► Two new Koenigsegg hypercars at Geneva 2015
► Koenigsegg Agera RS: a more extreme(!) Agera R
► Koenigsegg Regera: one engine, three motors, 1500bhp
Koenigsegg has revealed two new supercars at the 2015 Geneva show: the Koenigsegg Agera RS and the Koenigsegg Regera. In true Koenigsegg style, they’re stratospherically powerful, produced in small numbers and just a little bit scary. In a break with form, though, one of them is a hybrid. The world’s most powerful hybrid car, mind you.
The straightforward one: Koenigsegg Agera RS
The Koenigsegg Agera R is not known for being a slow car. Working on the principle that too much is never enough, however, the Swedish firm has come up with a yet-faster version: the Agera RS.
Using parts and knowledge developed from the sledgehammer Koenigsegg One:1 project, the RS is a more track-focussed evolution of the Agera R.
It’s lost weight and gained downforce: extra winglets, underbody aero bits and an active rear wing generate 450kg of downforce at 155mph. It’s like carrying a Caterham on the roof.
The Agera RS would ace most games of Top Trumps: the 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8 now develops 1160bhp (small fry compared with the One:1’s 1329bhp) and 0-300km/h (186mph) is out of the way in 14 seconds (a VW Up 1.0 hasn’t cracked 60mph by that point).
It looks suitably expensive: there’s highly polished exposed-weave carbonfibre on pretty much every surface you can see on the Agera RS, from the bodywork to the wheels, and, when you swing the doors forwards, the instrument binnacle.
Fancy one? Koenigsegg plans to make 25 of them and has sold 10 before the show, so you’ll have to be snappy.
The really mad one: Koenigsegg Regera
This is Koenigsegg’s first go at a hybrid car, although they’re not calling it one because ‘Christian [von Koenigsegg, company founder] is not a fan of hybrids.’
Taking care of the engine side of things in the Regera is the now-familiar twin-turbo 5.0-litre V8, with just 1100bhp this time. The electric drive portion of the powertrain is a bit more complex: there are three electric motors, one slightly smaller one to power the crankshaft (and double as the starter motor) and another two burlier ones to drive a wheel hub each. No four-wheel drive nonsense here: the Regera remains a macho rear-wheel drive car.
All together, there’s around 1500bhp on tap. That makes it quite brisk. The estimated 0-248mph acceleration time probably puts things in perspective best, at just under 20 seconds. You can trail a charging cable from the back of the Regera to pre-charge its batteries ‘for shorter periods of time.’
From an engineering standpoint it’s an interesting car: there’s no conventional clutch and gearbox setup, but a direct drive hydraulic coupling (the electric motors take care of reverse). Koenigsegg’s been playing with hydraulics elsewhere, too. All the bodywork opens hydraulically – the door, the bonnet, the engine cover – and can be activated remotely from the keyfob, or the owner’s smartphone. Quite a party piece. Similarly, the active suspension is hydraulically actuated, as is the top-mounted active rear wing, which can be retracted completely within the car’s body.
Modestly, the Regera name is derived from Swedish word for ‘reign’ and Koenigsegg plans to make 80 examples. Why 80? Because, in the company’s words and not ours, ‘apart from being a suitable production run for Koenigsegg´s newly upgraded and refurbished production facility, the number 80 also symbolizes the principle of domination, control and achievement in Pythagorean Numerology.’ So there you go.