Not one to rest on its laurels, Koenigsegg is researching how it can use biofuel from semi-active volcanoes for its future production vehicles.
Koenigsegg is embracing electrification and is developing ultra-high-voltage battery packs for future models. It is also looking to extend the lifecycle of its internal combustion engines with an innovative type of fuel known as Vulcanol. Christian von Koenigsegg discussed this fuel in a recent interview with Bloomberg.
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“So there is this technology from Iceland, it was invented there, where they cap the CO2 emittance from semi-active volcanoes and convert that into methanol,” he described. “And if you take that methanol and you power the plants that do the conversion of other fuels and then power the ship that transports the those fuels to Europe or the U.S. or Asia, wherever it goes, you put the fuel completely CO2-neutral into the vehicle.”
Vulcanol produces 90 per cent fewer carbon emissions than fossil fuels and according to von Koenigsegg, a vehicle running on the fuel and equipped with the correct aftertreatment systems “can kind of clean up the particles in the atmosphere while you’re using the engine.”
To help the company in its charge towards electrification, Koenigsegg recently hired former Tesla executive Evan Horetsky who led the construction of Tesla’s Gigafactories in Nevada and Shanghai. As Koenigsegg’s chief industrialization officer, Horetsky will look to improve the company’s carbon footprint and incorporate its eco-friendly technologies into a wide range of new models and drivetrains.
During the interview, Christian von Koenigsegg described the company as propulsion agnostic.
“What we mean by agnostic is that we mix and match whatever makes the most sense at each given time and for each model,” he said. “We’re not stuck in traditional combustion technology. The technology we develop there is really next-generation beyond anything else I’ve seen out in the marketplace, and also next-generation electrification, and combining these technologies in an interesting way to make our product stand out and be as competitive as we can with as little environmental footprint as possible.”
