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Karosa

Karosa

The history of the Karosa brand dates back to 1896, when Josef Sodomka founded a carriage factory in Vysoké Mýto. Due to the declining demand for carriages in 1925, the factory began to focus on the individual production of mass-produced car underbodies (for example, Aero, Praga, Tatra, etc.), various trailers and even sailplanes. In 1928, the production of the first bus bodies began, on the underbodies of the Škoda and Tatra brands.

The company gained a name thanks to its own shape designs, quality production and successes at exhibitions (eg the Tatra 600 convertible). In 1948, the company was nationalized and the name of its founder, Josef Sodomek, disappeared from its name. During the nationalization, there was a merger with the Prague company Oldřich Uhlík, which owned the rights to the established Karosa trademark. After the nationalization, it was decided to reduce the production of car bodies and the company became the only bus manufacturer in Czechoslovakia. Other manufacturers, such as Škoda or Praga, were not allowed to compete with it.


In the late 1950s, the company began production of the first of the well-known and popular city bus models, such as the 706 RTO (body on a Škoda underbody), which were awarded at many international exhibitions (eg. the EXPO in Brussels in 1958). This was followed by its modifications for intercity transport, and even an articulated version, which, however, remained a prototype. In 1962, the company THZ Polička was incorporated and under the Karosa brand, among other things, firefighting equipment was produced until it became independent in the 1990s.

In 1993, the state-owned company Karosa was privatized, and the joint-stock company Karosa a.s. emerged. It was first joined by the French automobile manufacturer Renault, which subsequently incorporated it into the pan-European holding Irisbus in 1999. He originally founded Renault together with Iveco, which took over the entire Irisbus company in 2003. In 2007, the company was renamed to Iveco Czech Republic, only to be changed to the existing IvecoBus brand six years later.