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Driven: 2024 MG Cyberster GT. Image by MG.

Driven: 2024 MG Cyberster GT
MG has thrown its value pretensions out with this new electric GT car, but does it have the style and substance to cope with other sports cars?

   



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2024 MG Cyberster GT

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For the last few years, MG has made its living with some rather dull but worthy family cars, and has been keen to forget its sports car heritage. But now, the brand has brought back memories of the MG B with this: the Cyberster. An all-electric two-seat roadster with lots of power and a striking design, it's hardly like the MGs of old, but can it bring a bit of that spirit into the 21st Century?

Test Car Specifications

Model: 2024 MG Cyberster GT
Price: Cyberster from £54,995; Cyberster GT from £59,995
Motors: two electric motors
Battery: 77kWh lithium-ion
Transmission: single-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Power: 503hp
Torque: 725Nm
Emissions: 0g/km
Range: 276 miles
0-62mph: 3.2 seconds
Top speed: 125mph
Boot space: 249 litres

Styling

The Cyberster is nothing if not striking, especially when those scissor doors open (you can do it remotely for maximum impact). But even with the doors closed, it looks fast. The 'kamm' tail with those Union Flag lights and the sharpness of the nose contribute to the speed-demon look, while the length of the bonnet is proper V12 sports car stuff. Except there's no V12 in there, so it's even lower and more dramatic than it might otherwise be. All in all, we'd say it's pretty impressive work from MG on the styling front.

Interior

Unfortunately, MG's good work on the outside of the Cyberster falls apart slightly inside. While it isn't badly made and some of the materials feel quite upmarket, there are a few irritating quirks that would prevent this car from achieving a full five stars regardless of how it drove.

Chief among those quirks is the nature of the digital interfaces, of which there are several. You get a smallish touchscreen in the middle of the dash, and there are three screens behind the steering wheel, two of which are quite hard to see at times. And they're even harder to use. Responses are laggy across the board, menus are confusing and accessing various functions requires a degree in guesswork. Even governments are more sensible than this, and we haven't even got to the worst bit yet.

Our least favourite part of the Cyberster's interior is the steering wheel, which looks great and feels nice in your hands, but for reasons hitherto unknown to science, comes with a terrible selection of buttons. The two thumbsticks are fine for the PlayStation generation, but we've no idea what they do half the time, and nor will anyone else. Intuitive, they are not. We imagine you'd get used to it over time, but they will always throw you a curveball when you least expect it, and do something completely different from what you hoped. In fairness, though, the Cyberster is far from the only MG with this issue.

Practicality

It won’t surprise anyone to find the Cyberster is not all that practical – it only has two seats and the boot is no larger than that of a city car – but it isn’t dreadful. There’s a storage shelf behind the seats and the boot is perfectly usable if you fill it with squishy bags. We wouldn’t use it to take a wardrobe to the recycling centre, but it’s fine for most weekends away or trips to the shops. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is not with carrying luggage, but with carrying people. Because you’re effectively perched on top of the battery, headroom is quite limited with the roof up, and tall drivers will find their foreheads being battered by the wind when the roof is down. Despite being a bigger car than a BMW Z4, it really is no better for tall drivers.

Performance

The Cyberster is being offered with a choice of two all electric powertrains, dubbed Trophy and GT. Both use a 77kWh battery pack, but the Trophy gets a single motor driving the rear wheels, whereas the GT has two motors, giving it all-wheel drive. There's a power difference, too, with the Trophy getting 340hp, while the GT tested here has a massive 503hp.

The result is pretty exceptional performance, with 0-62mph taking a mere 3.2 seconds in the GT, which is about the same time as a V10-engined Audi R8. In short, it's brutally quick, and the response is instantaneous, which takes passengers by surprise as they're pinned into their seats seemingly without warning. Even the Trophy will get to 62mph in five seconds, making it much faster than your common-or-garden Mazda MX-5.

But while the pace is impressive, the range is not so brilliant. A 77kWh battery is pretty good in a family hatchback, but the 503hp GT really eats through it quickly, managing 276 miles to a charge on the official economy test. And you'll struggle to do much better than 200 miles on a motorway. The Trophy is a little better, but you're still unlikely to achieve the 316-mile range quoted in the technical data.

At least with 144kW charging capability, you can fill the battery from 10 to 80 percent in less than 40 minutes at a 150kW rapid charging point, while a 7kW domestic 'wallbox' charger will take 10-and-a-half hours to fill the battery from 10 to 100 percent.

Ride & Handling

With so much weight on board, this shouldn't be a surprise, but it's worth stating from the start that the Cyberster is not an out-and-out sports car. Sure, it's quick in a straight line, but this is a big, wafty, open-top GT car, not an agile little roadster. Think of it more as an electric Lexus LC than a battery-powered Mazda MX-5.

As a result, the Cyberster does not handle all that impressively. Don't get us wrong, it's great in the bends, but it prefers to take them at a brisk pace, rather than flat out. The steering is nice enough and the low body doesn't roll too much, so you can have a bit of fun, but there's still some movement and heft as you thread your way through the bends. It's easily on a par with the Lexus LC, but this is no electric 911.

The advantage of that is it's a little softer than your average sports car, and though the combination of weight and big wheels means it doesn't ride quite as smoothly as some GT cars, it's perfectly adequate on a longer drive. You aren't about to get out feeling like you've been pummelled by the asphalt. The quietness helps on that front, too.

Value

Just as the Cyberster represents a very different type of car for the modern, SAIC-owned MG brand, it commands a very different price point. At £54,995 for the basic Trophy model, it's squarely up against premium products from the likes of BMW and Lexus. You could even argue that the Maserati GranCabrio Folgore is its closest rival. Even in such company, though, you can't deny that the Cyberster provides a lot of power for the money. And lots of kit, too.

The Trophy may get the less powerful motor, but it still comes with 19-inch alloy wheels, the three-screen infotainment system and the scissor doors, not to mention the heated seats, two-zone climate control and 360-degree manoeuvring camera system. If you upgrade to the GT version, you get some slightly larger wheels and the extra power, but that's all.

Verdict

The Cyberster is not necessarily the car MG aficionados were expecting, and it certainly isn’t like anything in the brand’s more recent portfolio. But that doesn’t make it a bad car – it’s just a bit of a niche product. To us, the softness doesn’t really fit with an electric sports car that’s naturally immediate, but the Cyberster looks great, drives nicely enough and (aside from the touchscreens) feels quite premium. It isn’t a five-star car, but it definitely deserves four.



James Fossdyke - 31 Dec 2024



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2024 MG Cyberster. Image by MG.2024 MG Cyberster. Image by MG.   







 

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