Shanghai: MG goes Cyber again with X SUV featuring ‘pop-up eyes’

At the Shanghai Auto Show, currently the world’s biggest car exhibition, with over 1,000 exhibitors spread over 12 giant halls, more than a hundred world premieres are presented these days. One of the many remarkable is SAIC’s MG brand with a second car in the Cyber series after the Cyberster roadster: a boxy all-electric SUV reïntroducing ‘pop-up eyes’.

In twenty years, China has become the world’s first auto market, with the potential to sell more than 26 million cars in 2025, according to analysts from AlixPartners, more than the EU and the US combined. With 6,4 million cars exported in 2024 (+23%), it’s well on its way to reaching 30% of all worldwide exports in 2025.

This second vehicle in the MG Cyber line is the complete opposite of the Cyberstar with its boxy, Defender-like body style painted in matte-black and with ‘smoked’ A and B pillars and silver and black wheels. But the most remarkable feature is a comeback from the seventies: the pop-up eyes.

These are hidden slit-eyes that pop open when turned on, above the LED strip that spans the whole front of the car. 

From 1970s through 1990s

Pop-up headlights—also called retractable headlights—were most popular from the late 1970s through the 1990s. They became a design trend and were especially common on sports cars and some luxury or futuristic-styled vehicles.

Remember famous models like the Chevrolet Corvette (C4), Mazda RX-7, Toyota MR2, Porsche 944 and 928, Honda NSX, or the then-supercars like the Ferrari 308-328-348, Testarossa, or the Lamborghini Countach.

Are you curious about the specs of this new Cyber X? Well, there aren’t yet, as the vehicle remains a concept with no interior or further details on the SUV’s electric powertrain.

We do know that it uses the new-generation ‘E3’ dedicated electric platform from parent company SAIC Motor (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation). This modular EV platform supports everything from compact cars to luxury vehicles. 

It also uses so-called cell-to-body (CTB) construction, in which the battery structure contributes to the rigidity of the car’s body and helps reduce its overall weight.

The Cyber X is part of MG’s two-year plan, which projects eight new models in the following months. A larger 5-seater SUV and a compact electric sedan are also in the pipeline for 2025.  When to expect the Cyber X has not yet been revealed