Elina

History

Elina started its life as another company altogether, named Vratislav Design. Its founder, Frank Vratislav was an engineer that created multiple machines over his life, and that line included motor vehicles after he joined Weiss-Grüber in 1908. During his years in Weiss-Grüber, he worked with many designers and eventually was introduced to Oliver Weisshaupt. The two became friends and with the incentive from both Oliver and David Elssler, Weiss-Grüber’s president, Frank created his company in 1931.

Initially Vratislav Design did not make any cars under its own name, only offered designs. But as time passed, Frank’s incredible design skills landed him several contracts with the German government, who wanted to design a new car for the people. The contract was with Erin, which he had a good relationship with, and this eventually turned into the Erin Type 1, eventually named as the König. From there, the company exploded in popularity and after receiving his dues for the design of the König, Frank started to work with Erin to create new vehicles.

After the end of the second World War, he was arrested for war crimes but eventually was freed over the allegations that he was only doing things to survive. Unfortunately, most of his work was taken by the Allied forces and caused his company to become less valued, as well tarnish his surname by association, so Frank Ralf Vratislav, his son, decided to rename the company temporarily as Elina Design, named after his father’s third wife. After leaving prison, he and his son co-designed the first Elina vehicle, the Spacefarer. Frank died in 1951 and couldn’t see what his company would create later on. His son owned the company for many years, and continued his legacy.

The first version of the Spacefarer was highly sought and became an instant hit with not only the public but with motorsports. This helped Elina Design to become Elina Motors KG and create their own Motorsports branch, being somewhat successful with their boutings.

As the stint in Motorsport was coming to a decline, in 1964, Elina Motors created a new version of their traditional Spacefarer but inspired by the one co-developed by Erin. The new model was named ‘Starlight’. The car had a flat-6 boxer engine and was a massive success that continues to be sold to this day. Its design was coined by Frank Phillipp Vratislav, nicknamed ‘Phil’, son of Frank Ralf.

In 1972 the company changed from KG (limited partnership) to AG (public limited company), as the company was too big to be operated only by the Vratislav family. This led to the establishment of an executive board with members from outside the family, and a supervisory board consisting largely of family members. With this change, most family members in the operation of the company departed from the company.

After leaving the company, Frank Phillipp recreated Vratislav Design, but unlike the older version of the company, this was going to be a luxury clothing company. After many years operating solo, it was acquired by Erina AG in 2003, but the name was kept.

Elina’s first CEO was a name called Armin Preisner, who worked on engine designs for many years, who wanted to cease the production of the Starlight, and develop more models, such as the discontinued ‘Traveler’ line of vehicles. This eventually led him into being replaced in 1981 by Tom Krieger, a Starlight aficionado. He was replaced by a former manager of a computer company who only remained on the position for less than a year. In 1990, Tom Krieger returned to the position and in his second stint, Elina turned into a much more profitable company.

Amid restructuring woes in 2007, Elina AG sold 49.7% of its shares to Erin AG. In 2009 Elina AG and Erin AG decided to merge, creating Erin Farhzeuge Gruppe, with Erin having complete ownership, as the board of directors of Elina was also most of the board of directors of Erin, with the purchase being completed in 2012.

In 2022, Erin opened an IPO (Initial Public Offering) for Elina AG, while keeping over 85% of its ordinary and preference shares. Due to not attracting many buyers, the IPO was eventually cancelled.

Currently, Elina is in a hotly debated topic of doing a complete switch to EV cars, while offering refreshes of their classic models.