Hyundai Inster: First local drive of the sub-compact EV aimed at city dwellers

Everything tends to be shiny and new in the world of electric cars. Manufacturers fall over themselves to show off their newest platforms, their most progressive ideas and their latest battery systems. And then there’s the Hyundai Inster. It adopts a very different philosophy.

Its chassis can be traced back to the K1 platform that underpinned the 2018 Hyundai Santro, a city car for the Indian market. That was then recycled for the H2021 Hyundai Casper, a Korean-market urban scoot featuring a 1.0-litre internal combustion engine. From there, that chassis got an extra 180mm grafted into its wheelbase to create the K1 BEV platform that underpins the new electric Inster.

That’s why the Inster isn’t called the Ioniq 1, Hyundai reserving the Ioniq badge for is slick, dedicated E-GMP electric car platform. Instead the Inster is intended to fill a niche at the base of its range for people who want a fairly inexpensive urban EV, but who probably wouldn’t countenance walking into, say, an MG or a BYD dealer.

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The word ‘fairly’ is doing some heavy lifting in that previous sentence. Prices for the four-seat Inster start at $39,000 for the Standard Range model, step up to $42,500 for the Extended Range with its bigger battery pack, and top out at $45,000 for the Inster Cross model, also featuring the large battery array. That’s about what you’d pay for something like a BYD Atto 3, which is almost Toyota RAV4 in size but, again, Hyundai points to a different buyer demographic.

The Korean-built Inster, despite its stretched chassis, remains positively dinky in its dimensions. At 3825mm long, it’s a whole class shorter than something like a Kia EV3, which measures 4300mm min length, and at 1610mm in width, it’s notably narrower than its cousin, which is 1850mm wide. The exterior styling features liberal use of Hyundai’s EV-signature pixel lights and, from front to rear, there’s an awful lot of design going on. Its stance is faintly reminiscent of the outgoing Suzuki Ignis, and there’s an interesting colour palette that includes earthy greens and khakis, plus the odd Buttercream Yellow, which is the Inster launch colour.

The Standard Range opens proceedings with a 42kWh battery, which translates into power and torque figures of 71.1KW and147Nm respectively. It’ll scoot to 100km/h in 11.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 140km/h but never feels underpowered or unable to keep up with cut and thrust traffic. Driving range is rated at 327km.

From there, buyers have the option to step up to the Extended Range model which, like all Insters, sends drive to the front wheels, in this case drawing its 84.5kW and 147Nm from a larger 49kWh battery. This gets to 100km/h in 10.6 seconds and on to 150km/h, and ups the driving range to 360km.

At the top of the range is the rugged-looking Inster Cross, which features no additional ride height over the other models (a standard 144mm across the board) so don’t go getting any Dakar fantasies about this one. It’s mechanically identical to the Extended Range model, but a few customers will swap its glass roof for the tough-looking roof basket which aerodynamically duds your effective range, knocking it back fully 18.6 percent, from 360km to 293km. Think carefully about making that particular style statement.

Jump inside and the Inster is well finished and sensibly configured. There’s a particular emphasis on recyclable materials, with the Standard and Extended Range models featuring recycled PET for the seating, and the Inster Cross featuring a bio-artificial leather upholstery. The dash is dominated by a pair of 10.25-inch screens, one for the central touchscreen and the other for the instrument display. It’s not a great cabin if you suffer from pareidolia, in which case the two main dials and the yawning mouth of the wireless phone charger will endlessly remind you of Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars.

It feels narrow up front, an impression not helped by the jutting door handles, which impinge upon your leg. All-round visibility is great though, and the seats are reasonably supportive. Hyundai is adamant that there’s going to be no go-faster N version of the Inster, despite showing the wild Insteroid design study. It’s just not that sort of car.

We got to drive all three variants at the launch event, and they’re all inoffensive and pleasant to steer. That’s as tribute to Hyundai, as it’s incredibly easy to get small EVs like this very wrong when it comes to ride and handling. A limited program of local tuning has taken place, delivering a respectable measure of compliance in the Inster’s ride. Sensibly, Hyundai has resisted the urge to fit liquorice-strap tyres or program overly aggressive steering and throttle maps. Instead, it has concentrated on delivering a progressive feel to the controls and a feeling of security and surefootedness.

That’s not always easy in a narrow, tall vehicle, but the centre of gravity is helped by the battery pack sitting in the floor and the comparatively length wheelbase of the Inster. In fact, that wheelbase is not only 28mm longer than the next SUV in Hyundai’s hierarchy, the Venue, but also 13mm longer than the one above that, the Kona Electric. Include a sliding rear bench and that means that rear passengers in the Inster won’t be complaining about pinched legroom. Boot space is a different matter. With the rear seat slid back, there’s a measly 280 litres available, which grows to 351 litres when you slide the seats forward. Choose the Inster Cross and every one of the four seats can be folded forward to create a flat surface. Apparently the Korean arm even sells a custom mattress for turning your Inster Cross into an impromptu camper.

There’s plenty of charging options inside, including both USB-A and USB-C connections, and Vehicle To Load (V2L) functions are also fitted, allowing you to power devices such as laptops, scooters or camping equipment.

Refinement is a standout feature. While EVs are, by their nature, usually quiet in the powertrain department, this often has the effect of throwing your auditory focus onto other sources of noise, vibration and harshness. Hyundai has reinforced floor members, fitted hydro bushings for the electric motor mounts, optimised the steering damper, worked on aero around the headlight strip, fitted a full underbody cover, engineered a thicker reinforced luggage board and installed thicker door glass in a bid to create a genuinely refined cabin. It works too.

A pair of wheel-mounted paddles allows the driver to select the level of regenerative braking required which ranges from a cruisy coast to a somewhat lurch-prone amount of retardation that can feel a bit queasy without ever offering the full utility of a one-pedal solution. The ride quality on the Standard Range model, with its 15-inch wheels and 185/65 tyres is marginally better than that of the Extended Range and Inster Cross, both of which feature 17-inch alloys and 205/45 rubber.

Hyundai claims a consumption figure of 15.6kWh/100km for the Standard Range and 15.1kWh/100km for the two more powerful Inster variants, but we returned 12.5kWh/100km from the Inster Cross, which would eke range out beyond the published 360km figure.

On 10.5kW AC, the Inster Standard Range will charge from zero to 100 per cent in four hours, or 4hrs 35mins for the bigger batteries. On a public DC charger, it’ll accept up to 120kW speeds, and both will typically charge from 10 to 80% in around 30 minutes.

Buyers get a five-year warranty and a five-year connection via an included Optus SIM to Hyundai’s BlueLink connected car services. This offers not only the usual app with vehicle status, a find my car function, remote locking and unlocking and such like but also vehicle diagnostics, geofencing and valet functions, live weather info, auto collision notification and over-the-air updates to functionality like the native sat nav. If you prefer your phone to handle the nav duties, both wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard.

Safety gear includes seven airbags and the the Hyundai SmartSense suite. This includes functionality such as forward collision avoidance assist, intelligent speed limit assist and highway driving assist. You’ll need to step up to the Inster Cross if you want a blind-spot view monitor, front parking distance warning and a surround view monitor. The top model also features gear like heated and cooled front seats, ambient mood lighting, a heated steering wheel and an electrochromatic rear view mirror.

Even the standard model comes well equipped with refinements like LED headlights, navigation-based smart cruise control, rain-sensing wipers, a heat pump, V2L functionality, DAB radio and a battery heating system. Options you might consider include metallic or mica finish paint at $595 and matte premium paint at $1000. You’ll need to pony up for the Extended Range variant is you fancy the look of the stylish Khaki Brown and Newtro Beige houndstooth seating trim, the Standard Range netting you the more utilitarian Obsidian Black cloth trim.

Should you be particularly determined, it’s fairly easy to take potshots at the Inster’s asking price. Examine what you’re getting a little more carefully, and it’s clear that a lot of value has been built into what remains a small car. Traditionally, the Aussie public has been somewhat suspicious of well-appointed small cars, preferring instead a more expansive measure of metal for their money. Hyundai recognises this and knows the Inster will remain a bit of a niche taste, prioritising the promotion of Kona Electric instead.

Inster buyers will be getting a well engineered product, even if that engineering does have a longer and more involved genesis than many will ever care to appreciate. It’s been an odd route to get here, but the results are encouraging. The Inster delivers on so many fronts that it’s hard not to warm to it. We’re seeing a level of maturity in this section of the market that hasn’t been there before; a completeness and a depth of engineering that’s new to the sector. The Inster’s appeal may well be specialised, but that shouldn’t detract from the sum of its achievements.

Specifications