Christian von Koenigsegg managed to create a respected hypercar brand right from its first car, the CC8S, presented in 2002. Years later, the man that came up with new solutions for the combustion engine showed interesting electric drivetrain options: the Quark and Terrier. But what does he think about EVs? The video below reveals that.
It was shot by the Swedish edition of Auto Motor und Sport. In the interview, Koenigsegg reveals some interesting aspects of electrification in his cars and what he thinks about many aspects involving EVs, such as battery swapping, ultracapacitors, solid-state batteries, and current cell technology. He also makes some mistakes that are important to rectify.
According to Koenigsegg, current batteries get about 5% better in multiple tasks year after year. That would create a variation of Moore’s law that could be applied to cells instead of to transistors. Moore’s law states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit tends to double about every two years.
In his mind, these small but constant improvements should make electric cars be much better in five years than they currently are. However, price is something that he does not believe to be possible to lower because of the competition for raw materials.
With all companies pursuing electric cars, the same resources will have to be shared among all of them. That will require more mines to increase the production of the same minerals or the urgent development of new tech to use more abundant materials. Either way, it is going to take time, which means prices will inevitably rise before they can drop again.
One of the mistakes Koenigsegg commits is saying that solid-state batteries will be heavier than the current ones. That is not possible if they are to offer higher energy density, which is calculated by Wh per liters or kilograms. To be heavier, solid-state cells would have to offer less energy density. It may be the case that he got in touch with prototypes which is exactly the case.
Despite that, the Swedish entrepreneur is well aware of the demands cells have. Asked about ultracapacitors, he said they would occupy three times the space of the extreme cells his company selected to use in the Regera.
These cells can stand up to 100C, meaning they can discharge and recharge really quickly compared to common batteries, which take up to 2C. With a 70-kg battery pack, the Regera can extract 500 kW from them in the blink of an eye. The problem is that these cells also cost 20 times more than regular batteries.
In the video, Koenigsegg also speaks about swappable batteries and where he thinks electric cars will be five years from now. Make sure you watch it even if you don’t speak Swedish: the video brings English subtitles and is certainly worth your time.
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