In the market for an electric car? With no less than 51 brands offering an EV option, you’d genuinely be spoilt for choice. But none of the cars are what you’d call unique. Well, they most certainly aren’t when stacked up against the MG Cyberster.

Generally, most modern electric cars follow the same two basic formulas. On one end, you have the cars that are built to be Category A compliant, with manufacturers obsessing over eking every last kilometre out of their battery packs.

And on the opposite end are the EVs built for a new era of car enthusiasts. With their dual motors and close to four-digit torque figures, these are still every bit as practical and aero optimised as their pedestrian cousins. Just that there’s a sense of unhinged lunacy when you put your foot down.

The Cyberster happens to not fall into either category. Instead, it is truly a pioneering electric car, creating and then filling a previously unfilled niche. And it manages to do so in a convincing manner.

The Classic British Sports Car, Reborn

The Cyberster doesn’t seek to reinvent the wheel for the sake of it. It still retains the general layout and configuration of your traditional two-door sports car – the proportions and driving positions aren’t too different to a conventional combustion two-seater. It just so happens to lack an engine and a gearbox.

There are hints of classic MG roadsters in the front-end design of the Cyberster, albeit heavily reworked and modified for the 21^st century. It is a properly good-looking car, with MG managing to combine elegance and aggression in equal measure.

The rear end is a little less conventional. You’d find deeply sculpted panels dotted about the rear fascia, with an aggressively angled lightbar spanning the width of the car. Two arrow-shaped lights are responsible for warning those behind you that you are on the brakes. Your signal lights are chevron-shaped, and mounted on either side of the brake lights.

But this is no mere retro design – there are hints of futuristic touches throughout the car too. The most obvious being its scissor doors, which, I’ve been told, actually serve a practical purpose.

Driver-Focused Cabin

One thing that strikes you immediately about the Cyberster is just how well made it is. Especially when you compare it to the OG new era MGs that were launched here just a few years ago. There are no hard scratchy plastics anywhere in the cabin, with every surface trimmed in some kind of soft-touch material.

The leather on the seats and steering wheel feels great in the hand, and the red colouration in our test car further makes every journey feel like an occasion. It isn’t all that impractical too – there’s a decent amount of room between the seat backs and the rear firewall, allowing up to two backpacks to fit in said space fairly snugly.

There’s also a decently sized centre console, though that’s about all the usable storage you have in the cabin. Cabin space isn’t an issue here – even with the roof up, you’d still be able to get comfy. And there’s more good news too.

Where many Chinese cars falter in the UI/UX department, MG excels. You can tell a great deal of attention has been poured into the cluster, with crisp graphics and proper font standardisation through all of its sub-menus. That being said, the placement split infotainment screen is a little flawed, as the steering wheel gets in the way of either screen in normal operation.

Electrifying Drive. When You Want It To Be.

MG says the AWD version of the Cyberster has a combined output of 503 bhp. And there’s little reason to doubt their claims. When you really get on the throttle, the rear motor first provides the initial drive, before the front drive unit kicks in for further oomph.

This gives it an almost DCT-like sensation when you are driving, and the illusion can further be cemented when you activate the car’s engine sound synthesiser. 0 – 100km/h is accomplished in just 3.2 seconds, and it’d go on to do a top speed of 200km/h.

There are four selectable drive modes, though I found ‘Comfort’ to offer the best overall steering sensation. In this mode, the one-pedal drive works flawlessly, allowing you a wide margin of error on the throttle pedal to modulate the car to a standstill without using the friction brakes.

In ‘Super-Sport’, the suspension stiffens significantly, and the steering weights up considerably too. In this mode, both motors work together from a standstill to offer all of the performance all of the time, though it is a little too stiff and brutal to be enjoyable. This is a car you’d enjoy at seven-tenths, preferably on a cool evening with the roof down.

You Just Can’t Get Enough

The MG Cyberster is truly a special occasion car. I expected it to lack the refinement and polish of a more “grown-up” car. Let’s be honest here – this is a two-door convertible. I expected it to be crashy, and harsh.

And yet it doesn’t. The Cyberster is smooth, refined, and actually rides very well all things considered. It also has a very usable 400+ kilometres of real-world range, and a lot of cargo space for your daily needs.

It may be a special occasion car, but MG has nailed the overall package to the point that it makes every commute a special occasion. You simply can’t get enough of the MG Cyberster!

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