The Koenigsegg Gemera Doesn’t Have a Differential

Koenigsegg doesn’t do things conventionally. The Swedish hypercar maker’s creations are home to all sorts of unusual, ingenious engineering solutions. That’s true of the Gemera, Koenigsegg’s first four-seater and its first all-wheel drive car. As founder Christian von Koenigsegg explains in this video, the Gemera doesn’t have a differential.

Well, not a traditional differential as such.

At the rear, the Gemera has a mid-mounted twin-turbo V-8 paired with the company’s unique Light Speed Tourbillon (LST) nine-speed transmission. Instead of using straight CV joints coming out of a differential, as you’d expect with a transaxle, this transmission has two “cassettes” on either side, which move power forward to the wheels. Instead of turning power 90 degrees from the output shaft, the LST turns power 270 degrees, which allows room for the V-8.

At each cassette, there’s a hydraulic clutch that regulates power to the wheel. So, you have a system that functions like an electronic locking differential, but with parts exploded out rather than being housed in a single unit. 

It took me a while to understand it, too.

This is an all-wheel drive car, too, so the LST has an output shaft running to the front axle as well. At the end of that, there’s an electric motor, and another differential-that’s-not-a-differential mechanism, with a bevel gear and hydraulic clutches for each wheel.

All pretty crazy, and it allows for unique possibilities. As Koenigsegg points out, this is the only car that has a single electric motor, but fully variable four-wheel torque vectoring in EV mode. And to add to all that, the Gemera has brake torque vectoring as well.

The video is well worth a watch for insight into a system only Koenigsegg could come up with. There’s truly nothing like it.