Koenigsegg

History

The story of Koenigsegg is as fascinating and unique as the cars it produces. Inspired at the age of 5 by a Norwegian animated film about a bicycle repairman who builds a racing car, Christian von Koenigsegg grew up dreaming of creating the perfect sportscar. Incredibly, against all the odds, he had achieved his dream before his 27th birthday.

After several years of planning he launched the Koenigsegg project in 1994. Christian gathered together a tight-knit group of extremely competent people and together they designed and assembled a prototype. The success of this prototype enabled the foundation of Koenigsegg Automotive Ltd.

Rather like his cars, Christian’s company moved at a record pace, and in the year 2000 Koenigsegg began series production of the CC8S model. It proved to the world that it was indeed possible for a small, passionate, dedicated group of enthusiasts to rival the old, established supercar brands.

In the spring of 2004 Koenigsegg launched the CCR, a vehicle that left all others behind, breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest road-going car in production. In 2003 Koenigsegg relocated its headquarters to a building which had previously been home to a Fighter Jet facility for the Swedish Air Force.

One of the keys to Koenigsegg’s success, and what distinguishes it from every other low-volume supercar manufacturer is the fact that they are able to build, modify, tune and test their own engines, which means that every engine is precision-made to suit the car it is built for. Furthermore, they are able to fabricate intricate hand- made components at their own hi-tech production facilities, as well as being able to source specialist components from a network of dedicated specialist suppliers and partners - most of which are based in Sweden.

Many of these suppliers are small companies and craftsmen that produce low volumes of incredibly high quality components. Both the assembly and the manufacture of the components that make up a Koenigsegg are incredibly labour-intensive (there are more than 300 hand-formed carbon fibre parts alone in each car, for example), and the materials are without exception extremely costly. Each and every Koenigsegg has a premium price, but then each and every Koenigsegg has been painstakingly built by a select group of automotive artisans.