Cyberster gives MG wow factor

SA: WOULD HAVE STRUGGLED WITH JUST SUVS TO OFFER

- Jaco van der Merwe

The adage that "timing is everything" could not be more applicable to MG's recent return to South Africa. If the Chinese-owned iconic British marque's local re-entry was any sooner, it would have struggled to stand out with only SUVs to offer. This space is so saturated with models from the Far East that all of them are starting to look like copy-and-paste jobs from an SUV design app.

But the 101-year-old carmaker had an ace up its sleeve in the form of the MG Cyberster, the world's first all-electric, two-seater, soft-top sports car.

The R1.4-million niche ride is never going to be a volume seller stimulating the brand's cash flow.

That is what its ZS and HS SUVs are there for. What the Cyberster does bring to the table is the kind of wow factor that MG cars of old were renowned for long before its ill-fated second local stint from 2011 to 2016.

The Citizen Motoring can write books about the attention much more expensive exotic cars, we occasionally cruise around in, gets. Yet the admiration for the MG Cyberster clad in Flare Red paintwork we spent a week in was off the charts.

Whether the car was actually penned at holding company SAIC's Active Design in London, an important reference to the brand's proud British heritage, or in China where it is built, the designers did a great job.