A short while ago automaker MG revealed its first electric vehicle concept — because you can’t be a car manufacturer in 2021 and not be working on an EV. Called the Cyberster, because they used up all their budget on design and had nothing left over for the name, MG’s concept EV might become a reality. But that rather depends on the company’s fans.

Making a better MG

You see, it’s not enough that the Cyberster looks the way it does (all sleek and predatory), with a projected range of 800km per charge, the ability to go from zero to 100km/h in less than three seconds and with dedicated 5G connectivity built in. Apparently that’s not enough to get the vehicle from concept to production.

No, if you want a Cyberster of your very own then you need to invest in it. More or less. The company announced, at the Shanghai Motor Show, a new initiative called MG CyberCUBE. This is something the auto-maker calls “…the world’s first auto co-creation platform”, and involves regular folks investing in ideas. If there are enough investments, something moves from concept to production. If there aren’t… well, potential investors get their money back.

MG says that, for the Cyberster specifically, “The target quantity of crowd-funding is 5000 shares (1 share equals to 1,000 RMB).” Which might sound a little reasonable put this way but it works out to around R11.2 million. That’s… not a small investment.

Still, if you have that sort of money lying around and want an aggressive-looking electric MG in your garage, you’ve got until 31 July this year to get your money in. You only actually need R2,400 (1,000 RMB) to start with, but you’ve got to come up with the rest if the project actually takes off.