Skip to main content

Top dogs beware: BAC to take on Ferrari, Porsche with its own hybrid supercar

BAC Mono
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The Briggs Automotive Company (BAC), the small British firm that gave us the marvelously minimalist Mono, is about to take things up a notch.

The company is planning a hybrid “hypercar” with a “seven-figure” price tag, founding brothers Neill and Ian Briggs said in a recent interview promoting the Wilton Classic & Supercar show.

The car they have in mind is a big leap from the Mono. Whereas that car is a small, open-cockpit single-seater, the hypercar will have a more conventional cockpit and two-seat layout, similar to likely rivals such as the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, and Porsche 918 Spyder. Many current Mono owners have at least one of that holy trinity, according to the Briggs brothers.

A panel of those current Mono owners will advise on the design of the hypercar. That design process is only in its first phase, so nothing is concrete yet. The Mono was designed with an emphasis on low weight and handling, but BAC’s next creation will need to add serious power to the mix in order to be considered a true hypercar.

One aspect of the hypercar mythos BAC already has covered is low-volume production. While the LaFerrari, P1, and 918 Spyder were limited editions for their respective brands, the BAC hypercar will be business as usual. BAC only builds two Monos per month, although it hopes to bump that up to five or six cars per month by 2020.

The hypercar is part of a newly enacted five-year plan that also includes updates for the Mono. BAC considers it to be as integral to the corporate identity as the 911 is to Porsche and so it plans to introduce performance and tech upgrades on a regular basis. BAC also wants to build an all-electric version of the Mono. Given that owners are expected to use the cars primarily for track days, Neill Briggs reasoned that range anxiety won’t be much of an issue.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
The Kia EV3 could be the cheap electric SUV we’ve been waiting for
White Kia EV3

The Kia EV9 was already one of the cheapest ways to get an electric SUV, but now the company is taking things to the next level. After teasing the Kia EV3 last year, the car is now official.

The EV3 is built to be a slightly smaller, cheaper version of the EV9 -- following the path of the Rivian R2, which arrived after the Rivian R1S. It's certainly not as technologically advanced as the EV9, but it still looks unmistakably like a modern Kia, and is clearly a sibling of the larger SUV. On the outside, the vehicle has the same split taillights and very similar Tiger Face front. But it is quite a bit smaller. The vehicle will be available in nine finishes -- however only "Aventurine Green" and "Terracotta" are being announced right now.

Read more
Kia EV3: release date, performance, range, and more
White Kia EV3

Kia is on a roll. Hot on the heels of the success of the Kia EV6 and EV9, the company is already announcing what could be its cheapest electric vehicle yet -- the Kia EV3.

The Kia EV line seems to follow the rule of lower numbers indicating a lower price — and if so, the EV3 will end up being the cheapest electric car Kia has released to date. That, however, thankfully doesn’t mean that the EV3 will be a low-end car — it just means that Kia may be pushing the boundaries on electric car pricing.

Read more
Kia EV3 vs Tesla Model Y: Can Kia’s new entry-level car take on Tesla?
White Kia EV3

The Kia EV3 is finally coming, and it could well end up being the best small-size electric SUV to buy when it finally rolls out. It's smaller than the Kia EV9, but it offers many of the same design elements and features. But there's another small-size electric car that's currently one of the most popular vehicles out there -- the Tesla Model Y.

How does the Kia EV3 compare with the Tesla Model Y? And is one vehicle actually better than the other? We put the Kia EV3 and the Tesla Model Y head-to-head to find out.
Design
The design of the Kia EV3 is very different than that of the Model Y, though they're both reasonably good-looking vehicles.

Read more