After announcing its intentions to build a more affordable "entry-level" supercar at the beginning of February, namesake and CEO Christian von Koenigsegg dished out some new details on the car coming to life via a partnership with China's NEVS.
He spoke with Road & Track in a report published last Friday and said the overarching goal is to build a car that will allow more drivers to experience Koenigsegg's technology. While the car won't be "affordable" by the standard definition, top-spec models should cost around 800,000 Euros, or just over $900,000 at current exchange rates. It will hardly be a mass-produced car, but instead of a few dozen cars per year, Koenigsegg will build a few hundred of them annually.
Von Koenigsegg explained NEVS approached the company with an offer to partner on the new supercar, which Koenigsegg had begun developing without outside help. The CEO said the company had determined it would be best to find a partner to bring the car to life and an investor was needed. Koenigsegg had already worked with NEVS to use its test facilities and the expanded partnership was sort of a natural fit.
Koenigsegg Agera RS1
NEVS received a 20-percent minority stake in the Swedish supercar maker, and Koenigsegg received the partner it needed to bring the new supercar to life. Von Koenigsegg also clarified that production will still mostly take place at its Ängelholm plant, but it will use Saab's former Trollhättan plant, now owned by NEVS, to help assemble higher-volume parts. He made it very clear this is, in the end, very much still a Koenigsegg car with a little help from NEVS.
"The car will be engineered here and put together by the same people here, and also tested here at Ängelholm," von Koenigsegg said.
Koenigsegg Agera RS during 2017 production car land speed record attempt
The executive also noted the powertrain will feature a naturally aspirated V-8. We've known since last month the supercar will feature a hybrid V-8 engine with Freevalve camless technology, but the fact that it won't have forced induction is a new bit of news.
In addition, von Koenigsegg confirmed the unnamed supercar will show up at the 2020 Geneva Motor Show as the company continues development. The 2019 Geneva show is this week, and Koenisgsegg has something to hold us over in the meantime. The company will take the wraps off its higher-end hypercar, the successor to the Agera. Stay tuned.