Zenvo chief Jens Sverdrup has previously told TG about the Danish marque’s intention to create a ‘junior hypercar’, powered by a V10 derivative of its new modular engine. Now, it has emerged that an Aurora roadster is planned as well.
Zenvo Aurora roadster: Agil and Tur versions
The Aurora will arrive in two distinct forms. The ‘Agil’ will be the track-oriented, high-downforce model, while the ‘Tur’ will offer a marginally more relaxed grand-touring character. We suspect the word ‘marginally’ is doing plenty of work there. Afterwards, there will be a further variant.
“It’s 50 of each that we’re planning to build,” Sverdrup told TG. “But then we’re looking into roadster versions that will be assigned to people who bought the coupe versions, so they will have the first right of refusal with those.”
Just imagine the force of open-air motoring combined with 1,850bhp. Actually, no need: it sounds completely wild. The Aurora combines a 6.6-litre quad-turbo V12 with an electric motor to produce 1,850bhp in total. It ought to be quick, then.
Development is progressing rapidly, and Zenvo expects production to begin towards the end of 2026. Although a 280mph top speed has been cited, customer cars will instead be limited to 261mph (420kph).
Aurora development prioritises engineering over records
“It’s not the point of the car to go beyond that,” said Sverdrup. “I’m not counting numbers, I just want a really good car. I don’t care about Nürburgring lap times, I don’t care about top speeds. I care about really good engineering and just pushing the limits as far as they can go.
“This top speed is worth nothing if the car doesn’t behave in first gear at 10kph, or if it’s not fun to drive slowly. For me, the magic lies in if I can have my cake and eat it too. This is the ultimate sweet spot car. Performance and numbers are just a side effect of good engineering. It’ll be a heck of a lot more refined than a Valkyrie.
“I’ve been part of other projects where it has been all about records. At Koenigsegg we were all about records. The Czinger project was all about lap times. I always felt it compromised the car for the driver who will use it 90 per cent of the time.”
A further six Aurora prototypes are due to be produced, joining the first example, which recently appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
“We’re just getting started,” said Sverdrup. “However, the engines have been tested on a bench for four months already, and we’ve been driving the car for over a year in the simulator. We’ve passed the first passive safety tests and emissions will probably be the big one. We’re doing the full worldwide homologation. With this car we belong in the top echelons of the hypercar brands. In two or three years that’s where we will be.”
Zenvo Aurora availability and customer interest
What if you happen to have several million pounds available and want to join the Aurora order list? A small number of the planned 100 cars remain unspoken for. Sverdrup tells TG that roughly 60 have already been sold.
“We have another 200-300 people on the list who wanted to see if we could pull it off before committing,” he told TG. “But now that it’s running up the hill, I’ve already had text messages from people saying ‘okay, let’s go’.”
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