red in 2006 was a deliberate break, framed in chrome for a more three dimensional look.
Small cars, big moments
Fiat’s badges have changed often, and it’s no coincidence that so many of the changes arrived on a new car. These are the models that tell the story best.
Landmark Fiats, from 1899 to the wordmark
- 1899: 3½ HP. The first Fiat to carry the brass plaque with the company name and the F.I.A.T. acronym.
- 1931: 524. The first Fiat product to use a rectangular logo, the start of the shield era.
- 1957: Nuova 500. The compact two seater was launched on 4 July 1957.
- 1980: Panda. A versatile small car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
- 1999: Punto. The new Punto of Fiat’s centenary year was the first car to wear the revived round laurel badge.
- 2007: 500. Presented on 4 July 2007, fifty years to the day after the Nuova 500.
- 2020: Tipo. The facelifted Tipo was the first Fiat to wear the new wordmark on its grille.
Fiat has rarely been alone. In 2009 it took a stake in Chrysler, and in October 2014 the two merged into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In January 2021 FCA combined with France’s PSA Group, the home of Peugeot and Citroën, to form Stellantis. The scorpion of Abarth is never far from a small Fiat either. For more badges from the same era, see our classic car logos.
Frequently asked questions
What does FIAT stand for?
Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili, Torino, which means Italian Automobile Factory, Turin. The company was founded under that name on 11 July 1899.
Who founded Fiat?
Fiat was set up by a group of founders in Turin in 1899. Giovanni Agnelli was one of them, and he later became the owner and leader of the company.
Why is the Fiat logo red?
The ruby red badge arrived in 2006. It was derived from the shield Fiat used from 1931 to 1968, and Fiat said it conveyed technology, Italian design, dynamism and a strong personality. Before that, most Fiat emblems had been blue.
What were the four blue rhombuses?
They were the emblem adopted in 1968 by the newly formed Fiat holding company: four rhombuses tilted at 18 degrees, with the Fiat name in italic Univers on blue. It later became the group emblem and stayed on the rear of Fiat cars even after the round badge returned in 1999.
When did Fiat change to the plain FIAT wordmark?
Around 2020. It appeared on the rear of the electric 500, and the facelifted Tipo of late 2020 was the first Fiat to wear it on the grille.
From Palazzo Bricherasio to the Pista 500
- Founded
- 1899
- Founder
- Giovanni Agnelli and fellow founders
- Country
- Italy
- Headquarters
- Turin, Italy
- Parent company
- Stellantis
- Current emblem
- The FIAT wordmark in tall, thin capitals, introduced around 2020
- Known for
- Small, clever city cars such as the 500 and the Panda
- Website
- Official website ↗
