Skoda celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2020

Skoda celebrates its 125^th birthday in 2020 and 115 years since the company launched its first car, with several of the brand's historically important models also celebrating jubilees in 2020.

From modest beginnings, the brand has produced a vast range of products over the decades, from bicycles to racing cars, with the original factory in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic always at the heart of operations.

The 125^th anniversary of the company's founding also marks the beginning of a new era for the manufacturer. The all-electric SUV, Enyaq, is the brand's first vehicle to be based on the Volkswagen Group's Modular Electric Platform (MEB) and will go into series-production in the first half of the year.

As part of its ongoing product campaign, Skoda will be launching 30 new models from 2019 to the end of 2022, more than ten of which will be partially or fully electric.

The Skoda story began in 1895, when cycling fanatics, mechianic Vaclav Laurin and bookseller Vaclav Klement, started designing and manufacturing bicycles under the name Laurin & Klement. The bicycles sold well, so Laurin & Klement started making motorbikes in 1899, producing nearly 4,000 motorbikes of various types, and from then started experimenting with the motor car which began to gradually replace motorbikes from 1905 onwards.

The Voiturette A was a huge success, becoming a classic in Czech motoring history. To help realise their dream of building an even bigger company, they merged with engineering firm Skoda from Plzen in 1925.

The first vehicle to be produced under the joint partnership was the Laurin & Klement/Skoda 110, which was available with numerous modifications including soft-top and hard-top versions.

The early 1930s were challenging for Skoda as it wrestled with a large range and a market greatly affected by the Great Depression. Luckily, the brand made a breakthrough with the new and modern Skoda 420 Popular, which was to become a legend in the second half of the decade weighing only 650kg and reaching 80km/h, offered at a fantastic price. It was a true car of the people and adaptable enough to be converted into a range of utility vehicles.

In the mid-1940s the company became a national enterprise. This period saw the Skoda Tudor successfully exported as far as Australia and later the introduction of the mould-breaking Skoda 1200.

The year 2020 marks the 70^th anniversary of the factory crew's 1950 participation in the 24-hour Le Mans in a Skoda Sport, commemorating Skoda's long tradition in motorsport.

The 1950s also saw the launch of the Skoda 440 which, in 1959, evolved into the first Octavia, named because it was the eighth model to be produced after the end of World War II. In September 1960, Skoda presented the first Octavia estate at the International Engineering Fair in Brno. Skoda continued to make new and improved cars in the form of the legendary Octavia, the elegant 2+2 coupe Skoda 110R, the Felicia roadster, and the 1000 MB range. However, production really only grew again with the arrival of the Favorit model range in 1987.

The political landscape of Eastern Europe shifted again in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, the communist government was defeated in Czechoslovakia, and the new free market economy arrived.

On 1 January 1993 the Czech Republic was formed. During this time, the new government began to search for a strong foreign partner in an effort to secure the company's long term international competitiveness.

In December 1990, they decided on Volkswagen and a joint venture began the following year. In three decades the brand's production has grown six fold as models such as the Superb, Octavia and Fabia have built a loyal fan base, cementing the brand's reputation for excellent engineering and value for money. After 125 years, Skoda is active in more than 100 markets, delivering 1.24 million vehicles to customers worldwide.