Christian von Koenigsegg's opinion about Tesla

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Christian von Koenigsegg is the founder and CEO of a small Swedish car manufacture. Some of Koenigsegg better known and very expensive cars are One:1(max speed 240 MPH), Regera, Agera ... But they are mostly unseen on US streets.

It's very obvious that CvK(Christian von Koenigsegg) knows a thing or two about performance car, and this is what he thinks about Tesla company and Model S and Super Charger. He admitted that his experiences with Tesla Model S did gave him some ideas to improve his super cars.

There aren't many peoples in the world know more about high performance car than Koenigsegg himself.

Below are some excerpts from an interview with CvK in 2015 about Koenigsegg Regera, electric cars and possible future Koenigsegg cars.

http://koenigsegg.com/ama-with-cvk-part-4/


Originally Posted By: koenigsegg.com
Why did you decide the new supercar would be hybrid?

CvK:
Because I don’t like hybrids (laughs)
...
A traditional hybrid is either series or parallel. So far it’s mostly been series hybrids that have been made, apart from Toyota. Toyota has a funky gearbox that mixes the electric power with the combustion engine power. They have the patent for that and it’s the best ‘real’ hybrid solution I’ve seen.
...
This is still a poor solution, though, because you’re carrying two propulsion systems around with you. It’s the biggest, clumsiest, heaviest, most complex and expensive system you can have. You have an electric car and you have a traditional car all smashed into one. But it’s not as horrible on the highway in terms of conversion losses when you’re running on the combustion engine.


Originally Posted By: koenigsegg.com
Can you comment on how driving Tesla’s P85 influenced your aspirations for the Regera? For mass-market, do you feel that EVs have turned the corner yet for daily driving?

CvK:
Ever since I started building cars, I’ve been looking for ways of simplifying them, making them more clever and efficient. When you open up a performance gearbox and look inside it – it is beautifully engineered and horribly complex all at the same time. I’ve heard some engineers say “why make it easy when you can make it wonderfully complicated?” It’s like that.

So I’ve spent long hours thinking of ways to get rid of the gearbox and coming up with something better.

I looked a lot at CVT’s ... I started thinking about a hydraulic gearbox.

So I’ve been thinking about this forever, but coming to no conclusion. Then I drove the Tesla.


Originally Posted By: koenigsegg.com
CvK:I got my first Tesla in the summer of 2013. I think it was either the first or second one that came into Sweden. I ordered it as soon as it became available because I was curious as to what the car could do. I loved it. Fantastic, amazing, incredible. It’s one of the best driving experiences ever, which is saying a lot for something that’s supposed to be a ‘normal’ car.

It has no gearbox so it has incredible electric response. I remember saying to myself Wow! The response is electrifying! Of course it is. It’s an electric car. It really is mind-boggling, almost better than a Formula One engine because it’s so instantaneous. Even the fastest performance cars have a tiny period where you wait for the response but in the P85, you don’t sit around and wait for anything. It just happens.


Originally Posted By: koenigsegg.com
CvK:I got really frustrated that we couldn’t have that. We have an exceptionally good car with a great drivetrain, amazing power, a sporty gearbox and so on….. but it’s just not that. It got me thinking How can we get this without sacrificing what we have? We had to be able to use what we have and make it even better than the feeling from the Tesla.

Even though I believe that electric propulsion will eventually take over completely for normal cars (see below), the lucky thing for us right now is that it can’t kill our niche – for the time being.

So we have a few years to figure everything out and in the meantime, we can outrun everyone.

The power density we get is enormous, actually. We have the most power-dense engine in the world and we will turn that into the most power-dense ‘electrified’ engine in the world. We’ll get all the positives that I love in the Tesla but with another 1100hp AND 600kgs less weight.


Quote:
To the second part of the question – have EV’s turned the corner yet for daily driving?

CvK:
Yes.

For the segment that Tesla is in – commuter cars – the answer is yes.

It’s not affordable for everyone to buy yet, but Tesla has hit the mark with the P85D in combination with their Supercharger network. To me, it’s better than an M5 to drive due to its response and low center of gravity. And it’s no more expensive than an M5. For sure the M5 is better after a few laps on a racetrack, but is that what it’s for? So the Tesla is there (on the mark), and it’ll be even more there when they bring out 100kWh pack or higher, which should happen very soon. The Model X will be there and the Model 3 will be there in its segment, too. I am sure. They just can’t touch our segment right now and probably that is not what Tesla is looking to do.


Quote:
CvK:A big reason for why Tesla is “there”, comes down to their Supercharger network. Without that, they wouldn’t have such a great overall product because the total ownership experience wouldn’t be as practical as it is. But you can now travel pretty much right across Europe (and the US) in any direction. Without the Supercharger network, you’d have to stop for around two to six hours, every third hour, and that’s IF you could find a place to charge. You’d go nuts.

We just did a family road trip during the summer. We had 2 adults and 2 kids in my P85D, with all our stuff. It was around 2,500kms one way and the same coming back. I estimated the trip took around three hours longer, one way, than it would have in a petrol driven car.

That’s all.


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Opinion of an Audi executive in charge of Audi’s EV strategy:

Originally Posted By: bgr.com
Recently, Stefan Niemand, the man responsible for Audi’s entire EV strategy, relayed a few sweet words about Tesla while speaking at the Technical Congress of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).

“I hate to admit it,” Niemand said, “but Tesla did everything right.”

Specifically, Niemand was referencing Tesla’s supercharger network and praising how they were able to get their charging infrastructure up and running as fast as they did.

Interestingly, Niemand also took some time to criticize the state of the EV industry, save of course for Tesla.


http://bgr.com/2016/03/25/tesla-vs-audi-stefan-niemand-supercharger-network/


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The above opinions clearly mean that Tesla's success was because they tried to accommodate their customer's needs. With Supercharger network a driver can travel across the continental US (and Europe) with some degree of success, yes it does take some extra time to charge the battery on long trip but still can be done without much problem. In the case of Koenigsegg 2500 km travel the 3 extra hours isn't bad.

The other Tesla charger network is "Destination Chargers" at hotels/motels. For long distance travelers, sleeping at hotels/motels is the norm and with level-2 charger they can get 150-200 miles overnight. They may have to pay some fees for using it, I don't know for sure.

Another thing, if all legacy car manufactures decide to build 500,000 to 1,000,000 200+ mile range EV's this year they can't do it, the main obstacle is not enough batteries in the world to support that many long range EV's as of now.

Tesla's Gigafactory is costly to build but it is absolutely needed for several hundreds thousands EV's Tesla planned to build some years ago. The Gigafactory started in Nevada in 2014, they planned it at least a year before with some sites in California, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada. Even Tesla planned to build Gigafactory some years ahead of time they may have problem with it fully functional to meet demand of Model 3.

The bonus of everything Tesla is they have all factories in U.S. as of now, they didn't even think about building Gigafactory in China to save few bucks. This factory alone will employ up to 10,000 good paying workers after it is complete in few years.
 
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The new Cobalt encapsulated Li ion battery may be the next step. Twice the power density of current Li batteries. So getting close to 400 mile cruising range
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
Does Tesla pay you for the publicity? Tons of posts about it now.

I will own Model 3 soon, I deposited $1,000 on the day they revealed it last April.

Is there a limit of what a person can post on any subject ?
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: Rand
Does Tesla pay you for the publicity? Tons of posts about it now.

I will own Model 3 soon, I deposited $1,000 on the day they revealed it last April.


"soon" what's the promised delivery date for yours ?
 
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"Isn't "soon" the anticipated time of company profitability, too?"

No. Tesla's business is selling stocks and carbon credits...they also give away a few cars as a side business.

Good news is that Tesla will burn thru everyone's $1K deposit money by the end of the year! So, Yay!
 
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