FETTERCAIRN, Scotland -- How does an automaker plan sales volumes and pricing strategy when a new model sits "in a class of one”?
That’s the issue MG Motor faced when launching the Cyberster electric two-seat roadster, which the SAIC brand says is the first of its kind in the world.
"Normally it’s easy to work out where we are strong and where we are weak among competitors,” David Allison, head of product and planning for MG U.K., the brand’s biggest European market, told Automotive News Europe at a launch event for the car here. "With this one, you can’t do it like that.”
The U.K. is the first export market for the Chinese-built Cyberster, with deliveries set to start in August. Unusually for a new EV launch, MG has almost kept to its schedule – in 2022 the company said it was aiming for deliveries in the first half of 2024. The car is already on sale in China.
The Cyberster returns the storied MG brand to the sports car market 14 years after it ceased production of its last two-seater, the TF. The market has shrunk significantly since then, with Mazda MX5 the currently the only competitor from mainstream automakers, with a starting price of about €33,000 ($35,000) in Germany. Ford has yet to price its new convertible version of the Mustang. Both are gasoline powered.
The Cyberster costs almost double the Mazda at 54,995 pounds ($69,500) in the U.K. for the single-motor rear-wheel-drive Trophy version or 59,995 pounds for the dual-motor GT. Both come with the same 77-kilowatt-hour battery with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry. A cheaper version sold in China with a smaller 64-kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery is not coming to Europe.
The premium-level pricing means that the Cyberster’s closest competitor in Europe is the gasoline-powered BMW Z4, which starts from 44,540 pounds. But the performance of the MG brings it line with the 57,565-pound Z4 M40i version. Toyota also sells the GR Supra Coupe, a sibling model to the Z4, in Europe, at more than €57,000 in Germany.
Porsche, Lotus, Alpine plan EV convertibles
MG will not have this market to itself for long. Porsche is planning a electric version of the Boxster two-seater, potentially unveiled as early as next year. Lotus is also developing an EV roadster internally known as Type 135 due in 2027, while Alpine and the U.K.'s Caterham are similarly plotting EV sports cars.
The single-motor Cyberster has an output of 335 hp – the same as the highest-power Z4 – and can accelerate from 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) in 5.0 seconds. The dual-motor increases power to 510 hp and has a 0-100 kph time of 3.2 seconds compared with 4.5 seconds for the Z4 M40i.
MG plans to build the Cyberster to order for U.K. customers to maintain pricing and avoid discounting. "It won’t be pushed, I don’t want to carry stock,” Allison said. "If we sell 1,200-1,500 a year, we’ll be doing a really good job.”
In the first five months of this year, BMW sold 415 Z4s in the U.K., while Mazda sold 659 MX-5s, according to figures from Dataforce.
U.K. seen as largest market
The U.K. is likely to be the biggest market for the Cyberster in Europe, Allison said.
So far, the U.K. hasn’t followed the European Union in proposing additional tariffs on Chinese EVs, which as proposed would increase duties to 48 percent of the wholesale price for MG electric cars from July 4, up from 10 percent now.
MG has not announced Cyberster pricing for European markets, as the company awaits a final EU decision on the tariffs.
Sports cars are a difficult business case because the dwindling market means it can be uneconomical to develop a standalone platform. That’s why BMW partnered with Toyota on the Z4/Supra and Fiat went to Mazda for the now-discontinued 124 roadster.
MG, however, has built the Cyberster on the same electric modular scalable platform (MSP) that underpins the MG4 electric hatchback and forthcoming models including the replacement for the MG ZS electric small SUV.
MG said the battery pack at 110-mm high is one the slimmest on the market, allowing the driver to sit relatively low, as befits a sports car. The seating position still feels relatively high, however, as noted by a number of testers.
New pricing level for MG
While the price takes the Cyberster away from MG’s traditional position as a maker of budget sports cars, the model is generously equipped. Standard on all models are heated electric seats, heated steering wheel, a 360-degree parking camera, MG Pilot ADAS including adaptive cruise control, and electrically operated scissor doors.
In Europe upwardly opening doors are normally the preserve of supercars, but in China they can be found in even relatively mainstream cars, for example the Aion Hyper GT midsize sedan, a Tesla Model 3 rival.
The Cyberster was created by SAIC advanced design studio in London. During the design phase the studio displayed a model split down the middle with the Cyberster concept comprising one half and an MGB on the other.
The MGB is MG’s most famous and longest-running roadster, in production from 1962-1980, but the company has avoided copying too directly from the original. Instead, there more general hints to its shape, including the long hood. "The shape is very un-EV like; it’s more about emotional engagement,” Allison said.
The hope is that having a sports car again at the top of the MG lineup will drive customers to showrooms. It also sets a new ceiling for pricing. "It allows us to bring in products in the middle, giving us the opportunity to move up the price range,” Allison said.
Dealers asked to upgrade
Dealers wanting to stock the car must bring their showrooms up to a minimum level, he said. "A car like that puts demand on the network to invest in the showroom,” Allison said. About half of MG’s 150 dealers in the U.K. will stock the car, he added.
Certain aspects of the Cyberster have been upgraded for European sales, including the addition of a "one-pedal mode” that increases energy recovery off-throttle, better functionality for the four screens, and a wind baffle between the seats to make roof-down driving more comfortable.
The additions, carried out by SAIC engineers in the U.K., also include new sounds for the artificial noise generator from Bose, one mimicking a gasoline engine and another called "electroinduction.”
They replace the noise created for Chinese models, which was judged incompatible with European tastes. "It was more like a piano noise,” Allison said. "Ours is a little more refined.”
