1st The Standard Transmission, Now The Traditional E-Brake

The Man Behind Koenigsegg Explains Why The Handbrake Is Dying

The One:1 has a traditional handbrake but for the Regera – and I’m guessing all future Koenigseggs – you’re switching to an E-brake like most major manufacturers. What’s the benefit of that in your opinion? I’m asking because the functionality is hardly the same, and I’m trying to figure out why are we losing proper handbrakes almost as quickly as manual transmissions.

CvK: The main reason for getting rid of the manual handbrake is packaging in the interior. We have limited space inside the car and the E-brake gives us more flexibility, which is important when you have a battery pack to consider and you want to offer a more luxurious interior. With a mechanical handbrake you have cables going from the interior, they have to be routed around the engine and to the wheels. It’s a very hot area so you have to make space, have appropriate insulation, etc. It’s cumbersome and it’s in the way.

We’re going to do what Tesla has done, which I haven’t seen anyone else do as yet: we won’t even have a handbrake switch in the car. When you stop the car and put it in park, the handbrake will be on. You won’t forget it and you won’t forget to release it when you drive off again. It’s a better, safer way that works for our vehicle packaging and it’s not annoying the way other e-brakes with fiddly switches can be.

OK, you can’t do handbrake turns anymore but that’s not going to be much of an issue. The owner can just floor it instead and powerslide through the corner :). Or maybe we could develop a button for handbrake turns?

(Jalopnik.com)