GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Koenigsegg Regera

There are numbers and there are numbers. And then there are the numbers put out by Koenigsegg's Regera.

How does 1103kW and 2000Nm sound?

Presented at the Geneva Motor Show this morning, the ballistic Regera boasts nonsensical numbers that take the cynical some time to get to grips with. The speed proposed by the Regera is ridiculous, even by the standards of the outgoing Bugatti Veyron that sits alongside it.

Koenigsegg claims it will reach beyond 450km/h and will do it driving exclusively on electric power, with just a single-speed, in-house direct-drive transmission to boast of.

That's probably fortunate for the other transmission suppliers of the world, because the Regera has a 5.0-litre, dry-sumped twin turbo V8, capable of 820kW of power at 7800rpm and up to 1280Nm of torque – and then it has its three YASA-developed electric motors.

There is a 160kW, 300Nm electric motor attached to the crankshaft of the V8, then another two, each with 180kW of power and 260Nm of torque and mounted to drive each rear wheel.

Koenigsegg is claiming 520kW and 820Nm of continuous electric propulsion for the rear-wheel drive car it says will not just eclipse 400km/h but will do it in under 20 seconds.

The Swedish company reckons the addition of electric power means it could tweak the internal combustion engine in different ways: "The difference to the Agera engine is that, given the electric
propulsion of the Direct Drive system, we did not have to go as extreme
on ICE power, as the combined output is way over 1500hp [1103kW] and over 2000Nm torque, anyway.

"Given this we could install even smaller, faster
spooling turbos on the Regera, further enhancing the ICE drivability and
response," says Koenigsegg.

While it hasn't released 0-100km/h figures (which are unlikely to benefit from its rear-wheel drive layout), it insists it will punch from 150km/h to 250km/h in just 3.2 seconds. That's enough thrust to rearrange one's organs.

And that's berserk acceleration is despite an active lot of front and rear aero features that deliver 450kg of downforce at 250km/h.

Plus it can do all that while being a convertible, with a removable hard top that can be tucked away under the tiny bonnet. Because Koenigsegg claims the Regera is a more street-focused machine than its traditional track-attack monsters.

All of its panels are a mix of carbon-fibre and Kevlar, with sandwich reinforcements to save it from all that tortured air. It will ride on carbon-fibre 19 x 9.75-inch front wheels and larger 20 x 12.5-inch rear wheels. There are Michelin Supersport Unidirectional tyres stuck to them, with 275/35 Y19 front tyres and 345/30 Y20 rubber at the rear.

It has set the Regera up to be built in batches of six or seven cars at a time, the new hypercar based around an carbon-fibre tub. All of Koenigsegg's carbon-fibre production is in-house.

The 4.56-metre Regera has genuine presence, sitting at 2.05 metres wide and just 1.11 metres tall.

Astonishingly, even with a V8 biturbo petrol motor and three electric motors, the car claims a 1420kg dry weight, or a 1628kg kerb weight.

That is, in part, because it runs a small capacity 9kWh liquid-cooled battery pack that is claimed to deliver 35km of pure electric running (though a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that it would give only a minute of full-throttle running, which isn't quite enough for 35km).

The battery itself weighs only 115kg (though it all adds up) and eats up 67 litres of space in the transmission tunnel. The 620 Volt battery pack can punch out up to 500kW in short bursts and can recover energy at up to 150kW under hard braking.

Globally homologated, the Regera will be built in a single run of 80 cars. And then it will be gone.