If, like me, you were born in a country and live in another, you know well of all the things that remind you of your place of birth (or that others will remind you of). If, like me, you were born in Sweden, these include music from Abba to Avicii, herring and crispbread, and of course Zlatan (Ibrahimovic). In car terms it’s always been about Volvo and Saab, even though the former is nowadays Chinese and the latter went bankrupt a couple of times before finally pulling the plug ten years ago. There is, however, one other Swedish car brand from the small town of Ängelholm in southern Sweden that is very far from bankruptcy. Not only that, it was founded less than 30 years ago and has in less than three decades developed into what I consider the world’s leading supercar manufacturer. So, if you ask me what makes me most proud of being Swedish, it would be coming from the country of Koenigsegg – and this week we’ll have a closer look at the Swedish hypercar brand and its founder Christian von Koenigsegg, who knows how to do a lot of things, including dreaming big and building the fastest cars in the world!

The story starts in 1994 when 22-year old Christian has already shown both interest and talent for technical innovations as well as drawing, and has also made some money in his young years. Fascinated by cars since his early childhood, the Stockholm-born Christian from the originally German noble family Königsegg, set up a business in southern Sweden with the modest ambition to build the greatest supercar the world had ever seen, combining Swedish design with state-of-the-art technology. Fast wasn’t enough – his car was to be the fastest in the world. You could basically describe him as the Zlatan of the car world in his ambition, however with a very different attitude and modesty (the latter a word Zlatan can’t spell…). Doing this anywhere in the world with a far more solid background is hard – very hard. Doing it as an inexperienced 22-year old in Sweden should be impossible, but wasn’t, and only two years after Koenigsegg was founded, the company presented their first prototype, the CC. From there on, it took another 3-4 years until Koenigsegg’s first small-series model, the CC8S, was introduced at the Paris auto show. Production then started two years later, in 2002.

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The CC8S was highly innovative and clearly illustrated what the company’s ambition was, as it already included some noteworthy innovations, such as the synchro helix door actuation system (the folding-knife doors) and a free-flowing exhaust system, both patented by Christian and part of his more than 10 personal patents. He is in other words not only the founder and CEO of Koenigsegg, but very much its Chief Technology Officer as well! The engine of the CC8S was a heavily modified, 4.8 litre Ford V8 producing 655 hp, enough in 2002 to get it into the Guinness book of records as the world’s strongest engine in serial production. The series was however small as only 6 cars were produced in 2002-2003. Its successor, the CCR, brought some important improvements when it came out in 2004, including an 806 hp and 920 Nm power output. Remember this is 2004, i.e. more than 15 years ago, when such numbers were still truly spectacular. This is also where Koenigsegg’s quest for various speed records start. With a top speed of 388 km/h, the CCR was at the time the world’s fastest car. Unfortunately for Koenigsegg, the record would only stand for a few months before it was beaten by the Bugatti Veyron with 408 km/h…

In 2006 the CCR became the further evolved CCX, a car that was an important milestone for the company. Although still based on the CC8S it was heavily modified and for the first time featured an engine developed in-house and producing 817 hp. Importantly the engine could run on 91 octane fuel and also passed the Californian environmental regulation. The CCX was in other words the first Koenigsegg car to be sold in the US, and the “X” in the name commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the first ever test drive with the CC prototype in 1996. Its environmentally-friendly sister car, the CCXR followed a couple of years later and could be driven on ethanol, bringing the benefit of some more power for those who felt they needed it. On ethanol the CCXR produces 1018 hp and 1060 Nm of torque, cracking the 1000-mark both for hp and Nm for the first time – but not the last.

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Fast forward to 2010 and Koenigsegg presents the Agera (“act” in Swedish) that over the coming seven years would be built in various versions with between 910 and 1175 hp. Although based on the CCX, the Agera featured a new body, new interior and a new engine. The car’s monocoque is made of carbon fibre which brings us to a central theme of all Koenigsegg cars, namely keeping the weight under control. Whereas a Bugatti Chiron weighs in at just under two tons, Koenigseggs have so far managed to stay under 1500 kg, bringing lots of benefits but also a much rawer experience than the super fast but also super plush ride of a Chiron. The Agera set one of Koenigsegg’s most notable speed records so far, namely 0-300-0 km/h in 21 seconds, more than 10 seconds less than a Chiron, and in 2017 professional driver Niclas Lilja would set a new top speed record at 447 km/h in the Nevada desert. And then end 2019, the Agera did a 0-400-0 km/h run in 31 seconds. It’s difficult to compare these numbers in a way that really illustrates the size of the achievement, but as some kind of reference, a McLaren 720 does 0-300 km/h in 21 seconds. However, by then the Agera is already back to 0…

Koenigsegg has today established itself as one of the leading hypercar constructors in the world, going from a very small operation of about 50 people to today around 300 employees, still based in Ängelholm in Sweden. Demand has never been stronger and Koenigsegg have in total so far built around 250 cars for some 190 clients at prices from USD 1.5m and upwards (with no upper limit…). As you understand from the numbers, some owners have more than one car in their garage. Life isn’t fair…

From the mid-2010’s, Koenigsegg has kept busy. In 2014 it launched the surreal One:1, which at 1360 kg had a power output of 1 hp per kg, and at 1371 Nm, practically the same torque… In 2015, the hybrid Koenigsegg Regera (“reign” in Swedish) was launched with an 1115 hp engine and was built until 2019. In the same year the Agera was replaced by the Jesko, which takes its name from Christian’s father. As per Christian, the Jesko is the fastest car the brand will ever build. With a twin-turbo, 5-litre V8 engine producing 1622 hp (running on ethanol) and a perfect aerodynamic shape, the Jesko in the Absolut version is said to have a top speed of 531 km/h. Finding a place to test that isn’t easy, but Koenigsegg is working on it to reclaim the world’s speed record which in between has been lost to the US small-scale brand SSC.

The most exciting car in today’s line-up is however not the Jesko but rather the Gemera (“give more” in Swedish), the world’s first real four-seater hypercar, including a decent, 200-litre luggage space. Its drivetrain is highly impressive: a two-litre, three-cylinder engine producing 600 hp (!!) is combined to three electrical engines to a total power output of 1700 hp on ethanol. The company targets a production of 125 Jeskos and 300 Gemeras, which given current demand they will most certainly reach, but take a number of years to do so, as the current annual production is around 20-30 cars.

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The closest I have been to a Koenigsegg was seeing an Agera at the Geneva Motor Show in 2019 and I don’t expect to come closer to one anytime soon. What I find so impressive with the company however, is the philosophy of never resorting to a less than perfect solution. If there is a piece or system available in the market Koenigsegg will be happy to buy it, but if it’s anything less than perfect, they will rather build it themselves. If you can charge your clients the kind of money the company does this is no doubt easier, but it also translates a very high ambition. It’s also truly impressive what Christian has invented and developed through the years. His technical genius combined with a pretty stunning design on most models has made Koenigsegg into a supercar company like no other. Most of us would probably have been equally impressed had the cars had a few hundred hp less, but not Christian: 27 years ago he set out to build the fastest hypercar in the world, and that’s what he’s done over and over again. If Zlatan is the God of football, then Christian is no doubt the God of hypercars!