Škoda Auto commemorated the 100th anniversary of its subsidiary plant in Vrchlabí this weekend. Last year in September, the plant celebrated one millionth vehicle manufactured after the merger with Volkswagen in 1991.
“The Vrchlabí plant continues the history of Petera a synové, a “manufacturer of vehicles and English saddles” established in 1864 by Ignác Theodor Petera. In 1908, the company manufactured the first car body,“ said Škoda Auto Archive Manager Lukáš Nachtmann. After 1920, the plant specialised in the production of automobile bodies. Over 1930-1935, the company reached its boom, producing convertibles built on chassis made by Škoda, Tatra and Walter, as well as German, Italian, English and US companies.
“During World War II, the plant was rebuilt to reach, more or less, its current size,” says Nachtmann. After the war the company was converted to a car body making plant (SEVKAR - “Severočeská karosárna”), but soon after that, in 1946, the plant was nationalised and became part of AZNP Mladá Boleslav. It was then when the plant launched a line manufacturing system, for the first time in its history. The first model to have been produced was the Škoda 1101. In 1952, the company started producing the Škoda 1200, a vehicle fitted with an all-metal body (in contrast with its previous models with wooden frames).
1954 saw the establishment of an independent company named Automobilový závod Vrchlabí that then merged with Karosa, a plant in Chlumec nad Cidlinou. In 1955, the plant launched the Škoda 1201. In 1958, the Vrchlabí plant became part of AZNP Mladá Boleslav again.
In the years that followed, Vrchlabí specialised in the manufacturing of lightweight commercial versions of Škoda passenger vehicles. A few years later, the portfolio was extended with small series of Škoda's best-equipped vehicles. In the nineteen-sixties, the company launched the Škoda 1202 and later the Škoda 1203. Besides that, the plant produced disassembled pickups for Turkey. Furthermore, the company built a press shop and substantially reconstructed most of its manufacturing facilities. “In the mid-nineteen-seventies, the plant started cooperating with the Mladá Boleslav-based factory, testing and checking the standard Škoda 120 as well as its enhanced versions. More luxurious versions of the existing models still continue to be manufactured in Vrchlabí even today,“ adds Lukáš Nachtmann of Škoda Auto.
In late 1981, the plant produced the last Škoda 1203, thus finishing the era of manufacturing commercial vehicles that, almost without a break, lasted from 1946. In 1987, Vrchlabí was the organisation's first plant to have launched the test production of the Škoda Favorit and in 1990 also the Škoda Forman. The launch of the Favorit required an extensive modernisation of the assembly line and some other production facilities.
In 1991, Škoda Mladá Boleslav became part of the Volkswagen Group - Vrchlabí remained one of the manufacturing plants of Škoda, automobilová a.s. At that time the plant manufactured special versions of the Favorit and the Forman. In September 1994, the plant started producing the Škoda Felicia, later also the Felicia Combi, the Felicia Pickup and the Felicia Fun.
These days the plant produces the Škoda Octavia Tour and the Škoda Octavia.
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