The Morris Garages brand of British sports car has been through the wringer in its lifetime. Having built iconic roadsters like the TC, B, and Midget, the company was once a paragon of the sports car market. The thread connecting MG to EV has taken a bit of a detour by way of its current Chinese ownership. If you go into an MG dealership these days, you’re far more likely to walk out with an electric SUV than a sporty car. The company hopes to change that by introducing the production version of its 2017 E-Motion concept, shown above, later this year.
MG has been working on an ambitious growth strategy recently, which aims to get the company up to a million unit sales in 2024. MG was founded in 1924, which means this goal is important to the company as it looks to rekindle some of the greatness it once had for its centenary anniversary year. In addition to launching a compact electric super-mini for quantity sales in Europe, this luxury electric sports coupe will serve as the brand’s halo to get people excited about the MG name again.
The new electric sports car doesn’t have a name yet, but it will be a two-door 2+2 layout sports coupe as previewed by the E-Motion concept. Back in 2017 MG product planning boss Zhang Liang from parent company SAIC told Autocar Magazine that the concept would make its way to production if public reaction was positive. It seems that is the case. Obviously no concept ever makes it to production without design elements changing, but I’ll be damned if the E-Motion doesn’t look ready for the street as it sits.
There’s no getting around that the concept looks very Jaguar F-Type in shape, perhaps with a little bit of Aston DBS for flavor. Is the MG brand trying to cling to a little bit of Britishness in order to appeal to its history, or are these just outright design element copies? Either way, I kind of like it. It’s neat. The concept had butterfly doors, but those aren’t likely to make it to production. Especially at the low price MG seems to be aiming for.
Initial reports regarding the car seem to indicate that MG is looking to launch the sports car for an incredibly reasonable 30,000 British Pounds. At current exchange rates, that’s about $40,000. I’m sure there will be options for more speed and more range, and you can’t get both of those at the reported base price, but the upmarket versions of the sports coupe are allegedly going to be aiming for a sub-4 second 0-60 time and as much as 300 miles of range.
Honestly, for my purposes, I’d be perfectly happy with a base model rear wheel drive example with a 0-60 time around 5 seconds and about 150 miles of range. That would be great! MG already delivers 163 miles of range from the 44.5 kWh battery in its ZS electric SUV, and that costs about $34,000.
A few months ago MG unveiled some renderings of a two-seat roadster it’s workshopping called the Cyberster. I hate the name, but I’m genuinely very interested in this car. Can this electric machine bring back the joy of driving that the MGB once provided to hundreds of thousands of buyers? I will remain cautiously optimistic until I get the opportunity to drive one.