Studies: MG Cyberster BEV Roadster
Europe First
MG Cyberster
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The MG Cyberster will bring the English brand’s roadster tradition into the age of electromobility from 2024. We took a look at the very close-to-production version of the two-seater and are quite impressed.
There were already indications at the Shanghai Motor Show: the Chinese car manufacturers are going on the offensive. The wealth of variants of the vehicles on display was particularly impressive. At the stand of the SAIC sub-brand MG, there were also a few cars bustling about in the brightly lit area. There was only one vehicle you looked for in vain: the MG Cyberster, a roadster that ties in with the tradition of the British automobile brand. After all, the MG makers announced that the two-seater should come onto the market next year.
MG has now made up for this and pulled the cloth from a near-series vehicle in London. “The exterior is very close to the series,” reveals designer Carl Gotham, who heads the SAIC Advanced Design Studio in the British capital. That’s good news. Because the fabric hat wearer is impressive and quotes the classic roadster design language. “We want to make a sports car that suits European tastes,” explains Carl Gotham. The final verdict came from the top. “When the CEO saw the car, the announcement came: ‘We’ll make it like this,'” says the designer.
Said and done. So the MG Roadster has a long bonnet that slopes down sharply at the very front. What is striking about the front apron is the aerodynamically optimized lower lip, which divides the front and provides contact pressure. The headlights of the two-seater, which also bears the British manufacturer’s emblem on the bonnet, are reminiscent of the eyes of the Jaguar F-Type, which is not the worst visual parallel
The proportions also fit. The overhangs are short, the driver sits very far back and the soft top disappears behind the occupants. The short tail gets LED lights, whose arrow light graphics emphasize the width of the rear part. That brings us to the topic: the MG Cyberster is not a lively roadster à la Mazda MX-5. Like the MG4, the electric two-seater is based on SAIC’s MSP platform (Modular Scalable Platform), which enables wheelbases of between 2.65 and 3.1 meters.
In the production version, too, access to the interior is provided by two high-opening gullwing doors. However, there will still be changes to the interior. Currently, the two-horn yoke-style steering wheel suggests a steer-by-wire concept. Three screens provide the driver with all the necessary information. According to MG, the roadster will be equipped with “state-of-the-art driver assistance systems”. As with the MG4, there should be two drive variants for the Roadster: A pure rear-wheel drive with 150 kW / 204 hp, but 180 kW / 245 hp are also possible. The power variant has another 150 kW / 204 hp to implement an all-wheel drive with 330 kW / 449 hp.
Even if the British practice silence in the style of the Asian brand managers, some parameters can be derived from the MG4 due to the technology relationship. The batteries have two sizes: 51 kilowatt hours and 64 kilowatt hours. The advantage is that the battery is only eleven centimeters high and therefore also fits well in a sports car. To conceal the batteries, Carl Gotham uses a well-known designer trick by inserting a black strip at the top and bottom of the body. The trick works: The MG Cyberster looks less bulky when viewed from the side. We assume a length of 4.53 meters, a width of 1.91 meters and a height of 1.33 meters. When it comes to weight, the roadster is said to be below the two-ton mark: the basic version weighs around 1,850 kilograms, while the all-wheel drive vehicle tips the scales at around 1,985 kilograms.
Very important: The MG Cyberster should cost around 56,000 euros and also meet the expectations of European customers in terms of driving dynamics. Importantly, this roadster represents a landmark car for the MG4 brand. Appropriately for the 100th birthday of the English car manufacturer, the Chinese are showing that they don’t just buy names, but also understand the tradition of a brand. While the German OEMs are busy with SUVs and aerodynamically optimized sedans, SAIC and MG are putting a roadster on wheels and thus broadening its product portfolio, which is also becoming more emotional. This continues the trend mentioned at the beginning of this year’s Shanghai Motor Show.