Christian Erland Harald von Koenigsegg (born July 2, 1971) is the founder of the Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 high-performance automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 manufacturer Koenigsegg

Koenigsegg

Koenigsegg Automotive AB is a Swedish manufacturer of high-performance sports cars based in Ängelholm.-Company:The company was founded in 1994 in Sweden by Christian von Koenigsegg, with the intention of producing a world-class supercar...

 Automotive AB

Aktiebolag

Aktiebolag is the Swedish term for "limited company" or "corporation". When used in company names, it is abbreviated "AB" or "Ab"...

.

He was born in Sweden to a family of ancient German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 ancestry. When Koenigsegg was five years old he saw the Norwegian animated film Flåklypa Grand Prix

Flåklypa Grand Prix

Flåklypa Grand Prix is a Norwegian stop motion-animated feature film directed by Ivo Caprino. It was released in 1975 and is based on characters from a series of books by Norwegian cartoonist and author Kjell Aukrust...

; in the movie a local bicycle repairman makes his own racing car. This gave Koenigsegg the dream of creating the perfect sports car

Sports car

A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

. After several years of planning he launched the Koenigsegg project in 1994. Designer David Craaford provided a design concept following Koenigsegg’s guidelines. The prototype

Prototype

A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...

enabled the foundation of Koenigsegg Automotive AB.

Koenigsegg and his wife, Halldora von Koenigsegg, are active in the company's management.