On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, the last truck of the T 815 model series rolled off the production line of Tatra Trucks in Kopřivnice. The three-axle chassis for the CAS 30 fire truck with a long four-door cabin over engine concludes more than four decades of production of unique all-wheel drive heavy trucks, reports Milan Olšanský, ITOY jury member for Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Currently, the civilian and special program of the oldest and only Czech truck manufacturer Tatra consists of vehicles of two modern model series: Force and Phoenix. Within both, the company launched the third generation of heavy trucks last year. The Force and Phoenix model series are a perfect reflection of the best in engineering and technology that the long-term development of the T 815 has offered. The so-called chassis "Tatra concepts", air-cooled T3 family engines, of our own design and production, V8 and V12, now also with electronic RE injection, up to fourteen-speed transmission aggregate of our own production with electronic F shift shifting system, additional/downshift gearboxes of various types with different gears, pneumatic suspension system, combined suspension system KING FRAME, disc brake system and other solutions are the legacy of the T 815 for a successful future. If it were not for the brilliantly founded T 815 project (Ing. Milan Galia, 1930 - 2017), there would be no Force and Phoenix model series today and perhaps there would be no Tatra anymore.

A strong and complex story

The T 815 project, which closed this year, is full of interesting facts and even unexpected decisions. Just its designation with the type number "eight" at the beginning. Originally, the socialist nomenclature allocated the number eight for military projects. And so, it is. T 815 was originally a project to modernize the primarily military T 813, or T2-813 how it was known. Civilian production was to be represented by the new type T 157 and T 157 Z as a strictly agricultural vehicle. But what the hell, the party and the government decided to stop the agricultural project and include both civilian and military production under the single designation T 815. This ultimately led to the "revealing" findings of various, mainly external, experts in the following four decades that the T 815 was too complex and expensive to produce for civilian use. Several times during that time, some of them tried to "fix it", fortunately always unsuccessfully.

T 815 always managed to justify its justification. However, its time began to approach at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. In connection with the low annual production figures and relatively expensive in-house production, there was really high pressure from lending banks to substantially restructure Tatra's production program. Simply put, it was about getting rid of the development and production of its own pressed and welded cabin, air-cooled T3 engine and transmission unit.

Practically, even then, the wheel platform was to remain, which was to provide its highest added value, the so-called Tatra-Mobility. That is, the ability to offer a full-wheel drive chassis for retrofitting in customer projects. It was also the time when today's most modern Force and Phoenix series vehicles first saw the light of day.

Nevertheless, it took another thirteen years for the T 815 to come to an end. There were and are still enough customers who would like to buy a pure cab over engine (COE) Tatra. The production costs already mentioned and, above all, modern legislative measures, safety, emissions and others, are against it. Nevertheless, the T3 Euro III, Euro V engines, without emission specifications, without electronics or with them, still have their customers, as do Tatra transmission units. Of course, the vast majority on continents other than Europe. However, it is still used by rescue and fire departments in the Czech Republic and Slovakia thanks to its ability to work with F34 fuel.

Model and customer variants

The roots of the T 815 project date back to the early 1970s. The new vehicles entered serial production in 1983 after long-term testing of more than a hundred prototypes. The original T 815 series was replaced in 1989 by the modernized T 815-2 series. Five years later, the T 815-2 Model 94 with a modernized cabin was introduced to production. In 1997, the T 815-2 TERRN01 series with the KING FRAME combined rear axle suspension system was introduced to the world, which underwent modernization in 2020 and was sold to customers under the name T 815-2 FACELIFT. In 2018, the last variant of the T 815 model series was launched on the market, this time with the TERRA designation. It’s at first glance almost identical cab was significantly redesigned with small-scale production in mind.

From the point of view of customer friendliness, the T 815 low-cab T 815 PJ and J and TPL versions produced since the mid-1980s, the T 815 Armax - khaki variants for the military program, the hooded T 163 Jamal, the T 815-2 TERRN01 R55 firefighting specials and the T 815-2 "Australian" version, specially developed for operation on the smallest continent in the world, played a significant and, it must be added, victorious role in the competition specials derived from the T 815 series in the Dakar Rally, Africa Eco Race and other competitions od dakar type around the world. Somewhat surprisingly, circuit special referring to the Jamal model variant in the 2001 season, took the title of European Champion in track tractor racing.

The T 815 gave life to several other model series of heavy trucks. The T 816 (later marked T 815-6) Force specials, with engines and transmissions of foreign production, the T 817 (later T 815-7) Force with a low cab of its own design and finally the T 158 Phoenix Euro III, Euro V and Euro VI series.

The most produced vehicle in Kopřivnice

During the years 1983 to 2025, Tatra produced a total of 158,065 vehicles of all versions of the T 815 series, including prototypes and pre-series vehicles from 1977 to 1982. Of interest is the four-axle VP 31 chassis with a rear engine designed for special completion of the mobile artillery system model 77, which rolled off the production line in serial form long before the start of real serial production of the T 815 series. The project of the new heavy truck began with an idea, and it must be said that it was fulfilled, to produce up to 15 thousand vehicles per year. The vehicles were produced both in Kopřivnice and in Slovakia in Bánovce nad Bebravou. At a certain time, the eastern neighbour even produced more of them per year than in the parent plant.

After 1990, production fell drastically, to the order of hundreds of units per year. The T 815 also managed this period, and today it proudly ends its production in the Czech Republic and in Tatra. However, it continues to be produced under license in China and India. The Transfer of Technology from 2023 to the Indian company Beml ensures, in a way, another "life" of the full-fledged T 815 with a COE type pressed and welded cabin after its termination in Europe. The last T 815-2 TERRA vehicle bears the number 50008 on its production plate.

T 815 Timeline

• T 815 Prototypes (T 157, T2-813) 1970 – 1972
• New T 815 design, prototypes 1972 – 1983
• Start of series production of T 815 January/February 1983
• T 815 1983 – 1990
• T 815 PJ 1984 – 1991
• T 815 J, TPL 1988 – 2005
• T 815 Dakar specials 1986 - present
• T 815-2 1989 – 1997
• T 815-2 Model 94 1994 – 1997
• T 816 (T 815-6) 1996 - 2014
• T 815-2 TERRN01 1997 - 2010
• T 815-2 Armax 1999 - 2014
• T 163 Jamal 1999 - 2014
• T 815-2 TERRN01 "Australian" 2000 - 2025
• T 815 TERRN01 R55 2001 - 2018
• T 815-2 TERRN01 - FACELIFT 2010 - 2018
• T 815-2 TERRA 2018 – 20225
• End of series production T 815 25. 2. 2025
• T 815-7 (T 817) 2007 - present
• T 158 Phoenix 2011 - present