ŠKODA was founded in the Czech Republic in 1895 and has been part of the German Volkswagen Group since 1990.
The undisputed bestseller of the car brand is the Octavia, which has been in production since 1959.
ŠKODA
was founded as a bicycle manufacturer in 1895.
In 1990 the state-owned company was sold to
Volkswagen AG
after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc
.
The
car brand
is now represented in over 100 countries worldwide.
Mladá Boleslav -
ŠKODA
is one of the oldest car manufacturers in the world.
In recent years, the
car
brand has managed to sell more than a million vehicles each year.
It mainly relies on
mid-range
models
such as the Octavia and the Superb.
The official Czech spelling is ŠKODA, pronounced Schkodda.
ŠKODA: The early history of the group
In 1895 the bookseller
Václav Klement
and the locksmith
Václav Laurin
founded a bicycle shop called
Klement & Laurin
in the Bohemian town of Mladá Boleslav
.
Klement had previously been annoyed because the manufacturer of his bicycle, Seidel & Naumann in Dresden, had rejected his complaint, which was written in Czech.
The young company initially built bicycles before expanding to include motorcycles and finally automobiles.
In 1905 the first car appeared under the name Type A and was an immediate success.
As early as 1912, when Klement and Laurin took over the
Reichenberger Automobil Fabrik, they had
become the largest automaker in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
At the same time, the mechanical engineering company
ŠKODA
developed in Bohemia
, which
Emil von Skoda
bought
from
the founder,
Count Waldstein
, in
1869
.
ŠKODA produced machines for sugar factories and breweries, built bridges and manufactured parts for railways and ships.
ŠKODA becomes a mammoth group
During the First World War,
ŠKODA
supplied
cannons and artillery for the Austro-Hungarian army, before civil industrial production was resumed after the end of the war.
In addition, ŠKODA acquired aircraft manufacturers, coal mines and, in 1925, the flourishing car manufacturer Laurin & Klement.
Václav Laurin
remained technical director of the new company ŠKODA
Auto
, which now focused entirely on automobiles.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, ŠKODA became part of the
Reichswerke Hermann Göring
.
With the end of the war and the beginning of communism, the entire ŠKODA Group was nationalized.
The automobile division was now called ASAP (Automobilové závody, národní podnik - automobile works, national company), but the
ŠKODA
car brand
was retained.
ŠKODA becomes part of Volkswagen
With the end of communism in 1989, the state-owned company was initially transformed into a stock corporation, in which
Volkswagen AG
participated.
In addition to the car manufacturer
ŠKODA,
there is still the company ŠKODA
Transportation
, which produces trains and trams, but has nothing to do with Volkswagen.
Under Volkswagen, ŠKODA produced a number of new, western-oriented cars that were soon selling well throughout Western Europe.
The
car brand
cultivated its
image
of inexpensive mid-range cars for the entire world.
The most important sales markets include China, Germany and Russia.
Since 2006, ŠKODA has been selling bicycles again, based on the early years of Laurin & Klement, and has been involved in cycling.
ŠKODA: models at a glance
The main
models
of
ŠKODA
recent
history
since the takeover by Volkswagen:
Sales period |
model |
Type |
since 1959 |
Octavia |
Middle class |
1997-2001 |
Felicia |
Compact class |
since 1999 |
Fabia |
Small car |
since 2001 |
Superb |
upper middle class |
2006-2017 |
Roomster |
High roof combination |
since 2009 |
yeti |
SUV |
since 2011 |
Citigo |
Microcar |
since 2011 |
Rapid |
Compact class |
since 2016 |
Kodiaq |
SUV |
since 2018 |
Karoq |
SUV |
The Citigo is similar to the VW up!
and the Seat Mii.
All three are produced as a “New Small Family” in Bratislava.
The Citigo-e was ŠKODA's first vehicle with an electric motor in 2019.
ŠKODA: Management
ŠKODA
has been wholly owned by the Volkswagen Group since 2000.
The
management of
the
car brand
has been in the hands of
Thomas Schäfer
as CEO
since August 3, 2020
.