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Koenigsegg Regera Top Speed
The Regera reaches 400 km/h without a gearbox. Koenigsegg replaced it with Direct Drive: one fixed 2.73:1 ratio, a hydraulic coupling, and three electric motors. Below about 50 km/h the electric motors do nearly all the work while the coupling slips on purpose, because a single tall ratio would otherwise leave the engine straining. Above that the coupling progressively locks and the V8 takes over. There is nothing to shift, ever, which removes a gearbox worth of weight and a gearbox worth of losses.
Full specifications
| Engine | 5.0L twin-turbo V8 |
|---|---|
| Engine power | 1,100 hp on petrol, 1,500 hp on E85 |
| Electric motors | One 160 kW on the crankshaft, two 180 kW on the rear wheel shafts |
| Combined power | 1,797 hp (1,822 PS) |
| Torque | 2,000 Nm |
| Transmission | Koenigsegg Direct Drive, single 2.73:1 ratio |
| Battery | 4.5 kWh, 800 volt |
| Electric range | 35 km |
| Dry weight | 1,470 kg |
| Kerb weight | 1,590 kg |
| 0–100 km/h | 2.8 sec |
| 0–300 km/h | 10.9 sec |
| 0–400–0 km/h | 28.81 sec, June 2023 |
| Production run | 85 units |
| Price | Around 1.9 million dollars |
About the Regera
Regera is Swedish for to reign, and the car was pitched as the civilised Koenigsegg, the one you could actually take somewhere without needing a spare set of teeth. That framing rather undersells a machine making 1,797 hp and 2,000 Nm, which when it launched was the most powerful production hybrid anyone had built.
The genuinely unusual part is the thing it does not have. There is no gearbox. Instead the engine drives the rear wheels through a single fixed ratio and a hydraulic coupling, and three electric motors fill in everything a gearbox would normally do. One 160 kW motor sits on the crankshaft and doubles as starter and generator. The other two, 180 kW each, sit on the rear wheel shafts and drive one wheel each, which also means the car can push torque to whichever rear wheel needs it in a corner.
From a standstill the coupling deliberately slips and the electric motors carry the car, because one tall gear would otherwise bog the engine down completely. As speed builds the coupling squeezes tighter until it is locked solid and the V8 is driving the wheels directly. The driver feels none of this. There is no shift, no pause, no step in the power, just one continuous shove that does not stop until 400 km/h. Koenigsegg even added paddles that make the coupling slip on purpose, purely so the car can fake a downshift for drivers who miss the drama.
The battery is only 4.5 kWh, which is small, but Koenigsegg claims it is the most power-dense pack ever fitted to a production car. It is built to dump energy fast rather than to store a lot of it, which is exactly what you want when its job is to cover for a missing first, second and third gear.
The rest of the car is showing off, cheerfully. Every panel opens itself. Doors, bonnet, engine cover and roof are all hydraulically operated with proximity sensors so they do not clout anything, a system Koenigsegg calls Autoskin. In June 2023 a Regera went from a standstill to 400 km/h and back to a standstill in 28.81 seconds, beating its own record of 31.49. Eighty-five were built between 2016 and 2022, and the entire run was sold by 2017.
Top speed, power and weights from Koenigsegg specifications. The 0-400-0 record was set 16 June 2023.