TESLA a.s. is a Czech manufacturer and supplier of special

radio communication Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and security electrical engineering for military and commercial use. The name was originally used by a state-owned conglomerate that was the monopoly producer of electronic appliances and components in the former

Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

. The conglomerate was founded in 1946 and ran until 1991, when it was privatised. The Tesla name is used by its successor company and former subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2011, the Czech company Inter-Sat Ltd. acquired the license for the Tesla brand name from TESLA a.s. to sell

household appliance A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ...

s and

consumer electronic Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually ...

s with different logo in Europe, mostly in Central and Southeastern countries.

Company

The company was established as ''Elektra'' on 18 January 1921 and renamed Tesla on 7 March 1946. A founding ceremony took place on 10 August 1946 at the Mikrofon Factory in Strašnice attended by government ministers from Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. It was named after the pioneer scientist Nikola Tesla, who briefly studied in Prague, but when the association with a Serbian American became politically inconvenient it was explained as abbreviation from , which means "low-current technology". Tesla had several production locations, including those at Liptovský Hrádok, Hradec Králové,

Pardubice Pardubice (; german: Pardubitz) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 89,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monu ...

, Žďár nad Sázavou,

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

, and Nižná. Some of them became independent state-owned companies. After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, Tesla struggled to compete with firms at home and abroad, which resulted in dramatic downsizing and privatization of the majority of its stores and production facilities. Tesla's logo is a rare sight in the present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, as only a few of its subsidiaries have survived. One of its former subsidiaries, the Slovak JJ Electronic in Čadca is known for its production of vacuum tubes and SEV Litovel produces high-end turntables for the Austrian Pro-Ject company. The company name survived as Tesla a.s., a private company whose shares trade on the Prague stock exchange. Tesla a.s. manufactures of radio and security equipment for military and commercial use. Tesla a.s. took a series of legal cases against the American company Tesla, Inc. (formerly Tesla Motors, Inc.), resulting in an agreement in October 2010, establishing a coexistence of Tesla trademarks and regulating relationships between the two companies. After a three year period in which an Irish-owned financial company was the majority shareholder in Tesla a.s. a controlling interest was acquired by Inter-Sat Ltd of

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

in 2011. Tesla a.s. sells set-top boxes, antennas, robotic vacuum cleaners, soundbars, motion detectors and multifunctional pressure cookers. In 2015 the company added batteries for home and industrial use to its product range. In 2022, the majority shareholder of Tesla a.s. became the international group IC Group, which secured the transaction for ''The Royal Invest Fund of Kelantan'' founded by Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan.

Products

The original Tesla concern developed a wide product range including televisions, radio receivers, transistors, integrated circuits, visual display units, loudspeakers, gramophones, cassette decks, Compact Disc players and videocassette recorders. However, the quantity produced was often insufficient for industrial customers and some products became obsolete because they were not updated; e.g. one particular type of

diode A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode ...

was manufactured for over 30 years without modification. Some products were comparable with those from international producers e.g. silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs) or power transistors and Tesla exported them to other countries in Eastern Europe. A few products were exported to western countries, for example, the NC 470 turntable rebranded as the NAD 5120, and the NC 450, NC 452, NC 430 turntables sold under the tradename Lenco. In 1953, the production of the first Czechoslovak television, the Tesla 4001A, began in Strašnice. The first Czechoslovak color television, the Tesla 4401A, began manufacturing in 1974. The best-known Tesla products internationally were the 308U Talisman bakelite radio designed by Igor Didov of Tesla Bratislava and made by several Tesla company branches between 1953 and 1958 and the Sonet duo reel-to-reel tape recorder (1959-1965). Tesla was also known for its KRTP-86 Tamara military passive radar (TESLA Pardubice, 1986), which was claimed to be the only one in the world able to detect stealth aircraft.

Gallery

File:Höritz Museum - Fernseher Tesla 40001A.jpg, Tesla 4001A, the first Czechoslovak television (1953) File:Den s technikou 2019 E02. Rádio Maestro.jpg, Tesla Maestro (1958) File:Electron microscope Tesla B5 242 CSSR UiO 1958 IMG 1627.JPG, Tesla BS 242 electron microscope (1958) File:Tesla PCC88.jpg, Tesla PCC88 vacuum tube File:VÚRT synthesizer (c.1949, c.1952-1962, or 1960s), for Sound Studio HAMU, by Výzkumném Ústavu Rozhlasu a Televize - left part - ČMH el. kytary.jpg, VÚRT synthesizer with twelve Tesla electronic oscillators File:Sonet Duo 2.JPG, Portable reel tape recorder Sonet Duo (1959) File:Q-meter Tesla BM 560.jpg, Tesla BM 560

Q meter A Q meter is a piece of equipment used in the testing of radio frequency circuits. It has been largely replaced in professional laboratories by other types of impedance measuring devices, though it is still in use among radio amateurs. It was de ...

(1977) File:Tesla Kvintet portable radio receiver.jpg, Tesla Kvintet radio receiver (1978) File:Audio mixer Tesla.jpg, Tesla ERT 032 audio mixer used for sport broadcasting File:Domácí telefon Tesla typ 4EP110 3611, zepředu.jpg, Tesla DT 85 home telephone File:Tesla Tuner 3606 A.jpg, Tesla 3606A tuner (1981) File:Pořežany, muzeum, radiopřijímač.jpg, Tesla 1038A Duo radio gramophone (1984) File:Tesla Color 425.jpg, Tesla 4425A "Color 425" (1986) File:KL Tesla MHB8080.jpg, Tesla MHB8080 micoprocessor, a clone of the Intel 8080 File:PMD 85-1.jpg, Tesla

PMD 85 The PMD 85 is an 8-bit personal computer produced since 1985 by the companies Tesla Piešťany and Tesla Bratislava in the former Czechoslovakia. They were deployed ''en masse'' in schools throughout Slovakia (while the IQ 151 performed a similar ...

home computer File:Tesla OPRL-4.jpg, Tesla OPRL-4 air traffic control radar File:Бывший радиополигон РКИИГА - panoramio - alinco fan.jpg, Tesla radio equipment at the

Riga Civil Aviation Engineers Institute The Riga Civil Aviation Engineers Institute (RCAEI) ( lv, Rīgas Civilās Aviācijas Inženieru Institūts (RCAII), italic=no, russian: Рижский институт инженеров гражданской авиации (РКИИГА until 1 ...

File:KRTP-86 Tamara, VTM Lešany.jpg, Tesla Tamara passive sensor mounted on a Tatra 815 chassis (1987-1991)

Company

Products

Gallery

References

External links