Koenigsegg Developing 1.6-Liter Engine With 400 Horsepower

Koenigsegg is not a company known for making small engines but mind-boggling supercars.

It does take the road less traveled, though, choosing innovation rather than convention. This time, it is keen to apply the lessons it learns from developing its supercars to more practical forms.

To that end, the company is reportedly developing a much smaller engine: one displacing just 1.6 liters. Though details are scarce at this early point, an engine of that size usually has four cylinders and Christian von Koenigsegg anticipates it will develop a solid 400 horsepower.

“The same principles with which we designed the Agera and Regera engines can be applied to these smaller engines,” he told CarBuzz. “By reducing the bore and elongating the stroke of the piston, we are able to lessen the heat losses from the engine. We’ve also used forged pistons, forged connecting rods, and higher quality valves that make engine as efficient as possible.”

Christian points out that “Koenigsegg has the world’s highest specific output engine” in the One:1, which produces 1,364 horsepower. That's more than a megawatt in metric terms from only 5.0 liters, netting an output-to-displacement ratio of 273 hp per liter. Apply that same ratio to a 1.6-liter engine and you'd be looking at 436 hp.

By way of comparison, Mercedes-AMG currently offers one of the highest-strung engines in the business in the A45, CLA45 and GLA45 models, whose 2.0-liter turbo four produces 381 hp in its latest iteration. But even that works out to “only” 190 hp/liter... far short of Koenigsegg's 273.

Just where the engine would be employed is another matter, but don't expect to see it in a downsized supercar. Koenigsegg is likely to find another customer to buy the technology and use it in a higher-volume production model. The company recently licensed its FreeValve camless engine tech to Chinese automaker Qoros, and could take a similar path with its new high-output internal combustion engine as well.