Koenigsegg is a market leader when it comes to hypercars. But in the era we are entering, where electric and hybrid are the way to go, will combustion-powered supercars have a place? Koenigsegg might have the answer to this question.
Koenigsegg wants to compete with an extremely innovative idea. They want to fuel their vehicles with volcanic juice. Koenigsegg could be the only big name going for this approach, having already stunned us with the Regera’s transmission-free twin-turbo V8 and the Gemera’s Camless engine.
Easier said than done. It would be difficult to tread, but let us read what the living legend Christian Von Koenigsegg has to say, courtesy of Bloomberg.
“It’s a very interesting way of creating an environmental benign propulsion energy source. So there is this technology from Iceland; it was invented there, where they cap the CO2 emittance from semi-active volcanoes and convert that into methanol. And if you take that methanol and you power the plants that do the conversion of other fuels and then power the ship that transports those fuels to Europe or the U.S. or Asia, wherever it goes, you put the fuel completely CO2-neutral into the vehicle. And of course, with the correct after-treatment systems, depending on the environment you’re in, you can kind of clean up the particles in the atmosphere while you’re using the engine. So you can be very much environmentally conscious doing that. It’s just a fun aspect of renewable fuels that are not talked so much about, but there are many, many other technologies that are coming up.”
Koenigsegg has once again bowled the motor enthusiasts over. The best thing about it is that they are not a company that doesn’t deliver on what it promises. For Koenigsegg, anything that fuels them to the top of the lot will work, be it volcano juice, electric cars, or any other source.
Keeping climate change at the fore, Koenigsegg is also playing its part but not precisely by bragging about electric and hybrid cars all the time. Instead, for Koenigsegg, anything that leads towards carbon neutrality would do.
“We electrify in a different way with more extreme cell technology for power output. And then we have extreme combustion-engine technology running on renewable fuels, but very good aftertreatment systems, and our free-valve technology where we can really make sure we combust extremely efficiently with very small engines to make the car lighter, more exciting, have better performance, but still being environmentally benign. What we mean by [propulsion] agnostic is that we mix and match whatever makes the most sense at each given time and for each model. We’re not stuck in traditional combustion technology. The technology we develop there is really next-generation beyond anything else I’ve seen out in the marketplace, and also next-generation electrification, and combining these technologies in an interesting way to make our product stand out and be as competitive as we can with as little environmental footprint as possible.”
Koenigsegg rolls out less than 100 vehicles per annum, and this provides them the luxury of following any and every idea that comes their way as it does not have to worry about its commercial outcomes. If it does not go well, they can scrap them. I guess this is what being on the top gets you, the luxury to innovate.
Having said that, it would be unfair to say that Koenigsegg does not have the ambition to grow. The CEO of Swedish carmaker, Horetsky recently said in his interview that they would love to compete with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren in manufacturing larger numbers of cars. He further said, “different ways we can impact the world with mobility solutions.”
Let us hope that Koenigsegg gets to use the volcano-powered fuel for its vehicles. Is Vulcanol, as conceived by Koenigsegg, going to be the future of fuels? Let us wait and watch!
