Škoda Transportation

Škoda Transportation fully or partially owns a number of other companies active in the field of development and manufacturing of rolling stock, electric motors and related products in several European countries.

[4] Currently, Petr Novotny is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Škoda Transportation, appointed in October 2023.

Škoda Transportation group of companies is among the world's largest manufacturers of trams and propulsion units for trolleybuses and a significant regional producer of railway vehicles.

They initiated restructuring of the company with the aim of focusing on only two main fields of production - conventional power generation and transportation engineering.

[9] The final price was made public in June 2018 and amounted to € 326 million, which is the equivalent of CZK 8.3 billion using the exchange rate in April 2018.

[17] From March 2011, the sole shareholder of Škoda Transportation entered in the Commercial Register was Skoda Industry (Europe) which was supposed to have been controlled by the above-mentioned owners.

[12] In 2015, 98.75 % of the shares of the sole shareholder were indirectly held by Tomáš Krsek, Michal Korecký, Marek Čmejla and Jiří Diviš.

[22] According to the then Minister of Industry Jan Mládek, this potential buyer demanded a guarantee that the privatisation of Škoda Transportation had been performed in an incontestable manner, which he refused to provide.

Later, Siemens made a bid for Škoda Transportation and there was speculation that the Energetický a průmyslový holding group was interested in buying it.

The contract for purchase of shares in Škoda Transportation and related assets was in the end concluded by PPF Group in November 2017.

[39] The latest models of trams are machines supplied under the trade name Škoda ForCity, which the company delivers to several European countries.

[42] The first metro train from the workshops of the Škoda Group will begin carrying passengers in the Polish capital in October 2022.

In the field of rail transport, the company was not planning any new locomotive type in 2020, instead focusing on the development and production of RegioPanter and InterPanter electric units.

In the Czech Republic, RegioPanter units operate in the Plzeň,[49] South Moravian,[50] Moravian-Silesian,[51] Olomouc,[52] Hradec Králové,[53] Pardubice,[54] Ústí nad Labem[55] and Central Bohemian regions.

Due to the Romanian order Škoda regained banks' confidence which provided the company with financing to survive through the immediate post-war years.

[64] Meanwhile, in another factory building situated in Plzeň, Škoda started producing electrical propulsion units for trams in the early 1920s.

Since then, nearly forty models have been developed under the Škoda badge, many of which are currently in use not only in the Czech Republic, but also in a number of countries throughout the whole of Europe.

At present, the Škoda Group is focusing mainly on solutions for electrical equipment, with the bodywork supplied by one of the partners it works with on its projects.

A number of trolleybus models are equipped with batteries enabling them to cross sections without overhead lines.

[70] Škoda Transportation founded the Techmania Science Center in 2005 together with the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň.

The company was the recipient of two investment incentives in the form of income tax breaks in the total possible amount of CZK 1 billion.

The main reason for this acquisition was to allow Škoda to test its newly developed and produced hybrid buses in live operation.

In the same year, Škoda bought the Ostrava-based company Lokel, which specialised in the design and supply of electrical equipment for rolling stock.

In 2015, Škoda Transportation acquired a majority stake in Transtech, a Finnish company which engages in production of low-floor trams and double-decker railway carriages.

In January, it bought a significant part of the assets of the Austrian engineering and design company Molinari Rail Austria, which became the basis of the newly established Škoda Group Austria, and in February, it bought a majority share (93.6%) in the Belgian railway signalling system manufacturer The Signalling Company.

Škoda Transportation and the University of West Bohemia run Techmania Science Center in Plzeň.

The exhibition is annually visited by tens of thousands of schoolchildren and students who learn about various principles of mathematics and physics in an engaging way.

Locomotive Škoda 109E
Škoda 15T ForCity tram in Prague
ČD Class 471 double deck electric multiple unit train