Regera

Make
Koenigsegg
Segment
Compact

Koenigsegg is not like most automakers. As a boutique hypercar company, it builds only about 60 cars per year. Each one costs well over $1 million. But just like any other automaker, however, Koenigsegg is still subject to rigorous safety standards throughout the world. Basically, wherever it wants to sell cars, like the US, it must undergo and pass that country's safety testing requirements. That means Koenigsegg must sacrifice some cars. It's painful.

The folks at Apex One wanted to see this testing first-hand so they traveled to Sweden and spoke with Christian von Koenigsegg himself and some staff members about the whole process. They also filmed a Regera getting smacked with hammers, among other objects.

For big automakers, by contrast, all they have to do is pull a car off the production line, crash it for testing, and then send it to the crusher. They'll then repeat that process over and over again for every test. Each donor car is nothing but a drop in the bucket. Not so with Koenigsegg. In order to help save millions of dollars, the company rebuilds a single chassis after every test, no matter how severe. But wait, how can any chassis withstand such continuous rigorous testing? Because the carbon fiber monocoque chassis is incredibly strong and is well-protected by state-of-the-art components that enable reuse.

Still, watching those hammers being slammed into that wonderfully woven carbon fiber and the Regera itself undergoing serious shakedowns is tough, even for Koenigsegg and his team. But that's the way it is. Want to sell cars? They must be safety tested. Period.

In many situations, Koenigsegg isn't even the one performing the testing, but rather third-party operators. All Koenigsegg can do is tell the testers where to stick on the sensors and then sit back and watch millions of dollars of destruction.