This is the production MG Cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

this is the production mg cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

MG Cyberster

This is the full-production MG Cyberster, a pushback to the notion that all EVs need to be hatchbacks and crossovers. It’s not just a roadster. It’s a roadster with powered scissor doors. And four cockpit screens. Oh, hope they haven’t over-complicated it.

this is the production mg cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

MG Cyberster

MG used the Geneva Motor Show to reveal the Cyberster in fully baked form. Specs are these: 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds, power 510bhp, battery 77kWh, WLTP range 277 miles.

That’s for a two-motor four-wheel driver. There will also be a rear-drive version, good for 0-62 in 5.2 seconds, which would sound reasonably nippy if you hadn’t heard about the twin-motor one.

Prices will be revealed in late March for a summer launch. Clearly, with that power and those doors, this isn’t an electric MX-5 rival. Or indeed a simple modern-day MGB. We expect just under £60k for the single-motor.

this is the production mg cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

MG Cyberster

MG is leaning into the British heritage, flashing up MGB photos in the launch event and referring to the fact that MG is – like the Geneva show – hitting its centenary this year.

To be fair, even though the company is now owned by the Chinese State, the Cyberster’s initial design concept was sketched out by a team led by a Briton, Carl Gotham, in their studio on London’s Marylebone Road. That’s just a couple of miles from BBC Top Gear’s nerve centre.

this is the production mg cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

MG Cyberster

I asked David Allison, MG UK’s head of product and planning, whether buyers even know about the fact MG is Chinese now. “Not really,” he said.

this is the production mg cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

MG Cyberster

So do they care about the heritage of the MG name? “I think it matters quite a bit. The Cyberster turns that switch. In China no-one cares about car culture. But we had the Cyberster at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and several of the senior management flew over and immediately saw the value of it. The Cyberster is a sweet thing to do off that heritage. You only get one centenary.”

The Cyberster’s cabin uses a triple wraparound driver’s screen, plus a console one for climate and entertainment.

The roof is a simple powered fabric job. It drops in 10 seconds and doesn’t take up any boot space.

But because the doors are powered, complication spirals. Each one has four sets of buttons to activate it depending on whether you find yourself in or out of the car and whether you’d need to reach up or down. What was wrong with a pull-push handle again?

this is the production mg cyberster, complete with powered scissor doors and 510bhp

MG Cyberster

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