Ultimate Cars, Watches & Hi Fi S03 ep9 : Bard Eker, Koenigsegg Cars, [Denmark]

Interview with Bark Eker

Christian von Koenigsegg grew up with the dream of creating the perfect sports car. After several years of planning he launched the Koenigsegg project in 1994. A tight-knit group of competent people was gathered and a prototype was assembled, the success of which enabled the foundation of Koenigsegg Automotive AB. The Koenigsegg headquarters is located on the south west cost of Sweden in a large Fighter Jet facility, which houses 45 full time staff plus several extras. Presently 7 vehicles can be assembled simultaneously, with 4 stations in the pre-assembly hall and 3 in the final assembly hall.

 

09.44
Koenig: Koenig is a company and a group of dedicated people designing, manufacturing,
promoting and selling super sport cars.
09.54

10.02
Koenig: My name is Bart Eker, I’m from Norway and I’m a part owner of the company Koenig
together with Christiansen Koenig who is the founder of the company.
10.10

10.23
Koenig: In 2003 I met Christian as a potential supplier in Asia and we met and we started to talk
and we are still talking.
10.32

10.38
Koenig: I’m an industrial designer and product developer and have been building up products and
the companies around that so my interest is from the technical side.
10.49

10.59
Koenig: As always in business relationships it’s a personality, I like the personality of Christian
and obviously also the interesting side of the car and the building the world’s most interesting car
in Scandinavia that is what I really think is very interesting.
11.17

11.26
Koenig: He had done the CCR so the base of the car was already there so what we have done
together is more to industrialise it and also be a part of developing it further, this is first of all
Christian’s company and I’m trying to support him as good as I can.
11.42

 

12.01
Koenig: Whatever business you are in it’s always the next step so we are always focusing on
achieving the next step and obviously also mixing new technology with the possibilities we have to
put that into the car.
12.15

12.26
Koenig: It’s an ongoing process, the car will never be finished just as any other cars, if you take the
Porsche 911 I think they started in the 1950’s and they’re still going on, they haven’t done the last
911 again I can show you so it’s the same with us, we will just go on and go on and go on.
12.45

12.56
Koenig: We are selling cars all over the world, different amounts, different cultures, not only from
the customer’s side but also from the authority side, different routes, routes are changing, the
market is changing, technology is changing, we need to be on top of everything all those
parameters have to be built into the cars, this is car number 83 and out of all the 80 cars we have
done before I don’t think there are two that are exactly the same, that means that each customer
coming from different parts of the world look at the car and their dream a little bit different.
13.32

 

13.44
Koenig: Some are more focused on going to the race track than others, some want the combination
and that is really what we are trying to achieve here, we want to do the fastest car around the race
track that you get at the same time have registration licence plates on and go to the discothèque or
to the shopping mall if you want.
14.02

14.13
Koenig: It’s a V8, 4.7 litre twin turbos on this one and obviously we have some very good guys
working on the engines back home, built from scratch, designed and manufactured at our own
place and knock on wood we have not had one singular breakdown on the engine side so they are
really good and especially when you think that they have almost 1,200 horsepowers in there.
14.36

 

14.45
Koenig: The main driving parameter when Christian started with the design of the car back in the
90’s was the aerodynamics so you can see the shape of the car is kind of really steered by the
aerodynamics but in addition to that obviously we are designers, we want to do our own things I
don’t think we really look so much at what others are doing or the trends and stuff the good
feedback that we get from the customers is that maybe one year later a customer calls us and say
what’s interesting with the design of the car is that every time he sees it he sees it from a different
angle, he sees the new detail, something that he didn’t see the first time and that’s I think that’s an
example that we are doing some good things for the car.
15.30

15.40
Koenig: We are doing design and development for a lot of different companies and a lot of
different products around the world. We have been doing projectors since the business of
projectors started, we have our own boat company, hydrolifts, and we are involved in different
companies in Scandinavia.
15.57

16.12
Koenig: We are a small company, we cannot be at all shows around the world, we have limited
resources on the personnel side and also on the car side so we have to choose and the Geneva show
in March is important place for us to be and also this.
16.31

16.44
Koenig: The good thing about working with these kind of products is that we meet a lot of
interesting people and it’s very hard to summarise but the interesting side with working with
interesting people is that there is a new story every day and we are always protecting our
customers not only from the good stories but also from telling their names who is buying the cars
and so things like that but I can tell you it’s a really nice industry to be in.
17.09

 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: Bard Eker, Koenigsegg Cars, Denmark