MG Cyberster to bring scissor doors

The MG Cyberster is inching nearer to production and so its creators have started drip-feeding the industry glimpses and teasers of the finished product, which is widely expected to launch globally either next year or in 2024.

An all-electric two-seater convertible sports car, the MG Cyberster was previewed via the 2021 MG Cyberster Concept that debuted officially in April last year.

In a new promotional and design video posted to MG’s Chinese website, brand executives and designers have now shown off some of the production Cyberster’s key design cues, including its fabric roof, driver-focused interior, aggressive alloy wheel design and rear lighting signature.

All these things are largely par for the course with a modern sports car, but the headline acts are the scissor doors (as seen on supercars like a V12 Lamborghini) and a Tesla-style steering yoke.

We’re not convinced the latter feature will make it through the Australian Design Rule certification process but the former will undoubtedly add a truckload of extra drama and sex appeal to MG’s first sports car since the MG TF produced between 1995 and 2011.

Predictably. the overall design has been toned down in comparison with the concept, but it’s nice to see MG is still trying to create something genuinely eye-catching.

Most of the changes between the concept and production cars (so far) boil down to subtlety and road-compliance; the wheels are smaller (but still big), the headlights are now actually headlights and not just rings of LEDs, the rear lighting signature isn’t as extreme and the front bumper design seems to have been reigned in with a more traditional layout of intakes.

What we can see of the interior, however, is much more in line with the concept, including its red and white colour scheme, aggressive sports seats, segmented driver and passenger zones, digital dash and of course that steering yolk.

There’s been no new update on the Cyberster’s mechanical hardware, however, a set of red Brembo brake callipers can be spotted poking out from behind the bladed alloys.

British executives promised earlier this year that the Cyberster would revive and continue MG’s heritage of affordable sports car-making, suggesting the concept’s sub-3.0-sec 0-100km/h time and 800km range may be in doubt for the early version, although there’s nothing to suggest a supercar-scaring flagship won’t eventuate at some stage.

If we had to take a guess, we’d expect the base Cyberster to occupy a similar market sector to that of the Toyota Supra and Nissan Z; that is a sub-$80,000 pricetag and a circa 4.0 to 5.0sec 0-100km/h time… depending of course on the powertrain.

An entry-level version could also dip below the $60,000 mark and make life more difficult for established internal combustion sports car favourites like the Subaru BRZ and Mazda MX-5.

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