7:57 am, April 18, 2023
MG’s new Cyberster sports car could be sold to customers in a ‘slightly different’ way to existing cars from the brand.
Guy Pigounakis, MG’s UK commercial director, admitted that the brand has been looking at selling the high-performance sports car in an agency-style manner – but nothing has been set in stone.
The MG director said he is a staunch supporter of the ‘traditional’ car dealer network and believes this is a large reason for the brand’s success in the UK.
MG revealed pictures of its new electric sports car yesterday and said the Cyberster will be coming to the UK next year.
It is the first MG-badged sports car in more than a decade, following a rich heritage that included the MG Midget, MGB and MG TF.
The Chinese-owned brand unveiled the Cyberster at the Shanghai auto show and said it will be available with a 309bhp single motor set-up and a 536bhp twin-motor option.
The car could be the first affordable electric sports car in a market dominated by luxury performance vehicles like the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT.
Speaking about the forthcoming sports car launch at the recent Car Dealer Live conference, Pigounakis said MG was ‘unashamedly committed’ to the ‘traditional dealer model’.
However, he added: ‘I can’t sit here and say we will never look at an alternative distribution model.
‘We will be building some high performance, very exciting products which will be launching in the next 12 to 18 months.
‘Perhaps, we will look at distributing these exotic sports cars in a slightly different way, but it will be more along the lines of the Polestar model rather than it would be selling direct to a customer and delivering direct to a customer’s door.
‘The dealer will still be a central part of that transaction.’
The ‘Polestar model’ has seen the manufacturer partner with car dealers who hand over cars sold on the manufacturer’s website while still being able to sell directly from their showrooms.
In a car manufacturer panel session at Car Dealer Live, Pigounakis spoke alongside Polestar’s Jonathan Goodman and Suzuki’s Dale Wyatt. The full session can be viewed with a replay ticket available on the Car Dealer Live website.
Margin grab
In the panel session, Pigounakis labelled agency sales as a ‘margin grab’ and said he thinks most will fail.
He added: ‘We are unashamedly committed to what we describe as a traditional dealer model of distribution and, to be perfectly honest, I would put a huge amount of the growth that we have had over the last couple of years down to the fact we have partnered with the right dealers with a traditional dealer model in the right locations.
‘We have no plans whatsoever to change that strategy going forward.
‘The online journey is very important as customers are coming into our showrooms knowing what they want and broadly how much they are going to pay for it, but when it comes to bricks and mortar and interacting with customers I firmly believe there is a long future for the traditional model.’
MG sold more than 50,000 cars in the UK last year and now has 155 dealers. It added 12 last year and is in the top 10 of brands for largest dealer networks.
Speaking about the Cyberster, Carl Gotham, advanced design director of the company’s Marylebone design studio in London, said: ‘Our intention was to create a completely new roadster ready for a new generation of sports car drivers and which opens a bold and compelling new chapter for MG.
‘The focus for Cyberster was for the design to be respectful of the brand’s illustrious past and to bring back that sporting bloodline, while also being absolutely clear that it should be modern and forward-facing like the MG of today, completely in-tune with the rapid transition to electric vehicles.’
The sports car model will follow in the footsteps of the brand’s successful electric car range, currently being spearheaded by the popular MG4.
