16-Million-Dollar Koenigsegg Sold Out Before Release

The 2014 Koenigsegg One:1 will be a limited edition hypercar: only 6 units will be produced.

The One:1 is powered by a 5.0L turbo V8 engine which ouputs 1,340hp and 738 lb-ft of torque (the overboost feature can reach 1011 lb-ft temporarily). The reason why this “tiny” V8 can produce such large amount of energy is because its super-high boost pressure of 26.1 psi . Of course, unless Koenigsegg programs the ECU to keep the turbine rotating all the time, high pressure boost will definitely lead to turbo lag.

However, what surprises us most is not the horsepower number of the One:1 engine, because everyone knows, as long as you are willing to raise the turbo boost pressure, you can attain whatever hp you want. We are amazed at its MSRP and how fast it is sold out.

This 6-unit only production car is already completely sold out. Five of them are sold to Chinese buyers, and the other one is sold to an US customer. In China, the MSRP of this car is around RMB 100,000,000 (0.1 billion RMB), which is equivalent to approx. USD 16,000,000 (16 million USD).

You may consider this price to be absurdly high; but from my point of view, the 16 million USD price tag is still a bargin.

For an automaker, the cost to develop a new car model starts at around USD 1 billion. If you are developing a new platform, plus a new engine and transmission, the price tag will reach the level as high as USD 6 billion. So basically speaking for every car you see on the street, the developement cost is between USD 1 billion to 6 billion. Now a simple calculation will tell you if only 6 units are made for a model, what is the average developement cost burden on each unit. Take the lowest 1 billion for example: USD 1 billion divided by 6 equals USD 166,666,667 (167 million USD).

You see, the Koenigsegg is still ten times CHEAPER than the above calculated average cost (167 million). Yes I know because the One:1 is not a massively produced model and Koenigsegg can borrow some parts/design with other models, or outsources some parts to other suppliers to save cost, but the scale of the price is still low with those factors taken into consideration.

The reason why you can buy a Hyundai Sonata for less than $20k is not because there is no technology in the design of this car; it is because Hyundai chooses to massively produce it. If someday Hyundai want to produce a 6-unit only production car, it can also reasonably command a high MSRP like what Koenigsegg is doing right now.

Below are live photos of the hypercar taken at the Beijing auto show, which is an ongoing event now.

Koenigsegg_One_2

Koenigsegg_One_6

Koenigsegg_One_1

Koenigsegg_One_4

Koenigsegg_One_3

Koenigsegg_One_5

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