Koenigsegg tells Jesko owners to stop driving after $3 million car burns

Man, don’t you hate it when your $3 million hypercar catches on fire? Me, too, though my most expensive car is only a fraction of a percent of the costs associated with the Koenigsegg Jesko, which recently saw a stop-drive order from its maker. One of the super-rare cars caught fire during a recent drive in Greece, raising questions among owners.

A Greek Jesko owner recently discovered that their multimillion-dollar car isn’t invincible. On June 15, the car caught fire at an event called “6to6 Europe Tour 2024.” The drive saw many limited-production cars, but the Jesko was a unicorn among them. It was one of just a handful of production units delivered by the company, and news of the fire raced like, well, fire, through the Koenigsegg community.

The 1,600-horsepower car delivers astonishing performance numbers, starting with its 0-60 mph time of just 2.5 seconds. Additionally,  the car’s low 3,000-pound curb weight makes the Jesko a significant upgrade over its contemporaries.

Though the Jesko ownership group is witheringly small, the automaker has issued a stop-drive order for all 28 units it shipped. “Out of an abundance of caution, we ask all Jesko owners and drivers to hold off on driving their cars until we have had a chance to understand the situation better,” the automaker said.

Koenigsegg is not aware of the cause of the fires, but the passengers of the car in the film made it to safety. The Jesko’s purchase price outpaces even the most exclusive hypercars by $1 million or more, so the loss of one is hard to swallow, even if you can’t afford one.

It’s easy to be smug when a multimillion-dollar car owner faces misfortune, but the good news is that this owner was at least using their car as intended. The almost-new Koenigsegg was being driven hard when it caught on fire. It died, as they say, doing what it loved.