Koenigsegg working on 'CO2 neutral' supercar with $1M price tag

The company has dropped a few hints on its joint venture with China-owned NEVS.

Koenigsegg has shed more light on the type of vehicle that may be under development with joint venture partner NEVS.

Speaking to TopGear, Christian von Koenigsegg says the collaboration will allow both companies to target an unserved segment now that Koenigsegg's brand has "outgrown our production volumes by quite a big margin." The company is now looking downmarket into a slightly cheaper price bracket that still sits above the mainstream supercar brands.

"We have several years of delivery time on the super-exclusive hypercars we're building today," he said. "But we do think if we make a super-exclusive, custom built supercar at a slightly lower price (that's the â'¬1m mark) we could get the volumes into the hundreds."

Koenigsegg wants to build a car that is "completely CO2 neutral," combining electrification and the company's unique 'freevalve' camless technology for internal combustion engines. NEVS, a China-owned company that bought the rights to Saab's automotive brand and now specializes in EVs, has partnered with Koenigsegg to achieve the goals.

"Given the freevalve technology, we can actually cold-start the car on pure alcohol, down to -30 degrees Celsius, so there's no need for any fossil fuel mix then," Koenigsegg said. "The idea is to prove to the world that even a combustion engine can be completely CO2 neutral."

The company expects its vision to be presented by 2020.