At just thirty years of age, Jakub Pončík, a graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, excelled in his work for Tatra Trucks so much that he was appointed Director of Research and Development. He linked his professional career with the oldest Czech car manufacturer in 2016 when he worked on his diploma thesis in this company. As of March 2024, he is the youngest R&D director in Tatra's history. He was drawn to the brand by a family hobby and together with his father and brother he collects and renovates veteran cars – especially those with Tatra brand.

What car from the family collection are you working on now with your dad and brother?

For about five years I have been gradually restoring the Tatra 87, which for me is probably the most beautiful Tatra car with an amazing history. It is one of the first aerodynamic Tatras with an eight-cylinder, air-cooled engine. It had a predecessor in the Tatra 77, which is considered to be one of the first mass-produced aerodynamic cars (we recently wrote about it here, ed.), but only about two hundred of them were produced. Then came the Tatra 87 and around three thousand of them were produced. It was heavily promoted by the Czech globetrotters Zikmund and Hanzelka, who travelled almost all over the world with this beauty. So, as a person who likes travelling, I am connected to this car by both my love for the brand and for travelling. Unfortunately, with my current workload, I'm neglecting its renovation a bit and it's progressing slowly, but I'm already coming to the end.

Do you have mainly Tatra veterans at home?

Yes, we do. It started in 2006 when my dad bought his first car and tried to fix it himself. Then came the Tatra 603, in the renovation of which he also involved me and my brother. Since then, our collection has been gradually growing, and we currently have about thirty veteran cars, most of which are Tatras. It was also the main reason why I applied for a job at Tatra. I just fell in love with this brand.

So studying car making was a clear choice for you?

Not at all. I studied mechanical engineering at a technical school in Vsetín, then I wanted to go to Brno to the Brno University of Technology, due to its reputation. First, I got a bachelor's degree in Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. I've never been much of a study type, but I like challenges, so I thought I'd give it a try. And quite frankly, the first three years were purgatory for me. Eventually, however, the school forced me to start understanding things, which helped me a lot in practice, and I see it in today's boys who come to us from BUT: they don't shoot from the hip, but first, they think, search for the essence of the problem and then they start solving it. Anyway, thanks to my family hobby, it was a bit like a seesaw with cars: for a while I loved it, but for a while, I couldn't even see it. Fortunately, when it came to choosing a master's degree, I was at a stage where I was enjoying it again. So I chose Automotive and Traffic Engineering.

And from there, the road led to Tatra...

Radomír Smolka, my predecessor as the Head of Tatra Development, who is now involved in development at a strategic level as a member of the company's board of directors, once lectured at the faculty. After the lecture, he left his business cards on the table so that anyone interested could get in touch. A few days after the lecture, I was already in Kopřivnice for an interview and we agreed on the topic of my diploma thesis. After school, I stayed in the company: at first, I was a dogsbody, but gradually I worked my way up.

… and after seven years you became the Head of Development, that's a great career! What are you involved in the development of Tatra Trucks?

The work is very varied, so you gain a lot of experience very quickly. Last year, Tatra produced almost 1,500 cars, of which 400 were custom-made, which means that the cars were modified in some way according to the customer's wishes, which of course includes the work of people from Design and Development. Since I have been with the company, I have had the opportunity to participate to varying degrees in the development of a plethora of cars and prototypes. One of the biggest projects I have worked on is, for example, the innovation of a 1° additional transmission for 700 logistics vehicles – with this project, I successfully participated in the Talent Program, which is organized by one of our shareholders. Another big project that I have sponsored is the hydrogen Tatra, which we introduced last October and we are gradually touring the whole country with it. Other large projects we are working on are also electric vehicles, but they are still in the state of design documentation or prototyping.

Looking back at the history of Tatra, it can be said that it all started with horse carriages and buggies, and continued with railway cars or elegant limousines, but today the company relies more on trucks, right?

Yes, that's right, but I would just like to point out that for Tatra, passenger cars have always been a marginal matter, with the exception of the 1930s. Railway cars and later trucks played a leading role. Today, we focus on the N3G category, which are off-road trucks over 12 tons. They are really varied vehicles: some of them you meet every day on the roads, for example on motorway construction sites – and I don't mean the old Tatra 815s with smoke pluming from their exhausts, but really modern vehicles from our Phoenix or Force model range with engines that meet the latest emission regulations. But we also make special mining trucks, military vehicles, equipment for firefighters, farmers and road workers... The portfolio is broad. We like to say that at the point where the competition stops moving, we only apply differential locks, which is also supported by the motto we like to use – Tatra will get you further. We feel best in difficult terrain, where our greatest added value lies, mainly thanks to the unique Tatra chassis with a central support tube and independently suspended half-axles, which we have been developing for more than 100 years.

Speaking of difficult terrain, the Dakar Rally cannot be overlooked. How do you feel about it?

Dakar is a feast for us Tatra fans. When there's this rally in January, we all watch our trucks go. Although Tatra as such does not have its own racing team, of course, we are always interested in how the Tatra trucks are doing.

We are currently working on an interesting project called "Karel", by which will pay tribute to Karel Loprais, the legendary Dakar Rally driver. We want to build a Tatra 162 that was supposed to compete in the Dakar Rally in 1989. Unfortunately, in 1988 DAF team, which was our main rival and the T 162 was supposed to beat it, got in a serious accident at the rally and the truck race was cancelled for the following year. The truck was never built again, it remained only on one drawing. And it is this truck that we would like to bring into the world. It is a voluntary project, anyone from the company could apply to participate. We are now in the construction phase, about thirty people are working on it. Colleagues can try building a racing car from scratch. And given the vigour with which they went into it, I think we could have it built within a year.

Let's get back to you. If any of the students wanted to follow a similar path as you, what would advise them?

Tatra Trucks as a company has changed a lot in recent years. The team has been rejuvenated, we have new management, and we want to increase production to some two and a half thousand cars within two years. This means that we will be looking for a lot of other colleagues, so there is definitely a chance to join us. For example, they can check out our recruitment pages chcidotatry.cz. And there is no need to "move" to Kopřivnice right away. We have opened a design office in Brno, where we have four permanent employees and four students from the Brno University of Technology working on their thesis. The branch is mainly focused on gears and engines, but we will also expand it to include electronics. From June, we are also opening a design branch in Ostrava.

And I would probably say to the students that I think the faculty will prepare them very well for their practice. It doesn't mean that they would know everything right after school, but the journey through BUT represents an excellent preparation. This is also evidenced by the fact that a large part of the leading positions in our company are held by people with a degree from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Brno University of Technology, such as Radomír Smolka, a member of the Board of Directors responsible for the technical department, research and development, or the Chief Designer Josef Jakubec or Vlastimil Marek, the Head of Aggregate Design Department.

Tatra Trucks a.s. Tatra Trucks a.s. , the Kopřivnice car factory, known under the TATRA brand, is one of the oldest car manufacturers in the world and with its more than 170 years of continuous activity, it has significantly influenced the automotive industry not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. TATRA TRUCKS a.s. is part of the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) and PROMET GROUP holdings. In addition to standardized model series, it also manufactures special trucks tailored to customer requirements. The domestic markets in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are very important, and a large part of the carmaker's production is intended for export to dozens of countries around the world. TATRA TRUCKS a.s. employs more than 1,400 people and more than 700 work in its subsidiary Tatra Metalurgie a.s., which focuses mainly on foundry and forging.