PS-Reportage - Die Skoda-Story

This success story is unique and has never been told in this form on German television: Škoda is the third oldest carmaker in the world and can look back with pride at 122 eventful years. What began under the founding fathers Laurin & Klement in 1895 with revolutionary bicycles and later with the first motorcycles has today become one of the best known and most innovative car brands ever. Between these two points in time, there have been two world wars, decades of a socialist economy of scarcity, and dozens of cars that, despite adverse conditions, have written history and become “the pride of the East”. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union mark a turning point for the Czech carmaker too: on 16 April 1991, the Volkswagen Group takes over Škoda – in next to no time the company from Mladá Boleslav, with its long tradition, mutates from a regional Eastern-European brand to become a global player. Today, Škoda makes well over a million cars every years, it is represented in more than 100 countries, and is shaping the international car market with models such as the Octavia, Superb or Fabia.
Škoda is more adept than just about any other member of the VW Group when it comes to turning engine and chassis modules into attractive and affordable cars. Now, the Czechs have launched their much noticed SUV offensive with the Kodiaq and the Karoq. A third long-legged member is already in the starting blocks, and the concept SUV “Vision E” is affording a first glimpse of Škoda’s ambitious “Strategy 2025”.
122 years of being “Simply Clever”: n-tv tells the historic success story of the managers and builders from Mladá Boleslav for the first time and exclusively, taking a look behind the scenes of its impressive production halls and meeting passionate people, some of whom are already the third generation to be working at Škoda.