MG CYBERSTER

Intriguing Chinese-built electric roadster joins the fleet

- MATT PRIOR

Autocar is playing host to an MG Cyberster for the next few months, and I'm to be its custodian.

This is a £60,000, battery-powered, two-seat roadster that goes from 0-62mph in 3.2sec and has electrically operating scissor doors. How far back in time would we have to travel before it would seem daft that a Chinese manufacturer might attempt to make a car as exotic and glamorous as this? I might suggest not very.

I thought comedian Denis Leary said this, but the internet tells me it was PJ O'Rourke, who wrote in 2010: “There are 1.3 billion people in China, and they all want a Buick.” Well, now there are 1.4 billion Chinese, and they don't all want a Buick; they want to make something better than a Buick. In 2010, China was already making more cars than any other country in the world; now it's three times as many as the world's next most productive country, but more Chinese cars are domestic brands, not joint ventures with Western car makers. That stage is over.

MG is unusual here, because while it is now a domestic brand, owned by SAIC, the Chinese state-owned maker, it still plays on its British heritage, both here and there, and it retains design and engineering offices in the UK.

In China, where you can buy a dual-motor Cyberster for £40,000, they even use an MGB roadster alongside it in adverts.