First Sight: Scissor-doored MG Cyberster is production-bound
MG is returning to its roadster roots with a full-electric, two-seater. Car Design News gained the first in-person view of the full-scale design model last week
MG is returning to its roadster roots with a full-electric, two-seater due in 2024 and Car Design News gained the first in-person view of the full-scale design model last week. At a small press event at MG’s European design studio in the heart of London, the brand’s advanced design director Carl Gotham pulled the wraps off the striking scissor-doored EV, which is on course to be the world’s first ground-up, all-electric roadster design to go into production. (Tesla’s early 2000s two-seater arrived via an adapted Lotus Elise donor car, was more of a small-run experiment).
Up close, within the confines of MG’s London ground-floor display area, the production-car-representative Cyberster model looks every bit the classically well-proportioned sportscar, with a gently forward-sloping bonnet, cab-rearward silhouette, long wheelbase and a truncated Kamm-style tail. At 4535mm long, 1913mm wide, 1329mm high and sitting on a 2705mm wheelbase, its dimensions are considerably greater than the 1995 MG F (L:3912, W:1651, H:1270 and WB:2388mm) but within the ballpark of the current 2019 BMW Z4 Mk2 (L:4324, W:1864, H:1304).
Significantly the Cyberster’s height has been kept low – only 25mm higher than the combustion-engined Z4 – despite having to package batteries capable of 300-plus miles of range between its two axles.
The Cyberster’s interior design – accessed by the dramatic and production-bound supercar-style scissor doors – is also strong and unusual
To hide some of that extra height, Gotham concedes a few visual design tricks have been employed, most notably in the black-coloured band of bodywork which runs along the window line before widening as it wraps around the rear of the car. This has the effect of making the top of the red-coloured section of the body lower and alters the perception of the car’s size and overall proportion.
The light signatures front and back are interesting too. Three-point LED headlights with graduated hatched areas add graphic variety, while at the rear, a three-dimensional, wide and slim, staple-shaped light bar frames two distinctive double-headed arrows pointing horizontally in opposite directions to the car’s outer edges. Squint your eyes and the rear light graphic looks a bit like half a Union Jack flag rendered in red/orange mirror image. It’s a symbolism Gotham is happy to acknowledge given the MG brand’s British heritage. To these eyes at least, the effect looks more abstract and subtle than the rear light options on many current models within the Mini range too.
The Cyberster’s interior design – accessed by the dramatic and production-bound supercar-style scissor doors – is also strong and unusual, especially at its expected sub-£45,000 starting price. The driver’s zone is cockpit-like with a ‘flying buttress’ passenger grab handle leading from the IP diagonally down the side of the centre console to join a raised centre armrest and double cupholder section. In front of the driver, three sizeable landscape-oriented screens are arranged in a shallow half-hexagon layout around a yoke-shaped steering wheel.
Remarkably this latter feature is also production-bound, although a full-rim steering wheel with a likely altered driver display will also be an option, says Gotham. The model shown had an electrically-powered soft-top and although a hardtop version has also been designed, it remains unconfirmed for production, for now.
“This car had a lot to live up to,” says Gotham. “We wanted to create a car that could do justice to the MG badge”
Gotham says the positive reaction to the Cyberster concept shown at the 2021 Shanghai motor show – designed with Robert Lemmens – was genuinely the catalyst for the production version that followed. They weren’t developed in tandem he says. Indeed, when Gotham took over MG parent company SAIC’s European design studio in 2017, one of the first projects on his wish list was a new sportscar for the brand.
The first sketches for an electric roadster were done in MG’s Birmingham studio before the advanced department moved to its London premises in 2018. The later concept’s ideation was started in London and continued in SAIC’s Shanghai studio with members of the UK team travelling to China to follow the project. The production car followed a similar path, starting in London and finishing in Shanghai.
Although the roadster market represents a small niche worldwide, MG’s senior management saw the need to make a new one, given the brand’s strong heritage in this vehicle type through models like the 1990s MG F and ’60s and ’70s MGB. The on-sale year of 2024 is also significant, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the start of the marque, which can trace its roots to Morris Garages and the MG octagon logo registered as a trademark in May 1924.
“This car had a lot to live up to,” says Gotham. “We wanted to create a car that could do justice to the MG badge.” On this first evidence, it has. And I didn’t think I’d be saying that about any new MG after its sorry collapse as part of MG Rover back in 2005. Alongside the critically well-received and smart-suited MG 4 crossover – also developed in concept form inside the London studio – MG’s new design roll is matched by rapidly increasing sales that has taken many by surprise. In 2022 it sold nearly 60,000 cars across Europe and is predicted to more than double that figure to 120,000-plus registrations in 2023. It currently stands 11th in the UK brand sales charts, in front of Skoda and just behind Mercedes. Quite the turnaround then, with design playing a highly significant part.
