MG Cyberster 2024 Review

Exterior Design

Amazingly, the Cyberster’s design is not as far from the concept unveiled at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show as you might expect. It retains the scissor doors and sloping nose of the original design, although the latter is not so aggressive in the production version. The rear is also simplified, with a less pronounced spoiler and light bars, but you still get the arrow-shaped tail lights.

The result is less like something out of an anime cartoon and more like a car you won’t feel self-conscious to own. That is, until you open the scissor doors, which are as ostentatious as you’d expect. They’re not mere impractical nonsense, however. Not only do they make it easy to get into the car, but they also don’t swing that far out, so opening them in a parking space isn’t impossible. The doors open automatically, either using the key, a button on the door, or a switch in the central console. There are ultrasonic sensors on the panel to prevent collision.

Perhaps the most incredible thing about the Cyberster is that, despite having its batteries under the floor in typical “skateboard” EV style, it doesn’t sit high like most electric cars. This is because the battery pack is just 110mm thick. In fact, apart from the lack of tailpipe and silence, you wouldn’t know the Cyberster was an EV if you didn’t already. The soft roof is also slickly executed, only taking 15 seconds to raise or lower, which you can do at up to 30 mph.

Overall, the Cyberster is a great-looking car, and will provide the sense of occasion that is the reason why you bought a roadster instead of a more practical car format.

Interior Comfort

The Cyberster is a two-seater, and the central console is quite high. But it doesn’t feel cramped inside. In the driver’s position, you’re surrounded by a bevy of screens, so there is a strong sense of being a pilot in a cockpit.

The grey interior is a little plain, and the red version showier, but still quite classy. An all-black option could have been a welcome addition to the range of choices. The seats are comfortable for hours of driving, which is what you want in a car that is more of a very fast grand tourer than an uncompromising racer. The electric adjustment buttons are on the door, the seats are heated, and so is the steering wheel.

You get a decent amount of space in the central console cubby, and a couple of cupholders. However, one bizarre omission is a wireless phone charging pad. While these are admittedly not great at the best of times, not having one is a surprising omission.

Dropping the top is easy. There’s a wind deflector included with UK cars and with the windows up but the roof down there’s a nice sense of airflow without too much turbulence or wind noise. In fact, on windy A-roads the Cyberster feels just the way a roadster should inside.

Storage and Load Carrying

Two-seater soft-tops are not famous for their luggage space, and the MG Cyberster is typical in this respect. With the largest electric motor at the back, the boot is shallow. However, the total capacity is 249 litres, enough for some shopping or a couple of overnight bags.

Crucially, you can just about fit a set of golf clubs inside. Unsurprisingly, you can’t drop the rear seats forward to extend capacity, because there aren’t any rear seats. There’s no word about towing, which would also be a bit silly for a roadster, unless it’s some jet skis.

With each generation, MG has incrementally improved its infotainment. The Cyberster does not just grab the latest iteration out of the parts bin, however. There is very little resemblance to any previous MGs. There are four LCD panels and a collection of buttons. Three of the panels sit behind the steering wheel and one in portrait mode in the central console.

You turn the car on by simply pressing the brake pedal with the keys inside the vehicle. A column of large buttons selects drive, neutral, reverse and park. Below are switches for the doors and roof, with some discrete buttons for key air conditioning features in the dashboard above. The central screen then provides access to settings and fine tuning of climate controls.

One of the key features provided by this central screen is control over the motor power and setup. There are Comfort, Sport, Track and Custom, where you can adjust features like motor power and steering feel independently.

One thing this central screen doesn’t operate, however,  is media. This comes via the left-hand screen behind the steering wheel. This also shows the sat-nav and Apple Car Play or Android Auto. The right-hand screen offers energy-related information such as consumption graphs and vehicle-to-load. The central screen provides a digital speed readout, safety messages, and range.

The steering wheel is bristling with buttons. It has media and menu controls on either side, and paddles for quickly changing modes or regeneration levels. Then there are conventional stalks for lights and indicators as well as windscreen wipers. Two large round buttons underneath the central spoke operate the adaptive cruise control and Supersport mode, which takes the performance one step further than Sport.

However, there is one snafu with the Cyberster’s array of entertainment screens. While this is another feature that hasn’t changed significantly since the concept, the steering wheel has. We’re not fans of yokes, but the concept had one and the dashboard panels were clearly designed with a yoke in mind because the top sides of the steering wheel obscure the left and right panels. This isn’t so bad with the right-hand screen, which has information you won’t need to use live when driving. But the left-hand one shows the satnav map, which the wheel and your hand will obscure, leaving you to crane your head around to see it. You might find yourself mounting your phone on the windscreen instead.

Performance and Driving

Plenty of sportscars look great but don’t drive like it. Many are underpowered, or don’t handle any better than a regular car. Not so the MG Cyberster. Both versions of the Cyberster are quick. The Trophy takes just 5 seconds to hit 62mph, but the GT drops the time to an incredible 3.2 seconds, similar to a Tesla Model 3 Performance. However, to hit these figures you need to switch the car into Supersport and invoke launch control. Even when not launching, the GT feels like it could overtake anything in a flash on an A-road, whereas the Trophy is more sedate.

The two versions of the Cyberster drive subtly differently beyond the mere difference in speed, too. The Trophy is 100kg lighter than the GT – 1,885kg versus 1,985kg. While the GT has perfect 50-50 distribution, the Trophy is biased to the rear 51-49. This isn’t noticeable in use – there’s no clear rear bias or tail happiness with the Trophy. But the Trophy has lighter steering and feels like a more relaxed grand tourer, whereas the GT is tighter and more urgent in corners. Neither Cyberster is a track car in its current form, but the GT in particular is incredibly assured on the road even in damp conditions. It inspires the confidence to drive fast.

But the Cyberster is not a challenging car in any way. It’s very smooth and easy to drive in any situation, including narrow town streets. Although the two seats and small boot hardly make this a practical car, it’s easy to live with. It wouldn’t have to be a weekend special for high days and holidays. It could easily be your daily driver.

Range and Charging

With a 77kWh (gross) battery on board (74.4kWh net), the MG Cyberster doesn’t skimp on range. The rear-wheel drive Trophy has a WLTP rating of 316 miles, while the all-wheel drive GT drops to 276 WLT miles. Of course, this is a car that cries out not to be driven efficiently, and when we drove it around hilly and windy Scottish roads, the GT managed just 2.2 miles per kWh and the Trophy 2.5 miles per kWh, for a real-world range of 170 miles and 193 miles respectively.

You probably won’t drive quite this exuberantly, so expect closer to 200 miles with the GT and over 200 miles with the Trophy. These aren’t earthshattering range figures, but enough for grand touring. The DC charging is a bit behind the best at 150kW (or 144kW in some specifications), meaning replenishing from 10 to 80% will take 38 minutes. A break this long every 2-3 hours is just about right, although the Cyberster won’t challenge a Tesla for long-distance journeys. AC charging remains at 7kW, so a full battery from empty at home will take a little over 10 hours.

Running Costs

The official WLTP range gives an efficiency of 4.2 miles per kWh for the Trophy and 3.7 miles per kWh for the GT, but as already stated we saw more like 2.5 and 2.2 miles per kWh respectively when driving (very) brusquely. That’s still not going to be expensive with mostly home charging.

The warranty is the typical one from MG – 7 years or 80,000 miles, whichever comes first, including the battery. There’s no mention of minimum capacity for the latter, however. Insurance groups hadn’t been announced at the time of writing but expect them to be high.

Safety

Despite the significant design departure of the Cyberster from other electric MGs, the safety tech is similar to other recent vehicles, although there’s no Euro NCAP rating yet. MG Pilot now includes Adaptive Cruise Control with traffic stop and go, which you call up with one of the big round buttons on the steering wheel.

There's speed limit assistance with sign recognition. You get active emergency braking, auto high beams, and blind spot detection. That's shown with the same orange lights on the wing mirrors as are used for indicating. There’s also a 360-degree parking camera.

There's Lane Keep Assist and Lane Change Assist, which is an extension of blind spot detection, but doesn’t give the adaptive cruise control fully autosteering capabilities. Rear Cross Traffic Alert will help you avoid collisions when backing out of a park spot and you haven't seen someone driving past behind you, however.