Ownership and continuity of the Bristol marque.

Chronology

1. 1910 to 1946

   An aeroplane company builds a motor car

   Sir George White founded the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company at Bristol in 1910. In 1945 the renamed Bristol Aeroplane Company formed a Car Division at Filton, and in 1946 it completed the first Bristol motor car, the Bristol 400. The year 2026 marks eighty years since that first car.

2. 1947 to 2011

   Bristol Cars Limited: sixty-four years of independence

   Bristol Cars Limited was incorporated on 8 January 1947 (company number 00427126). In 1960 the parent board resolved to close the car company; Sir George White, grandson of the founder, bought it with his own money and, with Tony Crook beside him, carried the marque on. The company carried the marque, from the 400 to the Blenheim and the Fighter, until 2011.

3. 2011

   Administration and a change of hands

   Bristol Cars Limited entered administration on 3 March 2011. In April 2011 its assets and goodwill were bought by Kamkorp Autokraft Limited (company number 03583953). The original company was renamed BCL 2011 Limited on 20 May 2011, its administration concluded on 30 August 2013 and it was dissolved on 6 December 2013. A new Bristol Cars Limited (company number 07649451) was incorporated on 26 May 2011 and traded under licence from Kamkorp Autokraft. It unveiled the Bristol Bullet in 2016, although the project did not progress to series production.

4. 2020 to 2022

   Two liquidations

   The Kamkorp-era Bristol Cars Limited was wound up by the court: a petition of 6 December 2019 led to compulsory liquidation from 22 January 2020, with joint liquidators appointed in May 2020. Kamkorp Autokraft Limited, which held the marque’s intellectual property and goodwill, followed: a petition of 16 December 2021 and compulsory liquidation from 2 February 2022. Neither company traded again.

5. 2025

   The marque is acquired from the liquidators

   Bristol EV Cars Ltd (company number 16196073) was incorporated on 20 January 2025. In February 2025 it acquired the historic intellectual property and goodwill of the Bristol marque from the liquidators of the former companies: the registered trade marks Bristol and Bristol Cars, the goodwill, and the drawings, blueprints and records of the business. Bristol® and Bristol Cars® are registered trade marks of Bristol EV Cars Ltd.

6. 2026

   Bristol Cars Group Ltd and the re-launch

   Bristol Cars Group Ltd (company number 17377828) was incorporated on 3 August 2026 as the parent company and public home of the marque. Bristol EV Cars Ltd, Bristol Manufacturing Ltd (company number 17351273, incorporated 21 July 2026) and Bristol Commercials Ltd are its wholly owned subsidiaries, and it holds a 50 per cent interest in SLJ Hackett Ltd (company number 10350175), the marque’s specialist at Warminster. Bristol Manufacturing Ltd is a new company formed for the Group in 2026. It has no connection with company number 08164632, incorporated in 2012 and registered in Brentwood, which has also been named Bristol Manufacturing Limited and is now registered as Bristol Aerospace Limited; that company has never formed part of Bristol Cars Group. On 2 September 2026 the marque was re-launched at Salon Privé, Blenheim Palace, with the first car of the final Bristol Fighter series.