Tatra is a vehicle manufacturer founded in 1850 in Kopřivnice, Czech Republic. It manufactured one of the world's first cars in 1897 and played an active role in German military vehicle production during World War II. While no longer producing passenger cars, Tatra still manufactures all-wheel drive trucks. It is known for innovative vehicle designs like the 1934 Tatra T77, one of the first aerodynamic production vehicles. Ownership of Tatra has changed several times in recent decades as it expanded production but also faced financial difficulties at times.

1. Tatra

2. Overview
 Tatra is a vehicle manufacturer based in Kopřivnice, Czech Republic.
 The company was founded in 1850 as Schustala & Company, later
renamed to Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft when it
became a wagon and carriage manufacturer.
 Tatra manufactured the first motor car in Central Europe, and one of
the world’s first cars, the Präsident automobile, in 1897.
 It changed its name to Kopřivnická vozovka a.s. in 1918; the following
year, it began using the Tatra badge named for the adjacent Tatra
Mountains on what was then the Polish-Czechoslovak border; this
range is now on the present-day Polish-Slovak border.
 After Daimler and Peugeot, Tatra is the third-oldest car maker in the
world; it played an active role in the manufacturing of trucks and
tank engines for the German war effort.
 While the company ceased production of passenger cars in
1999, it still manufactures a variety of mostly all-wheel-drive
4x4, 6x6, 8x8, 10x10, and 12x12 trucks.
 The brand is additionally known as a result of Czech truck
racer Karel Loprais; between 1988-2001, he won the off-road
race Dakar Rally six times with the Tatra 815.
Tatra logo

3. Facts in brief
 Type Private
 Industry Automotive
 Founded 1850; 1897 as a car manufacturer
 Founder Ignác Šustala
 Headquarters Kopřivnice, Moravia, Czech Republic
 Key people Ronald Adams (CEO), Hugo Fischer von Roeslerstamm (designer), Hans Ledwinka (designer), Julius Mackerle
(designer)
 Products Automobiles, wagons, carriages, trucks
 Revenue +CZK 7.87 billion (2008)
 Owner DAF Trucks (nineteen percent)
 Number of employees 2,000 (2011)
 Parent Paccar (nineteen percent)
 Website tatratrucks.com

4. Early years
 Ignác Šustala (1822-1891), founder of the company in Kopřivnice,
Moravia, began the production of horse-drawn vehicles in 1850; he
branched out into railroad car manufacture in 1891 and renamed it
to Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft, and employed Hugo
Fischer von Roeslerstamm as mechanical director in 1890.
 After Šustala died, von Roeslerstamm assumed control of the
company and bought a Benz automobile in 1897; using this
automobile as a model for inspiration, the company made its first car,
the Präsident, which was displayed in Vienna the same year.
 More cars were ordered; under the supervision of engineers Hans
Ledwinka and Edmund Rumpler, ten upgraded cars were added.
 The first vehicle to be entirely designed by Ledwinka came in 1900
with the Type A with rear-mounted 2714-cc engine and top speed of
forty kilometres per hour (twenty-five mph); twenty-two units were
built.
 This was followed by the Type B with central engine in 1902, although
Ledwinka temporarily left the company to focus on steam engine
development; he returned to the company three years later and
outlined a completely new vehicle, the Type S with 3308 cc four-
cylinder engine.
 Unfortunately, production was halted in 1912 with a twenty-three-
week strike, and von Roeslerstamm resigned from the company.
Ignác Šustala

5. Ignác Šustala plaque

6. Präsident, 1897

7. Rennzweier, the first race car made by
the company, 1900

8. Tatra concept
 Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau was renamed Kopřivnická vozovka after
World War I; the name Tatra was given to the car range in 1919.
 Leopold Pasching subsequently took over, and Hans Ledwinka
returned again in 1921 to develop the innovative Tatra 11 (right).
 The new car, which began production in 1923, included a stiff
backbone tube with swinging semi-axles at the back providing
independent hanging; the front-mounted engine was an air-cooled
two-cylinder unit of 1056 cc.
 In 1926, the similar four-wheel brakes Tatra 12 replaced the Tatra 11;
an additional development was the 1926 Tatra 17 with a 1,930-cc
water-cooled six-cylinder engine and entirely independent
suspension.
 The company was renamed to Závody Ringhoffer-Tatra a.s. in 1927.
1924 Tatra 11

9. 1926 Tatra 12

10. Prewar streamliners
 Tatra's main strength was luxury cars of a precisely innovative nature,
ranging anywhere from air-cooled flat-twin engines to fours and sixes,
which ended temporarily with the OHC six-litre V12 engine in 1931.
 In the 1930s, under the management of Austrian engineer Hans
Ledwinka, his son Erich, and German engineer Erich Übelacker, and
protected by high prices and lack of foreign assemblers, Tatra started
constructing developed, modernized cars after acquiring licenses
from Paul Jaray, which began in 1934 with the large Tatra T77, the
world’s first production aerodynamic vehicle.
 The usual drag quantity of a 1:5 model of the fastback Tatra T77 was
documented as 0.2455.
 It included, much like most later big Tatras, a rear-mounted, air-
cooled V8 engine, which was in practical terms very refined for its
time.
Tatra T77

11. Ownership
 In late 2003, the United States Terex Corporation obtained the majority ownership of Tatra (seventy-one percent), though majority ownership (80.51
percent) lay in the hands of Tatra Holdings s.r.o., an international consortium comprising Vectra Limited of UK, Sam Eyde of the U.S., KBC Private Equity of
Belgium, Meadowhill s.r.o. of Czech Republic, and Ronald Adams of the U.S., as of late 2006.
 Tatra and the Czech government signed an agreement for 556 trucks at approximately $130 million (the equivalent of 2.6 billion Czech crowns), on 15
December 2006; this agreement was signed in place of the replacement of older military vehicles.
 In April 2007, Tatra announced that it already rivaled its production the year before and manufactured 1,600 vehicles.
 Also in 2007, Tatra made plans to manufacture between 2,300 and 2,500 vehicles; unlike in previous years, Tatra has undergone employment by the
hundreds within the previous two quarters and has undone earlier mistakes, and the company was expanding once more.
 In August 2011, DAF Trucks announced it had acquired a nineteen-percent stake in Tatra, with the purpose of using DAF cabs and PACCAR engines;
DAF dealers had to sell Tatra off-road trucks.
 In March 2013, Tatra was sold to the highest purchaser for 176 million CZK (roughly 7 million Euro), even though production continues.
 Tatra sold 722 trucks in 2013, the most since five years prior; almost two-thirds of units were exported.

12. Tatra 810 (military)

13. Tatra 815

14. Tatra 163

15. The End
 Tatra website (Czech): http://www.tatra.cz/
 Tatra website (English): http://www.tatratrucks.com/