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Pros: good range, reasonably quick, striking looks, affordable
Cons: four-seater only, narrow cabin, occasionally lumpy ride
Hyundai Inster Design
The blocky Hyundai Inster is an eye-catching mix of round flourishes, such as the lower front lamp units and those details in the rear bumpers, some crossover flavours – namely, silver skid plates on both bumpers, roof rails on top and then plastic body cladding around the bottom – and, finally, Hyundai’s current signature electric ‘look’ of pixels. These are most notable for the broad light strip on the Inster’s tailgate, as well as the upper lamps on the car’s nose. With its unusual shape in profile, coming from the Korean-market Casper model on which the Inster is based, it adds up to a distinctive car aesthetically. It is, though, a narrow and tall body, so it can look a bit ungainly when viewed from some angles.
Hyundai Inster Interior
The narrow body translates into an interior which is a mix of the good and bad. Certainly, if you’re small or thin (or both), then you’ll find no issues at all with the Inster’s cabin. But those of a more solid disposition might find themselves crammed up against the driver’s door when sitting behind the wheel. Further, because the Inster is a budget product, there are plenty of materials in the passenger compartment which are clearly built down to a low cost.
That said, if you avoid the odd beige-and-chocolate dashboard colour combo, this is an interior with plenty of charm. The seats are comfortable, although there are only four of them due to the Hyundai’s restricted width, and they can be trimmed in an attractive houndstooth cloth fabric, while we also love the quirky cupholders integrated into the front bench. There’s plenty of switchgear on the fascia for intuitive operation of some properly ‘big-car’ equipment in the Inster, leg- and headroom in the rear of the cabin are generous enough that two tall adults can sit back there in comfort, and the boot measures 280 litres as a minimum. That can be increased to a more useful 351 litres if you slide the rear seats fully forwards, while up to 1,059 litres can be liberated by folding the back-row chairs away completely.
Hyundai Inster Performance & Drive
Hyundai offers two power outputs and two battery sizes for the Inster, beginning with the 42kWh battery and 97hp motor in the entry-level model. We think the Long Range will be a better bet for most, however, as it increases power to 115hp and the battery size to 49kWh, although peak torque is identical on both models at 146Nm. The Long Range is about a second quicker to 100km/h from rest (running the sprint in 10.6 seconds), but more importantly it increases the driving range from around 300km to a very impressive (for this class of EV) 369km.
To drive, the Inster is perfectly sweet, with great visibility out, well-weighted controls and its compact footprint all serving to make it easy to place on the road. It’s also adequately nippy in and around town, and up to 80km/h too, although performance does start to tail off a bit above there – so joining motorways needs a little more forward planning on the driver’s part. As it’s a narrow vehicle and tall, the handling isn’t brilliant, but it’s also not bad and the Inster is more than capable in this department considering it is a city car at heart. More importantly, both the ride and refinement are likeable, if not flawless – there are times the basic suspension of the Hyundai struggles to deals with lumps and bumps in the road with the greatest of grace, but most of the time it is comfortable and accommodating to travel in.
Hyundai Inster Pricing
The Inster 42kWh model is sold in a specification called Signature for €18,995. That makes it considerably more affordable than the most basic i10 petrol city car (from €21,545), and even the 49kWh Long Range – which comes in a more generous Elegance trim – is only €21,995. Every model comes with heated front seats and a steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, air conditioning, keyless entry and go, rear parking sensors with a reversing camera, and twin 10.25-inch digital displays with nav-enabled infotainment plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, among more.
The 49kWh Elegance adds luxuries like 17-inch alloys (15s on the base car), the sliding and reclining rear seats, full projection LED headlights, front parking sensors to go with the rears, and a wireless smartphone charging pad too – so it’s really well worth having.
Carzone Verdict
The world has been crying out for more interesting, affordable EVs, and thankfully Hyundai has served us up a little gem here with the Inster. It’s by no means perfect in every department, but it has more than enough character and ability about it to serve customers well as an amenable electric city car. There’s plenty of range from the 49kWh model, though, meaning occasional trips out of town shouldn’t be a stress, and apart from the sheer magnetism of the rival Renault 5 E-Tech, it’s hard to see what obstacles there are in the way of the cheerful Hyundai Inster’s path to showroom success.