MG Cyberster electric sports car review
It goes like a Lambo, feels like one and even performs like one - and it’s only 20 percent of the price but there’s a catch.
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The days of selling cheap, average little cars are well behind MG.
The Chinese brand’s latest addition is the Cyberster – a fully-electric convertible sports car with more power than some cars that cost three times as much … a task that’s even more impressive given this roadster costs about $120,000 drive-away.
It uses a 77kWh battery pack to send power to all four wheels, with a mind-blowing 375kW of power and 725Nm of torque – that’s enough to send this thing hurtling towards the horizon at epic pace.
The claim is 3.2 seconds from 0-100km/h – again, on par with cars that sit closer to the $500,000 mark … but on test I only managed 4.0sec. Only.
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And what about the design of this machine? Glorious, gorgeous, stunning … Those are some of the adjectives that punters uttered when I pulled up at the shops. Then I opened up the scissor doors to the occasional audible gasp.
They are a bit of a silly design though, because you have to wait for them to open up before you can get in or out, and be mindful of where you park – they have sensors that might stop them from opening fully, meaning a suave seat swivel mightn’t be so smooth.
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The interior is a spectacle in its own right, with four screens.
The main tablet-like control panel near the driver’s left knee manages a number of car settings. In front of the driver there are three more, with the leftmost panel in charge of media management duties (including plug-in Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), while the right-most panel has a heap of info drawn from connected services, including weather, car data, and it’s also where your reversing camera is.
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The problem with those two outer screens is that they’re obscured from view by the steering wheel. It’s a silly design, and means that if you want to use the in-built nav system, you’ll have to set up the middle screen so you can see the instructions there, alongside your digital speed readout.
Bigger drivers will likely be unhappy with the driving position, which is a bit too high up to feel properly low-slung and sporty.
That’s because there’s a battery pack under the body of the car.
Of course it’s frantically fast, especially in Super Sport mode, and there’s a launch control system that slingshots you with alarming pace. Sadly, the brakes – which incorporate regen braking to feed power back to the battery – aren’t confident enough, with a soft pedal feel and slower-than-desired responsiveness.
The steering is good, but not great. Certainly not like a Porsche, or even a BMW for that matter. All-wheel drive means the front rubber has two jobs to do (steer and power), and you can notice that at times.
I was really impressed with the ride character of this car in urban driving. Sydney traffic jams, stop-start arterial road driving, and rough highway stuff left me feeling this would be a spectacular Sunday driver, or even an efficient daily driver.
But ask any more of the chassis and it starts to showcase further compromise. At 1985kg, it weighs as much as some seven-seater SUVs, and it can’t hide that in corners or over bumps, when it can wallow and feel unbalanced and uncomfortable.
It doesn’t have an adaptive damper system so it always has a cushy ride, and that means the body control is simply not what it should be for an actual sports car. But as an all-electric two-seat alternative to something like an Audi A5 Cabriolet or Mercedes CLE Cabriolet, it could be a tempting choice.
The ownership promise is rather tempting, too – MG backs it’s cars with a benchmark-setting 10-year/250,000km unconditional warranty, and there is an identically lengthy capped-price servicing plan with intervals set at 12 months/25,000km, and an average cost of $503 per visit for maintenance, which is expensive for an EV. You get 10 years of roadside assistance, too.
MG CYBERSTER
PRICE: About $120,000 drive-away
MOTOR: Dual electric, 375kW/725Nm (GT), 77kWh battery
WARRANTY/SERVICING: 10 years/250,000km
SAFETY: Front and side airbags, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, exit warning,
auto emergency braking, speed alert, lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control
RANGE: 444-509km
LUGGAGE: 249 litres
SPARE: Repair kit
Originally published as MG Cyberster electric sports car review
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