Car UK May 2019

CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MAY 2019

M

ounting pressure to reduce emissions is driving

the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Aston Martin to

electrify their core ranges – and not just their

big-money, Speedtail-style flagships. Motorsport has proved

the good sense of turbo engines and electric motors working in

concert, but squaring the advantages of electrification with the

weight penalty batteries inevitably bring will not be easy...

Jens Ludmann: ‘Emission requirements are undoubtedly

driving the move to performance hybrids, but it’s also about

the torque-feel of an electric motor, the instant response: this

is very good when you are engineering a sports car. And with a

hybrid you still have something of the power-to-weight ratio of

a combustion engine. By 2024 all Sport Series [570S and friends]

and Super Series [720S] McLarens will be hybrid.’

Christian Von Koenigsegg: ‘Before the Regera, I was quot-

ed many times saying I did not like hybrids. But there is a big

difference. It is the parallel hybrid [Prius, McLaren P1] I disliked:

a full combustion engine and then, in parallel, electrification.

This is complicated, expensive and heavy, since you are adding

to the system but not removing anything. Series [BMW i3] is

simpler, and you can remove the gearbox. The result is cheaper

and lighter but you have increased losses, since you are con-

verting mechanical movement to electricity and then back to

mechanical movement. The engine is disconnected from the

driving experience, so you have neither the serenity of an EV

nor any sense of connection to the engine.’

JL: ‘When you go for electrification, it makes sense to have a

powertrain developed as a unit. It doesn’t make sense to have an

engine that hasn’t been developed to work with the punch of an

electric motor. But at McLaren the cars we do are driver’s cars.

We introduce technology only when it improves the driving

experience – everything we bring in has to improve this. The

excitement of the combustion engine is secondary. We look at

everything about the car’s performance and, if it’s better with

an electric powertrain, that’s what we will do.’

CvK: ‘With Regera, we were able to remove the transmission,

so there are hardly any more components than you’d find in a

series hybrid, and no frictional losses apart from the final drive.’

‘Electric’s torque-feel is great’

Prius blazed the trail – but now the hybridisation of supercars is gathering pace.

Christian von Koenigsegg and McLaren’s Jens Ludmann compare notes

Tech

28

Meeting
of minds

JENS

LUDMANN

Chief operating

officer of McLaren

Automotive, and a

keen racer

CHRISTIAN

V O N

KOENIGSEGG

Koenigsegg’s

CEO and technical

driving force