Rise of the Beast

Somewhere between bold and bonkers, the Cyberster is the MG nobody expected or asked for. An inspired leap into wild new territory... or just confusing?

- Ben Whitworth

THIS IS HARD TO BELIEVE. FOR A CAR that seemed like a joke or dreadful misunderstanding when it was first announced, the MG Cyberster electric roadster is making a remarkably good job of blitzing the B974, the Old Military Road in the southern Cairngorms.

An electric roadster from MG? Priced at more than £50,000 (Rs 54 lakh)? An electric roadster that seems to be named after a half-remembered Transformers character?

Park your thoughts about the sensible combustion and electric cars that make up the bulk of Chinese-owned MG’s current line-up and, instead, focus on the excellent MG 4 electric hot hatch and the XPower version that did not quite hit the spot, but showed some ambition. Viewed through that prism and bearing in mind MG’s desire to mark 100 years of MG-badged cars, some of them sporty roadsters, it, perhaps, just about makes sense.

The Polestar 6, next-gen Porsche Boxster, and BMW Z4 are still a few years off and the new Tesla Roadster seems to be a permanent Musk pipe dream. And when those rivals do whirr into showrooms, odds on they will be significantly more expensive than the MG.

That it should exist at all is weird enough, especially given other mainstream manufacturers’ reluctance to put electric two-seaters into production. That it is really good fun to drive is another level of unexpected.

A unique car deserves a special setting. The Cairngorm mountains are sometimes clogged with bikes, caravans, and motor homes; they are sometimes chilly, damp, and breezy and sometimes they are all those things. But today they are deserted and basking in 25° Celsius summer sunshine beneath big blue skies punctuated with candyfloss clouds. This should be a noexcuses opportunity for the Cyberster to shine: if it cannot be a pleasure to drive in weather this good, on roads this tempting, then it falls well short.