Ängelholm (Sweden) (AFP)

Luxury and power monsters "made in Sweden" at three million euros: the car manufacturer Koenigsegg has been pushing the design and performance of its "supercars" for a quarter of a century in a niche market previously reserved for supercars Latin.

With Saab and Volvo, in the 20th century Sweden offered sedans with the austere architecture of a Lutheran temple which have established themselves as the benchmark in terms of safety and ... road sobriety.

But in the workshops of Koenigsegg in Ängelholm, a southern seaside village, you let go of the horses: elite workers recruited from around the world cut tapered and motorized diamonds like F16 combat planes, sold at the price of gold.

"When I started (...), I said to myself + why someone would buy one of my cars, it is an unknown brand, by an unknown person, from a country not famous for its sports cars +" , explains the founder of the brand, Christian von Koenigsegg.

"So I told myself that they really had to stand out (...) otherwise I had no reason to be on the market," he adds.

If the Bugatti and Pagani go fast, you have to go even faster, push the limits of production cars on the road, compensate for the lack of awareness with performance.

The 2010s saw the arrival of the Agera RS. In 2017, it passed the 400 km / h mark with 447.19 km / h, unheard of for a production car, dethroned since by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ and its 490.48 km / h.

"They did it on a closed track and we did it on a public road (...), our record was established thanks to a production car while the Chiron was a pre-series prototype", defends Christian Von Koenigsegg.

"But it was really impressive," admits the forties.

- A gem at 3 million euros -

Even if the records "are not negligible", it is above all "the overall performance of the car" the most important, says Christian von Koenigsegg.

This big, strong, native of a family with "little interest in cars", said to be passionate from an early age: "the only thing I read was car magazines".

The Koenigsegg saga begins in 1994. It will take Christian von Koenigsegg barely ten years to present the Koenigsegg CC8S, his first model, at the Geneva Motor Show in 2003. Sixteen others will follow, of which some will only produce six.

A Koenigsegg remains a rare object: at the end of 2019, the brand estimated at 250 the number of its cars in circulation in the world.

As for the profile of buyers, it cultivates secrecy. Boxer Floyd Mayweather and Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic are said to be among them.

For these supercar enthusiasts, you often have to pay several million euros: the last Koenigsegg jewel, the Jesko has sold for some three million euros. Its 125 copies sold in two days. Production is scheduled to start in 2020.

It takes seven to eight months to assemble a car like the Regera. A work of goldsmith.

"It is a way of working very different from a regular production, it can look like a jewel," explains Marian Gadau, a production manager.

In 2020, Koenigsegg plans to launch a new model, the entry level of which will cost around a million euros and at higher volume. "It will remain at a handmade level and a niche," says Christian von Koenigsegg.

© 2020 AFP