Quantcast
Sun’s the limit – Metro US

Sun’s the limit

Not content with creating some of the most extreme sports cars on the planet, Swedish car manufacturer Koenigsegg is also making them green.

“We try to make a car with no downsides, only upsides, with no compromise,” explains CEO Christian Von Koenigsegg.

Koenigsegg’s famously powerful cars first went green with the 2007 CCXR. This eco-friendly version of their CCX supercar can run on regular petrol, but fuelled with E85 Biofuel, it delivers an extra 212 bhp — and an astounding 1018 bhp in total. It’s the first green car that does an outrageous 0-100km/h in 3.1 secs, with a top speed of more than 400 km/h.

Now they’re taking their eco-credentials one step further with The Quant, a solar-powered gull-winged electric luxury cruiser.

It has a range of 500 km, can recharge in 20 minutes and is covered in a skin of photovoltaic cells that absorb the sunlight and extend the range.

The car is a concept, but they plan to have prototypes ready in three year’s time in response to demand. This won’t be the car to save the planet. The small but successful company, established by Von Koenigsegg in 1994, only produces a low volume of cars (only 18 last year, 72 total since 2002) and they’re hand-crafted from space age materials, giving them an out-of-this-world price tag of up to 1,550,000 euros (more than $2,500,000 CDN).

Von Koenigsegg, who plans to pioneer more green technologies, is enjoying his company’s ecological status.

Koenigsegg’s clientele, who test the cars at their Swedish HQ at a former fighter jet facility, seek exclusivity, and the eco angle is the cherry on the cake.

“It’s a twist to the supercar,” he says. “Supercars are about having fun. Part of the fun is knowing you’re not impacting on the environment, and contributing to the development of new technologies.”