A snubbed bicycle repair letter started the company behind Škoda cars
In 1894 a young Czech bookseller named Václav Klement sent his broken German bicycle back to its maker with a letter written in Czech. The reply told him to write in a language they understood. Annoyed, and sensing an opportunity, he opened his own bicycle business, which grew into today's Škoda Auto.
Klement had no technical training, so he partnered with Václav Laurin, and in 1896 they opened their workshop in Mladá Boleslav. Two years later they tried a motorcycle with its engine on the handlebars driving the front wheel; it proved so dangerous that an early crash cost Laurin a front tooth. After asking Robert Bosch for advice on ignition, they launched the safer Slavia in 1899, becoming the first motorcycle factory in Central Europe, and soon shipped 150 machines to London.
By 1905 Laurin & Klement was building cars, starting with the successful Voiturette A. After a difficult period and a fire, it was bought in 1925 by the Škoda Works of Plzeň, an arms maker founded by Emil von Škoda in 1859 that had grown into one of Europe's largest industrial groups. Amusingly for a brand name, škoda also means pity or shame in Czech.
A new chassis with a central backbone tube and independent suspension transformed the business in the 1930s, underpinning models such as the Popular, Rapid and Superb. Škoda went from a 14 percent share of the Czechoslovak market in 1933 to 39 percent by 1938. Under the communist planned economy from 1948 it was separated from its parent yet kept a good reputation into the 1960s with cars such as the Octavia and Felicia.
After the Velvet Revolution the carmaker was gradually privatised from 1991 and became wholly owned by Volkswagen Group in 2000. It now sells in over 100 countries, and in 2017 its profit margin was second only to Porsche among Volkswagen brands. In 2025 it was Europe's third best-selling car brand.
Source: Škoda Auto
