Posted on 03/06/2024 1:02:19 PM PST by Red Badger
The highly-anticipated return of the drop-top MG to British soil is right around the corner – and we’ve got the UK launch specs for the hottest electric roadster you can buy today.
Tesla may be promising a sub 1.0-second 0-60 time and enough space-age technology to question whether or not the all-new-since-2017 Tesla Roadster 2.0 should even be called a car, but if you’re looking for a sporty, all-electric roadster that’s sure to turn heads on London’s high streets the Tesla won’t be your only option when (if?) it finally arrives next year.
Meet the MG Cyberster. First shown as a concept at the Shanghai Motor Show back in 2021, the awkwardly-named Cyberster promised drop-dead good looks and the sort of electric powered acceleration that classic MGs like the MGA and MGB could only dream of.
Following rave reviews, MG green-lit the car for production just one month later. Now, as the car inches its way to production, we have specs, some production-ready photos, and even an educated guess or two at UK pricing.
MG Cyberster gets real
The production version of the SAIC-built MG Cyberster will come to the UK later this year with MINI “inspired” Union Jack taillights and turn signals, illuminated MG logos on the nose and soft-top clamshell cover, what seem like brushed aluminum roll hoops, and “Lambo-style” butterfly doors (above).
Inside, the SAIC-built MG seems appropriately high-tech, with little or no retro touches to be found. That seems brave, considering all the effort companies like Porsche and Mercedes-Benz are making to make their digital displays look and feel like their old analog displays.
Sources claim a single 77 kWh battery pack good for about 320 miles on the Chinese (CTLC) cycle will power two performance trims. The first being a 335 hp single-motor version good for a 5.2 second to 60 mph sprint, and the second a 536 hp dual-motor version that can do the same trick in just 3.2 seconds (for comparison, Wikipedia says the classic MGB takes about eleven seconds to make it to 60). Top speed for both models is expected to be about 200 kmh (124 mph).
The Cyberster will launch with the now-familiar Dynamic Red paint shown here, as well as New English White, Camden Grey, and Cosmic Silver. Inca Yellow (a classic MG color) will offered as a “premium” option in limited quantities.
Pricing for the new MG is expected to just undercut the upcoming electric Boxster and Cayman models from Porsche, making a £50-60,000 price range a smart bet.
Electrek’s Take As Chinese car companies continue to work towards their ambitions of conquering foreign markets, it makes sense to do so with familiar brands – especially on their home turf. MG, obviously, is a storied UK brand that most western audiences instantly associate with 2-seat convertibles like the Cyberster.
And if you’re not quite old enough to remember Inca Yellow, this video of a clean 1979 MGB in Inca Yellow should get you up to speed. Let us know what you think of this “premium” color, in the comments.
Will Lucas be involved?
And Girling lever shocks. Don’t forget the lever shocks.
Nice looking car, but...in my heart, it will never be an MG.
LOL, here is my MG back in 1979 at The Drum Corps International Finals in Birmingham, Alabama with a bunch of drum corps kids I let sit in my car.
The one in the driver seat is wearing my squadron hat...:)
(I absolutely must have been in a fine mood that day to let them sit in the car, especially the one with the ice cream!)
Heh, that car (my first car I bought) taught me all I need to know about being a car mechanic! And exponentially increased my colorful vocabulary at the same time!
do the new ones come with their own mechanic like the old original ones?
LOL, OMG. How true.
But I did love it. I put about 130,000 miles on mine, that has to be a record of some sort.
And that “Inca Yellow” color...same as mine, was...Chartreuse. It was a weird color.
At night, under streetlights, it looked like a weird brown or bile green, but during the day, I loved it!
No, no, no...you gotta bring your OWN mechanic...yourself. I have so many stories about that car. How I loved it.
If it has the electronics of my friend’s MGB, the wiper lever will turn on the radio...assuming it even starts!
An exhaust like this: 
And I custom built a console, complete with black naugahyde (how many Naugs I had to kill I won't say) with an oil pressure gauge, oil temperature gauge and...one other gauge I cannot remember. Also put a really nice tape player in there, too.
How I loved that car, but boy, it took a pound of flesh out of me. I spent many hours on my back!
Great photo of kids being kids! Do they do that anymore? Also, somebody seems to have forgotten to tell them about racial tension/white privilege...
It was my first convertible and I bought it when I was stationed at Ft. Riley. I remember driving out in through the prairie on the night I bought it, with the top down and just marveled at the stars from horizon to horizon.
Not so grand during Kansas hail storms...
“If it has the electronics of my friend’s MGB, the wiper lever will turn on the radio...assuming it even starts!”
Oh, the horn button starts it, the light switch runs the wipers. It’s the Lucas way!
Had a TR-4A. The horn would beep and one headlight would flicker every time I hit a bump.
Nope.
TR’s were the sexiest Britts around in the late 60’s, early 70’s. The others where priced out of reach. I multiple MG’s and would have had a TR4 had I fit in it. I am 6.3... made for English guys around 5.11
I’m only 6’2” but don’t think I could have fit a TR4 either. The TR2 was the more traditional style and had more leg room. MGB, no way.
Electric? You gotta be kidding. Does England have the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles? I’ll bet those brits would much more prefer a stud performance gas engine, with a great exhaust system. But, I may be wrong.
I still prefer my 67 MGB roadster that I drove off the showroom floor in 1967 and have in my garage today.
Wonderful memories made in that little car!
We grew up together.
British and electric. Never a good mix. Loved MG's but their wiring was a disaster.
When I purchased my car, I was so taken with owning my own car that I didn't get three miles on the highway, and the engine died.
Dead out of gas...and that in the gas shortage of 1978!
I was such a fool. But how I enjoyed driving it around, top down.
Here is my best friend I went into the Navy with, both of us became jet mechanics. I went to an attack squadron on the East Coast, he went to Miramar on the West Coast. 
In the picture above, we went on a road trip up to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia after we got out of the Navy...:)
What a grand time that was...a grand time.
LOL...they might as well soak the car in gasoline every time you start it up, in preparation for the coming Bonfire of The Batteries!
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