Three years ago, Koenigsegg became the first automaker to put carbon fiber wheels on a production car. Designed, developed, and manufactured entirely in-house, the hollow “Aircore” rims were considerably stronger and lighter than a conventional alloy wheel, but they weren’t exactly beautiful.

Function came before form as Koenigsegg concentrated on making sure the technology worked, rather than worrying about making it pretty. But as Koenigsegg has moved on to its next-generation hybrid hypercar, the Regera, so too has the carbon wheel advanced.

The Drive visited Koenigsegg’s factory in Angelholm to get the lowdown on the latest generation of carbon wheel from Christian von Koenigsegg, as you can see in the video above.

Having progressed the Aircore technique significantly, Koenigsegg was able to style the Regera’s wheels. As Christian explains, the light weight of the wheel allowed the designers to create a shape that would not really be possible in a metal rim, as it would either be too heavy or not strong enough. "With hollow carbon fibre, you can think completely differently," Christian notes. He also claims that the styled wheel has not lost any of the strength of its purely functional forebear. 

The Regera is powered by a 5.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 backed up by no less than three electric motors. Together they produce 1479 horsepower (1103 kilowatts) and 1465 pound-feet (1986 Newton meters) of torque, enough to vault the thing from 0 to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in 2.8 seconds on the way to a top speed of more than 250 mph (402 km/h).

And it does that without a traditional, wasteful gearbox, instead using Koenigsegg’s own, hideously complex direct drive system.

Ford will follow in Koenigsegg’s footsteps by offering carbon wheels as an option on the upcoming GT supercar, while aftermarket suppliers such as ESE Carbon Company, Carbon Revolution, and Dymag also produce them. Carbon wheels were first developed over 20 years ago for racing bicycles.

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