Most people think of Koenigsegg as a hypercar company, which it is, but more importantly, it’s also a technology company. What I mean by that is that it uses its hypercar platforms to develop new automotive technologies, which it then licenses to other manufacturers. The Terrier electric drive unit, announced on Monday, is the latest technological terror to come out of the company’s Swedish airbase HQ.
In addition to being one of the best single-season TV shows ever, Terriers are known for being small, tenacious and extremely energetic. Those descriptors seem to all apply to this new electric drive unit. The heart of the Terrier unit is the Quark electric motor, also developed by Koenigsegg, which uses a new motor design that the company calls Radial Flux.
The Quark motor uses Koenigsegg’s hollow carbon fiber technology for its rotor, which helps to keep weight superlow. In fact, the company says it weighs just 66 pounds per production-ready motor. Even more remarkable is what Koenigsegg gives as the Quark’s output, 335 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque.
The Terrier unit pairs two Quark motors with a six-phase power inverter which keeps the entire package small, even though it allows for things like actual torque vectoring, and Koenigsegg says it’s the most power and torque-dense torque-vectoring drive unit in the world.
Koenigsegg is using the Terrier drive unit in the Gemera hypercar, but just maybe, some enterprising auto manufacturer will take advantage of Koenigsegg’s hard work and license the tech, which should go a ways toward making electric cars lighter and even more powerful.
The Koenigsegg Gemera is a technological tour de force
1/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow Koenigsegg on Tuesday unveiled its newest creation, the Gemera. 2/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow This is the Swedish OEM’s first four-seater, rocking two extra seats behind its dihedral doors. 3/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow The Gemera’s powertrain starts with three electric motors, one at each rear wheel with the third motor connected to the engine’s crankshaft. 4/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow These motors mate to a 2.0-liter, twin-turbocharged inline-3 Freevalve engine, which replaces the camshafts with actuators. 5/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow The result is a net 1,700 horsepower. 6/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow That small internal combustion engine, which Koenigsegg calls the Tiny Friendly Giant, doesn’t just run on traditional gasoline. 7/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow It can operate on the corn-heavy E85 ethanol blend, in additional to carbon-neutral methanols and other ethanol blends. 8/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow Sure, the Koenigsegg Gemera will likely cost upwards of $1 million, and with only 300 being built, you’ll probably never see one on the road. 9/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow But it’s always great to see what Koenigsegg brings to Geneva, because these cars are at the cutting edge of vehicle technology. 10/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow Keep scrolling or clicking to check out even more pictures of the Koenigsegg Gemera. 11/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 12/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 13/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 14/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 15/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 16/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 17/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 18/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 19/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 20/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 21/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 22/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 23/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 24/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 25/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 26/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 27/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 28/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow 29/29 SLIDES © Provided by Roadshow
This was originally published on Roadshow.
Keyword: Koenigsegg debuts its tiny, tenacious Terrier electric drive unit