Moretti Motor Company
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It was founded in 1925 and ceased operations in the mid-1980s. Today, many of its sportscar models can still be found at various European auto show
Auto show
An auto show, or motor show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is commonly attended by automobile manufacturers. Most auto shows occur once or twice a year...
s. Moretti Motors produced a variety of models at various times including motorcycles, microcars, and several commercial vehicles.
History
Moretti Motor Company was founded in 1925 by Giovanni MorettiGiovanni Moretti
Giovanni Moretti was an Italian professional footballer, who played as a forward.- External links :* at MagliaRossonera.it...
in order to design and build motorcycles, both of his own design and with agreements with other companies. Using the same motorcycle engines, Giovanni Moretti also dabbled in microcars in the late 1920s and early 1930s. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Moretti found success constructing various commercial vehicle
Commercial vehicle
A commercial vehicle is a type of motor vehicle that may be used for transporting goods or passengers. The European Union defines "commercial motor vehicle" as any motorised road vehicle, which by its type of construction and equipment is designed for, and capable of transporting, whether for...
, most notably a range of electric powered small trucks and a 5 or 7 seat electric car
Electric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
. In 1946, with the war over and thus demand for their commercial vehicles wavering, Moretti began production of conventional cars.
The first conventional car model released by Moretti Motors was the 'Cita'. Shortly afterwards Moretti came out with the '600'. Then, in 1953, the '750' was released. Various versions of the '750' were built during the 1950s including estates, taxis, berlinas, coupes, single seat racing cars
Racing Cars
Racing Cars are a Welsh pop band, formed in the Rhondda Valley, Wales in 1973.-Career:They were signed to one of the biggest British record labels of the time, Chrysalis Records. Racing Cars's debut album yielded their only hit single with "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"...
and commercial vehicle
Commercial vehicle
A commercial vehicle is a type of motor vehicle that may be used for transporting goods or passengers. The European Union defines "commercial motor vehicle" as any motorised road vehicle, which by its type of construction and equipment is designed for, and capable of transporting, whether for...
s. Some competiive success was achieved in the 1950s with the 600 and 750 models.
A major shift in Moretti Motors' operations came in the latter part of the 1950s when they ceased designing and building complete cars. In an effort to reduce costs and overhead, the company switched to using Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
mechanicals and chassis for all of its conventional automobiles. Despite offering a full range of model versions based on the '750' (saloon, coupe, spider, estate and more) though, Moretti was still unable to compete with Fiat's 600, which cost almost half the price and consequently dominated much of the marketplace. Mass production of all models were subsequently slashed due to continued low sales and financial struggles. However, thanks to the friendship between Giovanni Moretti and Gianni Agnelli
Gianni Agnelli
Giovanni Agnelli , better known as Gianni Agnelli , was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research...
, Moretti Motors was able to strike a favorable angreement with Fiat to continue using the Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
chassis for a series of special/low volume models.
In 1967 Moretti produced only 2,600 cars, in 1973 only 3,292 were produced, and by 1974 production was down to only 1,071.
Later, as production continued to fall, Moretti turned to producing personalised conversions of various Fiats such as the Uno, Panda and Regata.
In 1989 Moretti produced ITAL UNO TURBO which was imported in limited numbers to USA by M.I.K Automotive, Inc. in North Hollyuwood, California. (The car was based on high performance version of FIAT TURBO UNO "anti-skid" with 1.3L engine)
Finally in the mid 1990, Moretti Motor Company officially ceased operations.
Main models
- Moretti 500
- Moretti Elettroveicoli
- Moretti Cita
- Moretti 600
- Moretti 720-750
- Moretti 1200
- Moretti 1500
- Fiat Formula Junior
- Fiat 1100 Moretti
- Fiat 1200 Moretti
- Fiat 1500 Moretti
- Fiat 2200 Moretti
- Fiat 2500 Moretti SS
- Fiat 600 Moretti
- Fiat 500 Moretti Coupé
- Fiat 850 MorettiFiat 850 MorettiThe Fiat 850 Moretti Sport was a small coupé produced by the Moretti Motor Company based on the Fiat 850 from 1967 to 1971. Introduced in 1967, the Sport was Moretti’s last car that could be customised beyond the usual of choice of seat colours. There was the possibility to obtain trim and...
- Fiat 128 Moretti
- Fiat 126 Moretti Minimaxi
- Fiat 127 Moretti Midimaxi
- Fiat 132 Moretti
- Fiat Panda Moretti Rock
- Fiat Uno Moretti Folk
- 1989 ITAL TURBO UNO by Moretti