Jay Leno welcomes Christian von Koenigsegg into his garage to discuss the Swedish automaker's Agera RS and Regera. After talking quite a bit about the machines, the denim-clad comedian hops behind the wheel of the Regera. He walks away very impressed with the high-tech hypercar.
Koenigsegg is special in the hypercar world by handling the vast majority of its component development in-house. The engine and transmission are the company's own design, and the firm even constructs its own carbon fiber wheels. The guys also dig deep into the Regera's Koenigsegg Direct Drive single-speed gearbox. In essence, a super sophisticated torque converter takes the output from the combustion engine and directs the output to a rear differential.
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Von Koenigsegg is also quite proud of the Regera's electric drive system. The tech is the first for a production car to run at 800 volts, which von Koenigsegg allows for thinner cables and more compact inverters. In an intriguing touch, the pipe at the back that looks like the engine exhaust is actually the outlet for hot air from cooling the electrical inverters.
Once behind the wheel, Leno describes the driving feel as "eerie" because novel gearbox means that the power never lets up, and there's never a gear to change. It's absolutely relentless. Leno calls the result a "game changer."
Koenigsegg recently completed production of the Agera RS and is still building the Regera's 80-unit assembly. According to von Koenigsegg in this video, five of the cars are done and 20 are in production. The company is already teasing its next creation that allegedly goes under the name Ragnarok. The machine reportedly packs 1,440 horsepower, and the debut comes in March 2019 at the Geneva Motor Show.