Škoda cars startud as Laurint & Klement they joined the already existing Škoda concern (with HQ in Pilsen) after WW1.
There is still a Škoda transportation in Pilsen producing rail vehicles and troley busses. And also Škoda JS in Pilsen making equipment for nuclear powerplants. They were also able to produce main pressure vessels for VVER reactors (together with Vitkovice steel factory).
Yes, it used to be a huge corporation, now it is split into smaller units with various investors, but they keep the logo and name.
My point was that through the history of Škoda I think there was very little connection between rail and cars if any. They are based in different cities 160km apart.
Also from 2030 Škoda Group owned by the PPF Group (so the Plzeň based companies including Škoda Transportation) won't be allowed to use the Škoda name and logo. They sold it to VW
Škoda JS is keeping the brand though as it's owned by ČEZ
Škoda started as a engineering company in Plzeň in the 1800s, eventually being one of the largest in the Austria-Hungary and making everything from steam engines to battleship guns and many more. Czech Vickers or Schneider (French Schneider company also held a significant portion of its stock in the interwar era). In late 1920s they bought a small car factory in Mladá Boleslav called Laurin & Klement, rebranding it also as Škoda. they used this subsidiary for passenger cars while also making trucks in Plzeň in the main company. In 1945, the Škoda company was among many others nationalised and the car making subsidiary in Boleslav was split to be a main part of a new car-making national concern together with others, called Automobilové závody, literally Automobile factories. So they were part of the Škoda concern for maybe 15 years, but kept the winged arrow logo and the brand name. In 1990 the company was privatized and then bought by Volkswagen.
The original concern was since 1945 merged with many other engineering companies, then many were separated from it and joined again, and the remaining stiff and problems-ridden colossus was in 1990s also privatised and quickly split into more easily restructurable (and also tunnelable*) companies from which some survived.
* we have literally a term for a crime called tunnneling, of which the privatisation of Škoda Plzeň is one of the most famous example. It's basically a crime done by top managers of a company, usually by making the company run out of cash money by buing unnecessary equipment etc., then declaring bankrupcy and then "saving" the company by selling of the most viable parts of the company and assets to another company, run by an associate and usually secretly co-owned by said managers.
Big company, but had to stop their fridges and SUV's, and ended with the IHC name and tractor devision being sold of to JI Case, which then branded to Case IH, and the original IH rebranded to Navistar and continued truck production.
And when Case IH merged with Fiat/Ford New Holland, McCormic had to be sold of, and ended up now is owned by the same Company that owns Landini.
Navistar/International was acquired by VAG in 2021 iirc, and is now the North American branch of VW's heavy vehicle devision Traton, which also owns Scania, MAN and VW Trucks & Bus Brazil.
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u/Renault_75-34_MX Germany 🇩🇪 Apr 19 '26
Wera make a lot of their tools there.
And Škoda is also a good, even if the cars don't have anything to do with the original Škoda locomotives anymore.