Tatra Logo

Carriages from Nesselsdorf

Tatra began with horses, not horsepower. In 1850 Ignác Šustala started building carriages in Kopřivnice, a Moravian town then officially called Nesselsdorf. Tatra itself traces its foundations to that year, which makes it one of the oldest vehicle makers in the world.

The workshop grew into a serious business. In 1891 new investors took over and the firm became the Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau Fabriks Gesellschaft, a big name for a company that also built railway wagons. Its vehicles wore a simple badge: the letters NW.

Then came the leap. In 1897 Kopřivnice produced its first car, the Präsident, powered by an engine from Karl Benz. A year later the first truck rolled out. Today the original Präsident is kept in Prague’s technical museum, while a replica greets visitors in Kopřivnice.

A name found in the snow

The Tatra name has a lovely origin story, and it comes from the company itself. In 1919 cars from the Kopřivnice factory made a test drive in Slovakia, from Tatranská Lomnica to Štrba, below the Tatra mountains. They coped so well with the snow-covered roads that a local man said they would make a great car for “our Tatras”.

The remark stuck. That same year the TATRA name first appeared on vehicles, on the NW TL2 and TL4 trucks. It went on to name the cars, and later the whole company. By 1936 the business was called Ringhoffer TATRA.

Six letters in a ring

The Tatra emblem is refreshingly direct. There is no hidden animal and no coat of arms, just the word itself. Tatra describes it as a distinctive TATRA inscription framed in a circle, and the meaning is the name: a nod to the mountains where those 1919 test cars proved themselves.

According to Tatra, the logo was first used on the cars and only later became the logo of the company. The circle version was registered as a trademark in the 1930s, and in September 2015 Tatra marked the 80th anniversary of that registration. Along the way there were, in Tatra’s own words, various modifications and changes before the logo settled into its present form.

Before all that, of course, there was NW. Those two letters of Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau were the brand on Kopřivnice vehicles until the Tatra name took over.

Backbones, fins and air-cooled V8s

Tatra cars never looked like anyone else’s. Much of that is down to Hans Ledwinka, whom Tatra calls the spiritual father of its vehicle concept. He shaped the company’s designs from 1921 to 1945, with a taste for independent axles, air cooling and slippery bodies.

Landmark Tatras, decade by decade

• 1897: Präsident. The first car built in Kopřivnice, with an engine supplied by Benz.
• 1923: Tatra 11. Ledwinka’s first modern Tatra, built around a central load-carrying tube instead of a conventional frame.
• 1934: Tatra 77. A streamlined sedan with a rear-mounted, air-cooled V8, often called the first series-produced aerodynamic car. The Tatra 87 followed in its tracks.
• 1956: Tatra 603. A rear-engined V8 saloon, first shown as a prototype at the Brno fair and built until 1975.
• 1975: Tatra 613. The 603’s successor, styled by the Italian firm Vignale.
• 1996: Tatra 700. A heavy update of the 613 and the last Tatra passenger car. When it ended in the late 1990s, so did Tatra’s car production.

The cars are gone, but the trucks never stopped. Tatra still builds heavy commercial and military trucks in Kopřivnice, which puts it in the same world as Scania and DAF rather than its old Czech neighbour Skoda. For more early marques, browse our classic car logos.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Tatra logo mean?

It is simply the TATRA name framed in a circle. The name comes from a 1919 test drive below the Tatra mountains in Slovakia, where a local praised the cars as perfect for “our Tatras”.

When was Tatra founded?

Tatra traces its foundations to 1850, when Ignác Šustala began making carriages in Kopřivnice. The first car, the Präsident, followed in 1897.

What did Tatra vehicles carry before the Tatra logo?

The letters NW, for Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau. The TATRA name first appeared on vehicles in 1919.

Does Tatra still make cars?

No. The Tatra 700 of the 1990s was the last Tatra passenger car. The company still builds trucks in Kopřivnice.

From Nesselsdorf to the Tatras: the file

Founded

1850

Founder

Ignác Šustala

Country

Czech Republic

Headquarters

Kopřivnice, Czech Republic

Current emblem

The TATRA inscription framed in a circle, used on vehicles since the 1930s

Known for

Air-cooled streamliners and rugged off-road trucks

Website

Official website ↗

More Czech car brands

• Skoda