MG design director Carl Gotham, leader of the brand’s 20-strong advanced design group based in London’s Marylebone, acknowledges the size growth but believes the car wears it well, “creating a completely new kind of roadster ready for a new generation of sports car drivers”.
He cites the Cyberster’s main aim as being to lead the design style of future MG models. MG will continue its concentration on SUV and estates, but this will not be its only sports car.
MG UK commercial director Guy Pigounakis says the company has already been “inundated” with requests from potential buyers and says MG’s British dealers (soon to number around 150) are equally enthusiastic.
Chasing volume is not the Cyberster’s main function, he insists. It will primarily be an image-builder though he “could imagine” UK volumes around 2000 units a year when demand settles.
Pigounakis cites great value for money and excellent new car distribution as important elements in MG’s success but reckons brand recognition is a “critical” part. And response to the cars from older buyers is “absolutely phenomenal”. He said: “It’s clear there’s a large and active group of buyers who remember the excitement and the promise of the MG name and have a huge amount of affection for it.”
MG’s UK sales have been booming for years, and in 2022 it exceeded 51,000 units, more than five times their level five years ago. Recent growth for MG across Europe has been even more spectacular: sales were below 1000 units in 2019, yet they are expected to hit 120,000 by the end of 2023.
Q&A with Carl Gotham, MG’s head of design
Carl Gotham trained in design at Coventry University in 1999, joined MG a decade later and worked in both interior and exterior design before being appointed to his present position in 2017, and setting up the Marylebone advanced studio in 2018. Its work, he says, has “all been building up to this.”
How did the Cyberster project start?