MG Motor UK Cyberster review

A big deal. This is the first electric sports car to be sold at (almost) mainstream prices. A decade ago MG was selling bargain basement hatchbacks and saloons to a reasonably small trickle of buyers. Now, it has a halo roadster to float glamorously above a bank of strong selling EVs and SUVs.

The MG badge may be 100 years old in 2024, but its last few decades haven’t been straightforward. The MGF roadster launched in the mid Nineties to decent acclaim, and a bunch of spunky rebadged Rover hot hatches followed in the early Noughties, underpinned by a British Touring Car campaign.

But then Rover dissolved, the MG name was sold to SAIC in China and everything changed. Decades of performance car history was replaced by a range of own-brand family cars that appealed on price and little more.

The MG Cyberster is an attempt to restore glory and provide a proper centenary celebration. We first tried the car in its native China but we've since driven UK-spec cars in both powertrain configurations and in less than ideal weather. Proper.

It looks fancy. Is it wildly expensive?

Prices are punchy: £54,995 for a single-motor, rear-driven Cyberster Trophy, or £59,995 for a dual-motor, AWD Cyberster GT. Even MG itself has no idea how many it’ll sell, or how sales will split between indulgent private buyers or savvy company car users sneaking some zero-emissions fun through the books.

How much fun are we talking?

The Trophy pops a 335bhp/350lb ft electric motor at the rear axle for 0-62mph in 5.0 seconds, a 121mph top speed and 50:50 weight distribution. The GT pairs this with a front motor for 496bhp/535lb ft peaks and slightly improved 3.2s and 125mph claims. Some way off the 1.9s and 250mph+ claimed by the new Tesla Roadster, but then the Cyberster is a car you can actually buy right now. At a fraction of what Elon will surely charge.

Both versions use the same 77kWh battery for a WLTP combined range of 316 miles in the Trophy and 276 miles in the GT. Beyond on-paper stats the cars are remarkably similar. So both get Brembo four-pot brakes, Pirelli P Zero tyres (like performance car rivals, as opposed to EV rivals) and double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension. That’s before we get to the comprehensive UK and European development the car has undergone, lots of it around MG’s spiritual Longbridge home, to better configure its ride, handling and active safety systems for markets outside of China.

What else do I need to know?

There’s the addition of a wind deflector for calmer top-down driving, more lumbar support in a pair of faux-suede seats that are now positioned lower to the floor and a one-pedal driving mode to top off its numerous brake regen settings. Those hard yards of extra development were quite useful.

The roof itself is a delight, folding fore and aft electronically in a handful of seconds. The car looks taut roof up or down, and then there’s the doors. Yep, it’s taken until now to mention this is a sub-£60k car with electronically operated scissor doors. They’re cool, they’re eye-catching, they're a little bit annoying at times, but this car’s about so much more.

They guide you into an interior rich in screens – four, to be precise – but with a surprisingly conventional steering wheel that’s clearly been benchmarked on AMGs, BMWs and Audis. Its paddleshifters are tactile but there’s no simulated gear shenanigans here, a la Hyundai Ioniq 5 N; you drive a single-speed EV powertrain with the left paddle toggling regen levels, the right cycling you through Comfort, Sport and Custom drive modes, which stagger the throttle response and steering weight but don’t adjust peak power nor the suspension, which is a passive setup. More on that over on the Driving tab of this review. 

A bright red Super Sport button on the steering wheel activates Track mode and the potential of Launch Control to feel the performance at its fullest. Punchy in the GT and a little pointless in the Trophy, even if we suspect that’s the version we’d actually buy…

This is a feelgood car. Chiselled looks and blockbuster doors on the outside lead you to a smartly designed interior that affords you a voluptuous view of the bonnet. Those craving a traditional roadster experience get all the right visual and tactile clues. And while it’s much more a soft GT than a sports car dynamically, there’s just about enough substance to back up the style. Especially in purer single-motor form.

This first foray into mainstream EV sports cars isn’t perfect but it kicks us off at a point far more advanced than we might have dared hope. Crucially, it feels like a cool car; the first time we’ve said that about MG in a very long time. If electric really is the future, the Cyberster is another beacon of hope that we’ll still get to have fun.