MG Cyberster Review: Bringing open-top fun to electric cars at last

MG is a legendary British automaker. Even non-enthusiasts remember its sports cars of the 1960s and 70s, particularly the iconic MGB. The MG name debuted in 1924 and has been celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with the central display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and at Salon Prive. However, throughout its existence, the company has been through many owners. The last period of pure British ownership was MG Rover from 2000 to 2005, which ended in bankruptcy. A complicated period of deals and mergers later left MG in the hands of Chinese giant SAIC Motor.

MG Reborn

SAIC Motor is a huge company. It produced over 5 million vehicles in 2023, more than Ford, and has been China’s largest automaker by volume for 18 years. It’s also China’s largest exporter, selling over 1.2 million vehicles outside the country in 2023. Under Chinese ownership, MG has been making a comeback. In the UK and Europe, the brand started regaining a name for itself by selling great-value fossil fuel cars, based on SAIC Motor vehicles created for the local Chinese market. But it was the application of this budget strategy as it began its EV journey that has really paid off. The MG ZS EV, MG5 wagon, and MG4 all set benchmarks for electric car pricing. The company now has 5% of the EV market in the UK, alongside Volvo, Audi, and Hyundai.

The Cyberster is a departure from this strategy, however. It’s not cheap and cheerful, it’s extravagant and slightly bonkers, and it’s solely an MG, not a rebrand of a Chinese car. Fortune took a hands-on drive of this much-hyped EV in the Scottish highlands and the potholed streets of London.

The model has been teased for a few years, with the first concept revealed at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show. This was a radical design, with science fiction looks that wouldn’t be out of place in an anime cartoon.

What’s incredible is just how close to the original concept the production version of the Cyberster is. The nose is still swoopy, the taillights are still arrows pointing outwards, and – most significantly – it still has scissor doors. Few self-respecting super or hyper-cars these days are complete without unnecessary door mechanisms, so the Cyberster joins an exclusive crowd. They’re not as impractical as you might think, either. You need to be wary of height clearance (there’s an ultrasonic sensor to help here), but they don’t stick out as far sideways as a regular door, so it’s very easy to get in and out even in a tight space typically found across Europe.

Shy people will find all this unnecessarily ostentatious, but you don’t buy an open-top sports car because you wish to avoid attention. Also not for the fainthearted are the bright red and yellow paint options, although you can choose subtler grey or silver, while the standard color is creamy white. But there’s no British racing green, which is a surprising omission for an MG sports car.

The folding roof, which can be black or red, is slickly executed. It takes about 15 seconds to go down or up, and you can perform this operation at up to 30mph. So if you’re caught in the rain or fancy grabbing some impromptu rays, you can do so without stopping.

Previous MGs of the contemporary era have not been known for their interiors. In fact, they tended to be downright dowdy. The Cyberster is a leap above that. The seats aren’t leather (that’s no longer considered environmentally friendly), but they are stylishly two-tone. Both driver and passenger’s side seats are electrically adjustable with two memory slots. They’re heated too.

Where value MGs like the ZS EV still sported cheap-looking dials, the Cyberster surrounds you with screens. There are three arranged around the cockpit, and another in portrait format above the central console. This provides touchscreen access to climate controls and car functions, using a menu system that is intuitive and easy to use.

The steering wheel has paddles behind but they’re not for gears, as EVs don’t generally have these. There’s a launch control sequence, too, for when you absolutely must win the traffic light drag race. There’s a less ostentatious round button for triggering the adaptive cruise control, although this doesn’t have elaborate steering assistance.

The wraparound cockpit screens make a lot of information available, but there’s one gotcha. They were clearly designed with the yoke steering wheel of the concept car Cyberster in mind, because with the regular round wheel of the production version, the two side screens are obscured by your hands. The main issue here is that the screen on the left hosts the sat-nav view (or Android Auto / Apple Car Play map). So you need to crane your neck to see the next turn.

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Drives just like a real sports car

But that’s the only real niggle, because as a sports car the Cyberster ticks the boxes well. There are currently two versions to choose from. The Trophy has rear-wheel-drive and 335hp, while the GT has all-wheel-drive and 503hp. Putting that in perspective, it’s around the same power as a Tesla Model 3 Performance. So although the Cyberster isn’t light – the Trophy weighs 1,885kg and the GT 1,985kg – it’s still very quick, hitting 62mph in 5 seconds and 3.2 seconds respectively.

While you will probably buy an open-top sports car with scissor doors to show off a bit, you also want it to handle well – and the Cyberster delivers here too. The GT has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution, and the Trophy is 49-51 with a mild rear bias. So cornering is very neutral. We spent hours driving around the Scottish Highlands in both the Trophy and GT cars. The GT is a brute, able to put on immense speed very rapidly and still get you round bends safely. While you feel the weight, this is an engaging drive. The Trophy is more restrained and leisurely, although the lighter front end makes steering more relaxed.

The suspension setup is not hard, however. We also drove the GT around pothole-strewn London urban streets, and it coped admirably. The suspension would need to be harder for a truly enjoyable track day, but for a fast grand tourer it’s brilliant. With the top down and just a little bit of sun, the Cyberster’s connection with the environment is superb. It’s the kind of car that makes even your journey to the gym fun.

Although this is a quick car and can be very engaging to drive, it’s still more of a grand tourer than a racer, and the range accommodates that. Both versions of the Cyberster come with a 74.4kWh (net) battery, giving the Trophy 316 miles of WLTP range and the GT 276 miles. Those aren’t huge figures, but they’re respectable. The maximum DC charging speed of 150kW is also behind the best, but you can still replenish the battery from 10 to 80% in 38 minutes. So long journeys are possible if you’re willing to grab a snack break every few hours.

Few EVs manage their WLTP rating, and this is particularly true of a car like the Cyberster. There’s no point buying it if you’re not going to enjoy its capabilities, after all. On our rambunctious run around the Scottish Highlands, we managed just 2.2 miles per kWh with the GT, for about 164 miles of real range. But cruising around town in London, the figure was more like 3.5 miles per kWh, which is close to the official rating.

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No longer a cheap MG

As we hinted earlier, the Cyberster isn’t the budget bargain of previous MGs. In the UK, the Trophy starts at £54,995 ($72,500) and the GT at £59,995 ($79,000). That seems like a lot when previous MG EVs were barely above £30,000 ($39,500) even in top trim form with a full set of options. It’s also around the same as a Tesla Model 3 Performance, for similar power and acceleration. The Cyberster is a bit cheaper than this in the few European countries where it is available so far, such as Norway.

You can’t really compare the Cyberster to other EVs, however, because there are no other electric roadsters currently on the market. There aren’t that many roadsters with internal combustion engines either. You could pick up a Mazda MX5 (Miata in the US) for a lot less, but the closest comparison is a BMW Z4. The starting price for this is lower, but it isn’t in the same league of performance as the Cyberster.

MG has been through some dark times since its heyday but is regaining its mojo. The Cyberster is not perfect. But it looks incredible, drives well, is very fast, has acceptable range and is not as expensive as you’d expect. It’s one of the most fun EVs you can currently buy.