The MG Cyberster has had its first European preview in the UK, after making its global debut at Auto Shanghai 2023 in April. The much-anticipated roadster signals a departure for MG, which up until now has focused on the budget end of the auto market. This could be the car that not only takes MG back to former sportscar glory – but lifts it to new heights in the car market, and this time electric only.
The scissor doors of the preview Cyberster will be making it through to production.
The UK launch still wasn’t the arrival of an imminent production vehicle, however. That’s due in the summer of 2024. This was a design preview, and the car on show didn’t have a full drivetrain, nor was it made of final materials. Some of it was allegedly still made of clay. But MG said the vehicle being shown was “95%” what the finished version would look like. And it is stunning.
Right now, the EV market lacks a few vehicle formats. There aren’t that many estate cars / station wagons and there are no true sportscars below the super/hyper level. On the one hand, there are plenty of extremely fast EVs that aren’t meant for sporty activities, raising the question whether you need a sports version. But, on the other hand, why do you need to spend hundreds of thousands for the likes of a Wiesmann Project Thunderball or millions for a Rimac Nevera? What if you want a more affordable, but still dramatic two-seater? Cars aren’t just about the practicality of travelling A-to-B after all.
The Cyberster is intended to provide the pleasure of MG’s sportscar tradition.
The MG Cyberster certainly looks great, and is sure to deliver a sense of occasion. The radical design has been scaled back since the concept was unveiled two years ago, allegedly due to practical production constraints. But the appearance hasn’t been tamed as much as it could have been. This is still an unashamed two-seater roadster, and the scissor doors on the preview car will apparently be making it to the final vehicle. The yoke steering wheel will only be an option, however.
The cars the Cyberster most resembles are the Jaguar F-Type or BMW Z4 convertibles, which is no bad thing, although I hope the Cyberster won’t copy the F-Type’s miniscule luggage capacity. However, the front has clear cues from MG’s most recent cars, particularly the MG4. This seems to be MG’s direction in terms of design. The company has stated that by next year, the MG4 will be the oldest model in its range – and that was only launched in the UK in 2022. This means that popular electric models including the MG ZS EV and MG5 EV will be updated soon. There’s a hot dual-motor version of the MG4 due for launch in July 2023, too.
This is unashamedly a two-seat roadster.
But back to the Cyberster. Even if it looks like it was designed to be in the same family as the MG4, the style is otherwise on another level. There will be proper sports seats (although the ones in the preview were only visually equivalent), and the driver will be surrounded by an instrument cluster consisting of three LCD panels, with a further one in the central console for things like the climate control. There is no large media screen in the Cyberster. This is a car meant for driving, not for sitting in to watch Netflix.
This is much more in keeping with the history of the MG brand, which made its name creating open top two-seater sportscars, such as the MGB. At the preview, MG clearly wanted to hark back to the company’s heritage, even if it is no longer a British-owned company. Nanjing bought MG Rover after the latter’s collapse in 2005 and was itself acquired by SAIC in 2007. This is a company that produced 5.4 million units in 2021, so is hardly a minnow in the automotive industry. MG is another Chinese company setting its sights on global EV expansion like XPENG.
The Cyberster could be a very desirable sportscar – electric or internal combustion.
MG didn’t release any specifications of the Cyberster at the launch, but some details have been revealed by a patent leak. An entry-level rear-wheel-drive version will have 310hp while a dual-motor version will have 536hp. These are impressive features, but this car will be heavy like all EVs, with the dual-motor weighing in at 1,985kg, more than a Tesla Model 3 Long Range. You can still expect it to reach 60mph in under four seconds. MG was quoting under three seconds for the concept, but you would need more power than 536hp for that with a two-ton car. There was no word on battery size or range, although the concept was supposed to manage 500 miles. Anything over 300 miles would be great.
Although price wasn’t discussed directly, one UK MG employee hinted that the cost of the entry-level vehicle would “start with a 5”. Assuming they didn’t mean £500,000 ($630,000), an entry price of £50-60,000 sounds reasonable for a premium two-seat sportscar, although favorites such as the MX-5 are much cheaper. That’s still Tesla Model 3 territory, and when you consider that a Jaguar F-Type starts at just under £60,000 ($75,000) and ends up north of £110,000 ($138,000), this isn’t even going to be expensive compared to internal combustion equivalents, let alone other EVs. If MG can pull the Cyberster off, at this price, it’s going to be a very desirable vehicle, regardless of it being electric.
