The Hyundai Inster enters the growing compact electric vehicle market, to target urban and budget-conscious buyers out of their petrol-powered hatchbacks.
Competing with models like the Citroen e-C3, Renault 5 and Vauxhall Frontera, the Inster is Hyundai’s strategic move to strengthen its position in the growing small EV segment and help double its electric vehicle sales in Europe.
Priced from £23,505, it sits above ultra-budget EVs like the Dacia Spring but offers more in terms of range, features, and overall refinement.
Ashley Andrew, Hyundai UK president, said: “Inster is not only our small EV SUV for the UK market but is also our first fully electrified city car, albeit with a range and fast charging abilities that provide customers with the confidence to embark upon longer journeys.
“Our retailer partners and their customers have already enjoyed a sneak preview on our Inster Roadshow and early feedback suggests that the combination of design, equipment and price point is already generating excitement in the showrooms.”
PCP deals start at £249 per month, which makes it cheaper than a petrol i20.
With a rugged appearance, the Inster straddles the compact car and SUV segments. It’s designed for urban manoeuvrability but also offers practicality and a grown-up driving experience.
Two powertrain options are available on the Inster. The first uses a 42kWh battery and a 97PS electric motor, giving a range (WLTP) of 203 miles.
A slightly larger 49kWh battery is paired with a 115PS motor, giving a range of up to 229 miles. These cost upwards of £25,055.
Rapid charging is supported at up to 73kW for the smaller battery and 85kW for the larger one. This means a 10%-80% charge can be completed in around 30 minutes. There’s also AC charging at up to 11kW.
Quick and direct steering gives the car a light and nimble feel, which make the Inster a great city car. It can thread its way through gaps and around obstacles with little effort.
The ride quality is good too. While a little firm over rutted and potholed roads, at higher speeds the Inster feels composed with impressive stability.
Most impressively, the Inster is really efficient. It’s quite ease to eke out five miles per kilowatt hour (mi/kWh) in urban driving – easily enough for a 240-mile range from the larger battery. Push harder and it’s a real struggle to see anything less than 4.0mi/kWh.
The Inster has a light and airy interior which makes the most of its flat floor and tall roof to maximise interior space. There are two colour option: black or beige. The latter gives a greater sensation of space.
Up front, the seats look like a bench arrangement with a central cupholder and armrest, but are independently adjustable. We found the driving position to offer adequate visibility and decent levels of comfort. The front seats and steering wheel are heated on the 02 grade.
The dashboard seems ‘old school’ in that it retains plenty of physical switchgear. There’s proper buttons for lots of features, including a full climate control panel.
All the touchpoints have a robust and high-end feel, with many components borrowed from other Hyundai models.
In the rear, there are two seats that can fold flat and slide independently of each other. With both seats in the foremost position – leaving no legroom for rear passengers – the boot offers 351 litres of space. Move them back and the boot shrinks to a still respectable 280 litres. The rear seats are accommodating although all passengers will have to get used to sitting in close proximity to one another.
Beneath the boot floor, additional storage is provided for the car’s charging cables. You can also fold the front passenger seat flat to fit items of around 2.0 metres in length.
Despite being a small city car, the Inster is packed with ‘big car’ technology. It gets the full array of driver assistance systems found further up the Hyundai range. This includes front, rear and cross-traffic collision avoidance, parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring and a reversing camera.
It also gets a pair of 10.3-inch displays – one in front of the driver and another in the centre of the dashboard, for infotainment.
For buyers that are nervous about range but don’t want to spend their life savings on a massive 2.5-tonne battery on wheels, the Inster is the ideal compact runaround that won’t break the bank.