Exclusive UK preview of new Cyberster reveals a vision for the near future that draws on MG’s illustrious past
Words Glen Waddington
A CENTURY SINCE the MG octagon badge was registered by Oxford-based Morris Garages, a brand new MG-badged roadster will go on sale in the UK. That’s in 2024. It will be launched in left-hand drive this summer.
The styling nods to MG’s heritage, yet this is a product of modern times: MG will likely lay claim to the first volume-produced electric sports car and, while its design has been led in the UK by the MG Advanced Design Centre in London, it is being engineered by parent company SAIC. The MG marque has been in Chinese hands since 2005, don’t forget.
Tellingly, European design director Carl Gotham refers to it as ‘our first sports car’. He’s talking of his 20-strong team, of course, London-based since 2018 though ‘the idea of doing a sports car has existed since Day 1’. A side project was under way while Gotham was still running a studio in Birmingham (he joined SAIC in 2009), and it has been informed not only by the looks of old MGs but by the marque’s innovation, technology and speed record attempts. ‘An electric roadster feels relevant,’ he emphasises.
The recently launched MG4 is currently spearheading MG’s relentless climb in European
and UK sales (it’s knocking on the door of top-ten status in the UK). By next year,
that will be the oldest design in MG’s range, which will become all-electric in the process. With a competitive
280-mile range and a sub-
£27k starting price, the MG4 can be said to have democratised practical EV ownership
in the UK (target customers will trade-in from ICE-powered Fiestas and the like).
That’s rather as the marque once did with such sports cars as the Midget, T-series
and MGB.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology leaked some Cyberster images a few weeks before this preview; with them came some technical information, suggesting that the top-scale version will feature twin motors and four-wheel drive. In size, it’s similar to a BMW Z4 (the name crops up more than once among MG’s attendees); commercial director Guy Pigounakis suggests that, at today’s rates, pricing would be in the £50,000-60,000 bracket. Hardly cheap (‘More Z4 than MX-5’, he suggests), but consider it petrol money for an electric car. With scissor doors.
Now – early May – invited British motoring journalists are gathered at MG’s London HQ for the official unveiling. It’s a full-size model rather than a drivable car, but it’s described as ‘95% there’ in styling terms.
