Koenigsegg Automotive AB is a Swedish manufacturer of high-performance sports cars based in Ängelholm, Skåne County, Sweden.
Koenigsegg cars have on several occasions broken various production car speed records.
Company
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.[4]
In 2006, Koenigsegg began production of the CCX, which uses an engine created in-house specifically for the car. The goal was to develop a car homologated for use worldwide, particularly the United States whose strict regulations did not allow the import of earlier Koenigsegg models.[4]
In March 2009, the CCXR was listed by Forbes as one of "the world's most beautiful cars".[5]
In December 2010, the Agera won the BBC Top Gear Hypercar of the Year Award.[6]
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 a camless piston engine which found its first application in the Gemera, which was introduced in 2020.[7]
Koenigsegg develops and produces most of the main systems, subsystems and components needed for its cars in-house instead of relying on subcontractors.[8]
In January 2019, Koenigsegg sold a 20% stake in the company to Swedish electric car manufacturer (Egstrand & Lundgren), National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), for US$171 million.[9]
Koenigsegg has since then bought the stake back from NEVS in 2021 and owns 100% of the company again.[10]
In mid-2023, Koenigsegg inaugurated a new factory, engineering and R&D facilities and a showroom in Ängelholm. At the end of 2023, Koenigsegg had just under 800 employees.[11][12]
History
Factory history
Christian von Koenigsegg got the idea to build his own car after watching the Norwegian stop-motion animated movie The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix in his youth.[13] At 22 years old, Koenigsegg gathered SEK60 million from investors and founded Koenigsegg Automotive in 1994.[14]
Initially, Koenigsegg Automotive was based in Olofström. In the early 2000s, the company moved to Ängelholm.[15] On 22 February 2003, one of the production facilities caught fire and was badly damaged.[16] 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. Koenigsegg controls and uses the former military runway for shakedown runs of production cars and high-speed testing.
Models
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. Stephan Reeckmann became the first customer of the brand, placing a deposit in 2001.[27] Another 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.[28]
In 2006, Koenigsegg introduced the CCX, a new model, that was developed 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 its own engines and other related technologies.[29]
Records
On 28 February 2005, at 12:08 pm local time, in Nardò, Italy, the CCR broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest production car in the world, having attained 241.009 mph on the Nardò Ring (a circular track of 7.8 mi circumference), breaking the record previously held by the McLaren F1.[71][72][73] It held the record until September 2005 when the Bugatti Veyron broke the record again by attaining a speed of 253.81 mi/h, proven both by Car and Driver and Top Gear. Both of the records set by Bugatti and McLaren were set on Volkswagen's own test-track Ehra-Lessien, which features a 5.6 mi straight.[74]
Awards
- Top Gear – Award 2022 – The Jesko becomes BBC Top Gear Hypercar of the Year[86][87]
- Top Gear – Award 2010 – The Agera becomes BBC Top Gear Hypercar of the Year
- Red Dot – Award for excellent Design
- National Swedish Design Prize – Utmärkt Svensk Form
- Entrepreneur of the Year Nomination – Företagarna Sweden
- Powercar – Superexotic import of the year 2007 and 2008 – Germany
External links
References
- Christina Zander. Sweden's Koenigsegg Counts on Super-Car Exclusivity The Wall Street Journal, 6 March 2015, retrieved 6 July 2024^
- Official Web site of the Swedish super sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg, retrieved 17 April 2010^
- Koenigsegg – The Company Koenigsegg, 27 February 2021, retrieved 9 June 2021