We looked at it, touched it, sat-in it and even talked to its designer at the MG Cyberster launch event in Sydney last week. What we didn’t do is drive it.
MG CYBERSTER: Battery 77kWh, dual electric motors Power 375kW/725Nm Gearbox: Single-speed, AWD 0-100km/h: 3.2 seconds Range: 443km (WLTP) Price: $129,000.
As luck would have it, MG New Zealand’s one-and-only Cyberster was left unattended for an afternoon in Auckland this week, so we’ve been able to grab a first drive to fill out our first impressions.
Full disclosure: while this is indeed a NZ-specification car, it’s not quite showroom-ready (launch proper is at the end of the year) and lacking some key updates in the instrument and infotainment areas. So we were asked not to delve too deeply into the digital realm of this car.
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But all the rest is present and super-fast. As previously reported, the sole Cyberster for us is a dual-motor AWD with 375kW/725Nm and a 77kWh battery giving 443km WLTP range.
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MG went all-out to get Cyberster to market for a milestone year..
It’s crazy-fast when you want it to be, with 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds. But it’s not that hard to make an EV fast; the bigger question is whether this two-tonne roadster is enjoyable to drive.
It’s big, but doesn’t feel especially oversized for a sports car. The long bonnet and spacious-but-snug cabin give it the right vibe.
If that 77kWh battery size sounds familiar, it should. It’s the same as the MG4 long-range, and that’s because Cyberster owes a lot to MG’s family hatch under the skin. While MG advanced design director Carl Gotham argues that the Cyberster’s relatively large footprint is appropriate for a modern roadster, it does also help with the shared underpinnings; the wheelbases of MG4 and Cyberster are almost identical.
Traditional roadster styling proportions, not-so-trad scissor doors.
Thing is, jump in and it doesn’t feel especially oversized for a sports car. The long bonnet and spacious-but-snug cabin give it the right vibe. You might wish for a slightly lower driving position, though; it’s suitably reclined, but you’re aware you’re sitting on a battery.
The cabin design is a bit of a performance-car greatest hits tribute show.
There’s a lot going in the cabin, both visually and thematically. Three screens make up the dashboard: a central 10.25in display flanked by angled 7in touch-units. But wait, there’s more: another portrait touch-screen angled on the centre console.
Cockpit-like cabin, with 4 separate screens. Note the up-or-down cupholder bases.
It’s all a bit of a performance-car greatest hits tribute show, to be honest: the angled displays remind you of C8 Corvette and that central display is very McLaren. Some of the minor detailing and the door-mounted seat adjusters are pure Mercedes-Benz.
Press the red ‘Super Sport’ button and you go to Track mode. No, we don’t know why the button doesn’t just say ‘Track’ either.
Fit and finish is impressive, but practicality is a mixed bag (yes, yes, roadsters don’t have to be practical). It’s not immediately apparent where you should put your phone for example (there doesn’t seem to be a wireless charging pad), until you find that the rubber bases of the dual cupholders can rise up to form a grippy little shelf.
Not big in volume, but the boot is suprisingly useful.
And while there’s no frunk, the boot is surprising spacious. A volume of 249 litres doesn’t seem large on paper, but it’s usefully wide and easy to load into.
The scissor doors are a big talking point. MG says they’re functional, in that they ease access over the car’s wide sills. Hmm, okay. But they must be partly there for showing-off purposes.
Doors open up and out, with sensors to stop them hitting stuff.
They don’t feel entirely like a gimmick because they’re quite easy to use and the car provides multiple ways to operate them. You can do it with one touch of a centre-console, via a control mounted on the top edge of the actual door or with the remote key fob.
Because they’re powered and dihedral (they open up but also a little bit out), they also have sensors that will stop operation if there’s any obstruction; even something as small as a hand hovering above. You can see a tiny cutout for the sensor in the exterior door panels; they work really work.
One of 3 separate ways to open those showy electric doors.
Our drive was brief, but we managed some two-up motorway travel and a short backroads blast. Maybe a typical Sunday morning for a roadster-owner, then. You can raise or lower the roof at up to 40km/h (it’s quick, less than 15 seconds), although unlike the doors there’s no remote operation when the car is static; you have to be sitting in the car and use the centre console button.
Anyway, roof-down two of us managed a conversation at completely normal volume on the motorway at 90km/h. Impressive. Why not 100km/h? Blame the traffic.
Wind buffeting is well-contained at speed; you can chat normally on the motorway.
The Cyberster has very serious mixed-size footwear: 20-inch wheels with 245/40 front and 275/35 tyres. But it rides quite well on most surfaces; there’s a little of that rickety secondary ride you tend to get with heavy EVs, but overall it feels quite luxurious for a performance car. It’s a great cruiser.
Oh, that performance. There are three drive modes accessible via a steering wheel-mounted paddle (Normal/Sport/Custom), but press the big red “Super Sport” button and you go to Track. No, we don’t know why the button doesn’t just say “Track” either.
Roof goes up or down in less than 15 seconds, but you have to be in the car to operate it.
Back to business. Thus configured, the Cyberster offers absolutely brutal acceleration, even if you don’t resort to Track mode. And unlike many quick-ish EVs, it doesn’t seem to tail off at all as you rocket to three figures. Be interesting to try this mode on a… track
It handles, too. It’s wide and fairly heavy, so there’s no way it’s going to dance around 45km/h curves. But the steering is accurate, the chassis grippy and body control excellent on Kiwi roads. It really gets on with business, managing to do so in a way that makes you smile.
Big red Super Sport button takes you straight to, um, Track mode.
The extreme, instantaneous output means you do sometimes feel the front and rear axles jolt as they deal with all that power. But it’s clearly a strong platform; be interesting to try a model with less power and RWD (which does exist for other markets) to really get a sense of the chassis.
A car like this needs decent stopping power (something MG kind of forgot with the MG4 XPower) and Cyberster has it: Brembo fixed calipers up front.
Serious mixed-size tyres, and Brembo brakes up front.
This is a very different car to an original MBG then (sorry, grumpy trad-MG people) or even a Mazda MX-5, but also an accomplished take on an EV-roadster for the modern age. Which was probably always SAIC-MG’s intent; for all its reverence of the brand’s heritage, the product has never been about looking back. It makes SUVs now, you know.
Electric roadsters are going to be a thing, no question. Porsche has a BEV Boxster on the way, Polestar is talking up its 6 and there’s more from Lotus and Alpine. There might even be a Tesla Roadster at some point, with or without rockets.
This way to the electric roadster revolution.
But the Cyberster is the one-and-only for now, and that makes it a truly remarkable achievement by any measure. Especially when you consider all of the above are likely to be vastly more expensive than the MG.
Based on our (admittedly limited) first impressions, it also feels like a pretty well-sorted performance car. Not sporty like an MX-5, but rapid, refined, responsive and not averse to some fast A-to-B antics over winding Kiwi roads. An electric roadster that behaves like a GT.