The origins of Skoda are quite remote, with a history full of vicissitudes. The Czech manufacturer is currently owned by the Volkswagen Group, being fully integrated in the German giant since the year 2000, although since the 1991 Volkswagen had a share in the brand.
however, the name and the tradition of Skoda Auto comes from much before. In particular, it was in 1925 when he began the relationship of Skoda with the automotive world, after acquiring the firm Laurin & Klement next to your factory Mladá Boleslav: it would be from back then when Skoda began manufacturing its first vehicles under this name.
Still we go further back to tell the origins of Skoda, and it is that these are initiated in 1895 Laurin & Klement, then born as a manufacturer of bicycle and motorcycle. The company founded by Václav Laurin and Václav Klement would give the jump to the incipente world of four wheels with its first vehicle, the Voiturette, ten years after.
it Was the 29th of October 1905, when it was announced the Laurin & Klement Voiturette, through the pictures published in the newspaper Allgemeinen Automobil-Zeitung. These days are met, therefore, nothing less than 110 years of the first vehicle manufactured by L&K, the germ of the future Skoda. Had a water-cooled engine of two cylinders and to 1,005 cubic centimeters, that developed 7 HP.
With a weight of approximately half a ton and starting by crank, the Voiturette A was able to reach 40 km/h speed, thanks to a change of three relationships in addition to the reverse. It was the first car produced in Mladá Boleslav, and he were manufactured approximately 44 units.
The Voiturette A was a first step in the manufacture of the car in the current Czech Republic, which was the germ of a later and successful Skoda. Since 1905, Skoda has produced more than 17 million vehicles, and has three production plants in his country of birth: Mladá Boleslav, Kvasiny and Vrchlabí. In turn, Laurin & Klement continues to perviviendo in Skoda to call the finish more high-end models such as the Octavia or Superb.
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