If you ask people on the street what they associate with the Czech Republic, many will answer - beautiful, full of romance, Prague with Charles Bridge and cobbled narrow streets decorated with flowers. But true connoisseurs of cars (including Czech) know that this is Skoda Auto. The car manufacturer produces cars with high technical characteristics, which occupy not the last positions in the ranking of popular vehicles in the world. But there are also other Czech automobile brands that stand out by some features and have interesting stories of creation and development. Why do most people in our country know only about the Skoda?
List of Czech car brands
Skoda Auto is the largest car manufacturer. Models produced by the concern are world famous for their reliability, durability, good handling and relatively low cost. Thanks to the ideal ratio of price and quality, Skoda has earned its popularity and for a long time has been one of the favorite brands in Russia. But Skoda Auto is not the only automobile brand in the Czech Republic. The country also produces cars under the following brands, less well-known in our country:
Skoda - the most popular Czech cars
It just so happened that it was Skoda that became the favorite for domestic motorists. The company is the largest in the Czech Republic, created directly on the territory of the republic, and the real pride of the country.
Skoda Auto is the “daughter” of Laurin & Klement, founded in 1895, which, after only 30 years of its existence, has become a mechanical engineering giant. Since 1930, it was called Akciova Spolecnost pro Automobilovy Prumysl, and during the Second World War it was part of the Nazi automobile company Herman Goring. After the war ended, it became an independent company under the name Auto Racing, and only in 1990 returned to its former name - Skoda.
Already possessing good quality, Czech cars of this brand became even better in 1991, when the company was acquired by the VW Group and became the fourth brand in the Volkswagen group (along with Volkswagen, Seat and Audi). It was after the merger of enterprises and the modernization of production technology that Skoda brand cars became even more popular in the field of mechanical engineering and much more famous at the world level.
Skoda produces cars of the following brands:
- Superb.
- Rapid
- Yeti.
- Octavia
- Kodiaq.
- Fabia
Avia
Czech cars of the Avia brand began to be produced in 1967. The most popular were in the CIS countries. These were trucks with an interesting shape demonstrating the uniqueness of the brand. The name, which is more associated with airplanes, is justified - the company was founded in 1919 as an aircraft workshop. After 12 years, from the suburbs of Prague was moved to Lazy. There, after the end of World War II, the company specialized in assembling Skoda-706R trucks. In addition, buses were created on their basis.
In 1952, the Czech brand Avia resumed assembling aircraft. Among them were the Soviet "IL-14." But the production was short-lived - after 7 years, production stopped. First, the S5T and V3S trucks manufactured by the Prague Automobile Plant were transferred to the workshop, and in 1967 an agreement was signed between Avia and Saviem, according to which the first received the right to assemble the basic models of light delivery vehicles - SG2 and SG4.
Since 2006, the company is called Avia Ashok Leyland Motors and is part of the Induja holding. It specializes in the production of medium-class trucks with a gross weight of 6 to 12 tons.
Kaipan
The company was founded in 1991, but the first Czech car model was introduced only in 1997. This is a small company specializing in the production of roadsters (two-seater sports cars without a roof). The goal of Kaipan was to expand the Czech car market by adding rare sports cars to it. The first model was based on Lotus 7. However, each subsequent one also has similarities with this brand, but Kaipan has a slightly different concept.
Praga
The automobile brand was founded back in 1907. Until 2016, the company specialized in the production of trucks and military equipment. Now Praga has changed direction, having released its first passenger car. Yes, not anyhow, but a supercar R1R, whose photo can be seen above.
Tatra
This automaker is one of the oldest in the republic (founded in 1850) and is second only to Skoda in popularity. Czech Tatra cars are also well known in Russia. In the mid-1980s, the company exported all-wheel drive trucks, and in good volumes. But the frequent change of owners and various transformations served to reduce the popularity of Tatra in the Russian market.
The history of the company began with a crew manufacturing workshop, whose “father” was Ignaz Shustala. After 10 years, the company had branches not only in the Czech Republic, but also beyond its borders: Berlin, Vienna, Kiev, Wroclaw and Chernivtsi. So, in 1882, the workshop turned into a successful factory called Nesseldorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft.
In 1897, the first Presidential self-propelled wheelchair was launched. Many other cars followed, including the first truck. Since 1921, the company is called Tatra. Until 1971, the plant produced both heavy trucks and cars, and then abandoned the second type of vehicles, focusing exclusively on the production of large equipment. And it is worth noting that the company has excelled very well in this direction. Tatra trucks are known worldwide for their reliability, excellent cross-country ability and good performance, in particular, their ability to work in harsh climatic conditions.
Today in the Czech Republic there are several automobile museums, the expositions of which contain rare cars, allowing people to literally touch the history of the creation and development of the automotive industry.