The Koenigsegg Regera, the Swedish firm’s 1479bhp, 1465lb ft, 250mph hybrid hypercar. And no, those figures are not a mistake. At the heart of the Regera sits broadly the same 5.0-litre twin turbo V8 as you’ll find in the back of an Agera RS, but to give it a little extra something, there’s also the small matter of three electric motors as well.
So this is Koenigsegg’s answer to the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder?
Sort of. If it simply accompanied their template that might be fantastic enough. Koenigsegg is a small corporation (it’s simplest ever constructed around 120 automobiles) and doesn’t have the assets the holy trinity manufacturers can name on. The assumption might be that the Regera (say it with a hard ‘g’, it interprets as ‘to reign’), would provide a passing nod to electric strength, before pointing you within the direction of its 1160bhp inner combustion output and showing you the manner to 250mph.
But you’d be incorrect. Some stuff you need to recognize about Koenigsegg: it does nearly all its own carbon fibre paintings, turned into the primary to equip a production car with carbon fibre wheels, assembles its personal ECU circuit forums, has evolved its own infotainment software program and is the primary to apply F1 battery cell technology in a street automobile.
Really?
Yes – it all. Anyway, a couple of weeks again, before this candy apple crimson Regera was loaded up and shipped off to seem at Pebble Beach, photographer Rowan Horncastle and I went to Angelholm to spend the day with Christian von Koenigsegg and drive his new automobile. And yes, the F1 cell % most effective weighs 75kg and yet Christian reckons it need to provide a number 20-30 miles. That alone can be revolutionary for the car industry. The energy density is big and going for walks at 800 volts (some other world first, the Porsche Mission-E will in the end trap up…), the recharge and discharge fees are colossal.
And they want to be, because the Yasa electric automobiles are hugely effective. There’s a 32kg motor for every rear wheel (which manipulate torque vectoring and imply the Regera runs an open differential) and every other on the crank, this one to recharge the battery, operate as a starter motor and commonly easy things out and help whilst it could. That one offers round 220bhp, while each rear wheel motor contributes another 240bhp. Yep, that’s a complete of 700bhp of electric power proper there. Basically the same ballpark because the Tesla Model S P90D. Or expressed some other way, extra wattage than the P1, 918 and LaFerrari blended.
Jeepers, what gearbox does it use to handle the torque?
Remember what I changed into pronouncing about Koenigsegg being extra radical than you’d count on considering its length (one hundred ten personnel in the intervening time, but expanding all the time)? Christian instructed me “If we can’t find the proper accomplice or answer for a hassle we essentially bring it in house”. Well, Christian’s concept for the Regera became now not to have a gearbox at all…
What?!
It’s gonna be easier if I permit Christian provide an explanation for this in his own words. “I sold a Tesla Model S, and what involved me become how fun it changed into and the way little I ignored transferring. Even with a double snatch things must occur earlier than you overtake. So I become getting increasingly more p****d off – saying ‘rattling, the Tesla is ideal’. And traditional gearboxes are wasteful: you’re best in one equipment at any given factor in time, the relaxation are laying around, including weight, rattling maybe.”
“So what become the solution? CVT? No. Horrible. You have warmth technology and it’s continuously slipping so inefficient wherein a gear is efficient. And the texture - I haven’t pushed one which feels properly.”
Ultimately he couldn’t locate what he became seeking out, so genuine to his mantra, he brought it in house and did it himself. The basic trouble is how to combine petrol and electric powerplants in a non-wasteful way. Electric cars don’t want a gearbox, whilst because of their torque transport and rev bands, petrol engines preferably need numerous ratios.
What became the answer?
Koenigsegg Direct Drive (KDD). At its heart is a simple torque converter (“however that appeared like something from 1922, so we call it Hydra-Coup) that allows snatch slip. So both electric and inner combustion powerplants are controlled with the aid of one, slightly bendy tools pushing thru a 2.73:1 final force, with the entirety, a blended 1479bhp and 1475lb feet, controlled via your proper foot.
How speedy did you are saying it turned into?
I haven’t but. Christian’s projections are for zero-62mph in 2.8secs and a top pace a touch over 250mph. But that’s no longer the 1/2 of it and it’s what he instructed me subsequent that colorings the photo. “The issue we’ve realised is that chasing the final top pace is starting to turn out to be a nonsense, so our philosophy is extra like this: whoever receives to 250mph first wins”.
Firstly that’s a philosophy I can get on board with. Secondly, a single equipment car that could hit 250mph isn’t going to truly hit its stride till that equipment is in the meat of its rev range…
The other figures he quotes are simple bananas, and the only that clearly blows my mind is the 3.2secs it takes to boost up from 90-155mph. The projections display it will hit 250mph in round 20 seconds, having passed 186mph (300kmh) in around eleven flat. The One:1 currently holds the arena document at eleven.92, however Christian is confident the Regera can be faster.
Koenigsegg intends for the Regera to rain at the Chiron’s parade, to make you question why Bugatti hasn’t accomplished something this radical for the Veyron’s alternative. Perhaps in line with that, the Regera is supposed to be a gentler revel in than the Agera. The engine is rubber bushed to lessen vibration, the rear wing whirrs up and down hydraulically, as do the doorways and the front and rear clams. It’s high-quality to observe. The cabin is a piece of artwork, the facet sills vastly wide, the carbon shelled, reminiscence foam seats built here from the ground up, the F1-spec batteries tucked away within the transmission tunnel.
Is it still based at the Agera RS, then?
Broadly talking, yes. The bodywork can be new, shaped to be extra aerodynamic, however beneath the carbon bathtub is close to same and except the usage of barely smaller blowers, the engine is the identical, too. In reality, we shouldn’t bypass over the engine – it’s a totally surprising issue, and its particular output of 220bhp according to litre (on everyday pump gas) is, as far as I can training session, the highest of any current production vehicle.
OK, enough information already. What’s it like to pressure?
Well, it’s very simple to operate. The handbrake is automatic, so all you do is pull the proper paddle to have interaction forwards or left for reverse (the electrical vehicles are reversed). Pull both collectively for park. So that’s honest, however the driving is bizarre first of all. As we pull out of the manufacturing unit onto public roads it feels maximum like a lazy American V8 muscle vehicle. The noise throbs and rises, however power takes a 2nd to capture up. That’s the torque converter doing its issue.
Then, at 30mph, if you’re only driving gently, the torque converter stops slipping, locks and offers you direct force, the V8 churning away at barely tickover. It’s at that moment I start to love the Regera – the connection now feels herbal and coffee rev thrust is unearthly as the electrical cars upload their bite. “See, like a Tesla, but half of a tonne lighter and with another 1,000bhp!” Christian tells me.
It’s approximately then that Christian jogs my memory that this development automobile “has no traction manage, none in any way”. I backpedal and concentrate on the way it’s behaving. The steerage is heavy, however scrumptious to use. It’s hydraulic, with out a slack, but real meat and praise. If something the journey is even higher. Long wishbones, in-board dampers and reduced unsprung mass thank you in element to the carbon wheels (made from 750 man or woman portions, it takes one man a week to construct one rim), imply the Regera rides beautifully, feels remarkably particular and polished on the street. How does it manage that? Look at the wheelarch clearance – in which do the wheels pass?
I admit I’d predicted a car that felt compromised by its huge v-max, that didn't come to lifestyles until nicely into 3 figures, but the Regera is straight away alert, corners flat and tenaciously, surely feels like it desires to assault an amazing street. Christ is aware of how you technique full throttle on a twisty road with this tons twist on tap, however the automobile feels eager even though this precise driver feels fairly… fearful
What about at better speeds?
A public avenue isn't a place where you could get a feel for the actual skills of a single-gear car which could hit 250mph. Handily, Koenigsegg has its own runway…
The pressure… oh my god. It simply builds and builds, pushing, pressing, the noise guttural and savage via the 1920s-style flattened Akrapovic pipes. It’s thoughts-blowing. I’d driven a McLaren P1 some days before I went out to Sweden. I nevertheless can’t get my head around how fast that is, however I do recognize the Regera is massively quicker. Christian believes it might wheelspin up to 150mph.
Speed is one issue, however the manner of shipping is every other. At the moment it’s no longer quite there. But Christian knows that and is operating on it. At the moment if you’re tickling alongside at 50mph with the take hold of locked and put your foot down, the snatch opens, the revs upward push quicker than street speed and you've got a moderate CVT sense. The disconnect among noise and velocity disguises the rate of progress – it feels like the take hold of has slipped and also you’re now not accelerating that fast, however when you appearance down on the speedo you recognize that every one 1479bhp has discovered its manner to the wheels…
Try this at decrease speeds and – properly – you’ve seen the smoky video right? I actually have in no way experienced anything that bonfires its tyres like the Regera. Anything. Despite the best tractive efforts of the significant 345-width rear Michelin’s, they’re as not anything inside the 1465lb toes torque deluge. It’s some other international first for Koenigsegg – the primary land-based cumulo-nimbus production facility.
Smoke and speed aside, there’s nonetheless development paintings to be accomplished?
Yes. I think the electric vehicles need to do extra paintings from the phrase pass, to hit harder and faster so you get a real experience of the 700bhp kick they offer. At the instant the work is completed jointly and, with the slipping clutch effect, it’s no longer making the most of the e-cars, which are obviously better suited to low down acceleration, while the inner combustion struts its stuff an awful lot better up.
But it’s a difficult stability to hit, and it may be that Koenigsegg may want to music every car individually based on how the owner will use it. Some won't want the 250mph top give up, so may want to have a shorter final pressure, or modes within the device might permit it to alter the Hydra-Coup lock-up traits and the way the handover between electric powered and petrol works. Like the Model S, the Regera has on-board 4G allowing over-the-air updates and downloads, and in the course of my time with it, laptops had been every so often plugged in and settings altered so I should attempt it with a more electric powered affect low down, exclusive throttle response and many others. The machine may be very tunable and controllable.
I’ll let you know something. When I first drove the Porsche 918, the component I cherished approximately it primarily become setting it in a excessive tools at low pace and feeling the immediate shove of energy after which the slow handover to inner combustion as the revs rose. It was mesmerising and highlighted the strengths of both electric and petrol strength.
But, boy, does the Regera feel special. It seems sensational in sweet apple pink, there’s actual splendor in its lengthy tail and taut curves and like all Koenigsegg’s the roof panel removes to keep under the nose. Do so and the car’s appearance adjustments absolutely, however sitting inside I prefer it with the roof on: it exaggerates the wrap-round widescreen view ahead. The A-pillars are tucked right round the perimeters and also you sit up to now lower back that I doubt the pointers of my feet reach to the bottom of the display.
So what are your very last mind?
Firstly, nicely achieved for analyzing this a long way. I understand I’ve banged on a piece. In all seriousness even though, all of us at Koenigsegg needs a large slap at the returned for having the braveness, foresight and potential to convey this uniquely complicated automobile to existence. That’s a large, big accomplishment for a small company, regardless of how innovative and driven it might be. And while some tuning is wanted, the mechanical package deal is whole and it works. That’s any other massive fulfillment, leaving aside the fact it’s delicate and comfy sufficient to force each day. The concept works, the element might be made to paintings. Because this is Koenigsegg, and they do hypercars their own manner.
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