Could you be the energy behind the new MG?

Ask consumers to name the pace setters in the electric revolution and few people will mention the famous MG brand. But check out the sensational Cyberster Roadster concept and you’ll understand why MG’s electric plans should be taken very seriously. 

MG has been quietly re-inventing itself as the ’affordable electric car company’, and half of its targeted 30,000 sales in 2021 will be electric and SUV crossovers.The Cyberster Roadster concept is the most dramatic indication that MG intend returning to its roots as a maker of two seat sportscars, and they are investigating crowd funding as a way of helping to finance the Cyberster being developed into a production model.

Roots manoeuvre - Cyberster harks back to MG heritage

It is assessing creating a new sub brand called MG Cyber by raising £5.5 million by offering investors access to the car’s development process, including contributing towards decisions on colours, and exterior and exterior trim, as well as design of the car’s user interface.

If the Cyberster is some way off MG will definitely be revealing a new sporty coupe model, based on the E-Motion concept car later this year that could be in showrooms by 2022. And it will be affordable with prices starting around £30,000.​

It’s actually quite remarkable MG are still going at all after its collapse in 2005 with the loss of 6,000 jobs and the very real prospect of being left on the motoring scrapheap. The reality has been a slow but remarkable re-birth under the ownership of Chinese firm Shanghai Automotive, that is now firmly centred around MG becoming an all electric brand over the next few years.

E Motion coupe could be in showrooms by 2022

And the sales success of MG was one of the few positive stories of the UK car industry in 2020, with sales up 41 percent to nearly 18,500 and this year they plan to hit 30,000, despite the uncertainties over COVID-19. 

Since Shanghai Automotive took control in 2007 the famous British brand has been slowly rebuilt and last year sold nearly 300,000 cars worldwide, including the UK. 

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg as owners Shanghai Automotive plan to sell a million cars by 2024 - fittingly the 100th anniversary of MG. It is now a value for money brand that makes SUV crossovers, estates and superminis, and the days of the famous sports cars seemed just a memory.

Cars like the ZS EV have helped the MG revival in UK

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Salary sacrifice - your questions answered

MG’s Longbridge headquarters in Birmingham produced and sold nearly 200,000 cars and employed 6,000 only 20 years ago. In its heyday in the 1960s, Longbridge employed 26,000 people and was the biggest car plant in the UK. 

Today all that remains of the 450 acre site is the headquarters building, where 250 core engineers develop new MG models. Although the global design headquarters of MG is now also based in Marylebone, London.

It's clear we can't expect to see MG production return to the UK, but it is heartening to know that some of the creative spirit still comes from the UK. And if you want to put your hand in your pocket and invest in the new Cyberster, you could be helping too.

The Cyberster was designed in the UK