Koenigsegg Details, Photos and Videos

Koenigsegg Automotive AB (Swedish: [ˈkøːnɪɡsɛɡ] (listen)) is a Swedish manufacturer of high-performance sports cars, based in Ängelholm, Skåne County, Sweden.

The company was founded in 1994 in Sweden by Christian von Koenigsegg, with the intention of producing a "world-class" sports car. Many years of development and testing led to the CC8S, the company's first street-legal production car which was introduced in 2002.

In 2006, Koenigsegg began production of the CCX, which uses an engine created in-house especially for the car. The goal was to develop a car homologated for use worldwide, particularly the United States whose strict regulations didn't allow the import of earlier Koenigsegg models.

In March 2009, the CCXR was listed by Forbes as one of "the world's most beautiful cars".

In December 2010, the Agera won the BBC Top Gear Hypercar of the Year Award.

Apart from developing, manufacturing and selling the Koenigsegg line of sports cars, Koenigsegg is also involved in "green technology" development programmes beginning with the CCXR ("Flower Power") flex-fuel sports car and continuing through the present with the Jesko. Koenigsegg is also active in development programs of plug-in electric cars' systems and next-generation reciprocating engine technologies. Koenigsegg has also developed[when?] a camless piston engine which found its first application in the Regera, which was introduced in 2015.

Koenigsegg develops and produces most of the main systems, subsystems and components needed for their cars in-house instead of relying on subcontractors. At the end of 2015[update] Koenigsegg had 97 employees, with an engineering department of 25 engineers, led by the founder.

In January 2019, Koenigsegg sold a 20 percent minority stake in the company to a Chinese funded company, National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), for US$171 million. They also announced the formation of a new joint venture to make cars using technologies from both companies. In the new venture, NEVS will invest US$150 million for a 65% stake while Koenigsegg will get a 35% stake by sharing intellectual property, technology licenses, and product design. The new company will manufacture cars in Trollhättan, Sweden, as well as in China.

The company is also known for making cars that are environment friendly, as their a Agera R was available in bio-fuel variant as well.

The initial design of the CC was penned down by Christian von Koenigsegg. Industrial designer David Crafoord realised the sketches as a 1:5 scale model. This model was later scaled up in order to create the base plug for the initial Koenigsegg prototype that was finished in 1996. During the next years, the prototype went through extensive testing and several new prototypes were built. The prototypes initially used an Audi V8 engine but after the engine supply contract fell through, the next candidate was the Flat-12 race engine developed by Motori Moderni for the Scuderia Coloni Formula one team, in which this engine was raced under the Subaru badge in the 1990 season. These Subaru 1235 engines were purchased and modified for use in the CC, this deal failed when the founder of Motori Moderni died, sending the company into bankruptcy. Eventually a Ford Modular V8 engine was chosen, which found its way to the company's first production car.

Christian von Koenigsegg got the idea to build his own car after watching the Norwegian stop-motion animated movie Pinchcliffe Grand Prix in his youth. He took his first steps in the world of business in his early 20s running a trading company called Alpraaz in Stockholm, Sweden. Alpraaz exported food from Europe to the developing world. The success of this venture gave von Koenigsegg the necessary financial standing to launch his chosen career as a car manufacturer.

Initially, Koenigsegg Automotive was based in Olofström. In 1997, the company needed larger production facilities and moved to a farm, just outside Ängelholm. On 22 February 2003, one of the production facilities caught fire and was badly damaged. Koenigsegg then acquired an abandoned air field to use as his new factory building and in late 2003, one of the two large fighter-jet hangars and an office building were converted into a car factory. Since then, the company is located near the still-active Ängelholm airport, clients can arrive by private jet nearby. Koenigsegg controls and uses the former military runway for shakedown runs of production cars and high-speed testing.

The Koenigsegg badge was designed in 1994 by Jacob Låftman, based on the heraldic coat of arms of the Koenigsegg family. The shield has been the family's coat of arms since the 12th century when a family member was knighted by the Germany-based Holy Roman Empire.

After moving into the abandoned airfield, which once housed the Swedish air force's "Johan Röd" squadron, Koenigsegg adopted the "ghost symbol" that the squadron had on their planes, which were Saab AJS37 Viggens aircraft (the squad also used the english phrase "The show must go on" on their aircraft as well) as a tribute to the squadron. The badge is seen on many of the car's models, including the CCX, Agera, Agera R, One:1, and Regera.

On 12 June 2009, the media reported that Koenigsegg Group, consisting of Koenigsegg Automotive AB, Christian von Koenigsegg, Bård Eker and a group of investors led by Mark Bishop had signed a letter of intent with Saab to take over the brand from General Motors. General Motors confirmed on June 16 that they had chosen Koenigsegg Group as the buyer of Saab Automobile. The deal, set to close 30 September 2009, included US$600 million in financing from the European Investment Bank, guaranteed by the Swedish government. By comparison, in 2008 Koenigsegg with its staff of 45 produced 18 cars at an average price of US$1 million each; Saab employed 3,400 workers and made more than 93,000 cars.

General Motors announced on 18 August that the deal had been signed, although certain financing details remained to be completed. On 9 September 2009, Koenigsegg announced that BAIC was going to join as a minority stakeholder in Koenigsegg.

In November 2009, Koenigsegg decided not to finalise the purchase of Saab and therefore, left the negotiations. The timing uncertainty of finalisation of the take over was the reason Koenigsegg stated for leaving the deal.

A Koenigsegg CC prototype was first publicised in 1996, while the full carbon fibre production prototype having white paintwork was finally unveiled at the 2000 Paris Motor Show. The first customer took delivery of a red CC8S in 2002 at the Geneva Auto Show and four more cars were built that year. Koenigsegg was established in Asia later that year with a premiere at the Seoul Auto Show. In 2004, the new CCR, which was basically a high performance variant of the CC8S, was unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show; only 14 were produced.

In 2006, Koenigsegg introduced the CCX, a new model, that was created in order to meet worldwide regulations for road use. This meant the car had to go through extensive development in order to meet the latest and most stringent safety and emission standards that the world's authorities demanded; Koenigsegg had to, for example, develop their own engines and other related technologies. Furthermore, Koenigsegg is the only low-volume sports car manufacturer to pass the new European pedestrian impact tests. Just after Koenigsegg passed this test, the requirement was deemed too complicated for compliance by low-volume manufacturers, so it is now unnecessary to meet these regulations if the production volume of a given model is less than 10,000 cars annually.

In 2007, Koenigsegg premiered the CCXR, a biofuel/flex-fuel version of the CCX. The car features a modified engine, fuel system, and engine management system that enables the car to run on normal gasoline or ethanol, and in any mixture between these two fuels. Ethanol has a higher octane rating compared to regular fuel and has an internal cooling effect on the combustion chamber, which allows increased performance.

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