Our opinion on the Hyundai Inster
The Hyundai Inster is a very charming and lovable small car that’s so spacious it feels almost like a Tardis on wheels – the cartoonish proportions and boxy shape help achieve that, and turn heads in the process. Meanwhile, the effortlessly efficient powertrain highlights Hyundai’s expertise in the field of electric cars once again. However, the plastic-heavy interior is a letdown, and based on our time behind the wheel, we feel the similarly priced Renault 5 is a more refined and sophisticated car.
About the Hyundai Inster
Ever heard of Casper? Not the friendly ghost, the Hyundai Casper. It’s a small, quirky city car that the brand only sells in its home market of South Korea. We actually got to drive the boxy little bundle of fun back in 2022, when we first heard rumblings about an electric version that might come to Europe to rival the reborn Renault 5 and Volkswagen’s entry-level EV, which we’re still waiting for.
Nearly three years on, and rather than the Casper, the rather adorable Hyundai Inster has finally arrived in the UK. It joins the brand’s very successful line-up of electric cars, including two former Auto Express Car of the Year winners: the space-age Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the very capable Hyundai Kona Electric. There’s also the Hyundai Ioniq 6 saloon, and the huge Hyundai Ioniq 9 seven-seat SUV.
Ordering an Inster should be a straightforward process, because there are only three trim levels to choose from – 01, 02 and the 4×4-inspired Hyundai Inster Cross – and two battery sizes. The most basic model gets a 42kWh ‘Standard Range’ unit, while the rest feature a 49kWh ‘Long Range’ pack. However, it’s worth noting that the Inster is strictly a four-seater, like the Dacia Spring.
We’ve tried both the 42- and 49kWh versions of the Hyundai Inster, and pitched the mid-range Inster 02 against the BYD Dolphin Surf, a key rival in the small EV class. While the Inster has its charms, and we like its nifty sliding rear seats (fitted to 02 and Cross trims), which give it greater versatility, we felt at the time that the Inster was too expensive compared with its BYD rival. It should be noted that Hyundai has since introduced a discount incentive for the Inster and other models in its EV line-up (£3,750 on the Inster and £1,500 across the rest of the line-up), which runs until the end of March ’26. We’ve also included the Inster in our range test of small EVs to find out its efficiency on a road trip and what happens when you run the battery down.
Hyundai Inster prices and latest deals
If it wasn’t obvious, the Inster is Hyundai’s entry-level EV and is available from just under £24,000 (not including the brand’s EV discount incentive). That’s a little higher than Citroen e-C3, which is a previous Car of the Year award winner and now starts from just under £20k when the Government’s Electric Car Grant (ECG) is included. Meanwhile, its much funkier sister car, the Fiat Grande Panda EV, is priced from just under £21k.
