BAC, also known as Briggs Motors, was established in Liverpool, England in 2009. It announced that it has obtained relevant funds for graphene research and hopes to bring the technology to the mass production stage of the automotive industry.
Mono is the world’s only single-seater sports car that can be legally driven on the road, and BAC is the maker of this supercar. Recently, BAC announced that it has received funding from the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN) together with Haydale Composites (Loughborough, UK) and Pentaxia Composites (Derby, UK). Graphene is used in body panels. There is no doubt that the company will be the latest test platform for the technology and may significantly advance the entire automotive market.
In 2016, BAC became the world’s first car manufacturer to use graphene materials. Mono’s rear wheel arches are lighter and stronger than standard carbon fiber components. BAC explained that the strongest carbon fiber materials are better than steel 10 times stronger, but graphene is not only about 20% lighter than carbon fiber, but also 200 times stronger than steel. The new joint venture will be based on a proof of concept.
Graphene is a two-dimensional crystal composed of carbon atoms with only one layer of atomic thickness. It is also the lightest and most powerful material other than carbon fiber. NVN’s funding will enable BAC, Haydale and Pentaxia to develop a series of graphene lightweight composites and a new type of carbon fiber composite with better thermal conductivity, thereby developing a new body panel.
“We are delighted to receive funding from the NVN Fund and are proud to be developing this project with our partners Haydale and Pentaxia,” said Neill Briggs, director and co-founder of BAC. “Small car manufacturers play a vital role in the development of the automotive industry and are the founders of mass market technology development, and our goal is to introduce graphene-reinforced composite body panels in the near future.”
The project aims to bring benefits in terms of weight reduction, carbon dioxide reduction and shortened manufacturing cycle time. The newly developed body test panel will be installed and debugged on the Mono Supercar, with the goal of reducing weight by 10% and shortening the production cycle by more than 25%.