Hyundai is gearing up for an assault on the mainstream electric car market with the new Inster, priced from £23,495 – or £249 per month on PCP finance.
It's based on the Hyundai Casper, a diminutive city car that has so far been sold exclusively with a petrol engine in Korea. Its platform has been stretched by 230mm (with a 180mm of that growth in its wheelbase), improving both practicality and the available space for an underfloor battery pack.
The Inster measures 3.8m long, 1.6m wide and 1.6m tall, which positions it between the Dacia Spring and the Citroën ë-C3.
Despite the car's smaller footprint, Hyundai insiders are confident that the Inster is as practical as its five-seat rivals, thanks to its efficient packaging and configurable interior. Its wheelbase almost matches that of the larger Hyundai i20, for example, and its four seats are more versatile than those in traditional hatchbacks. Each can be folded completely flat and the two rear seats are also capable of sliding and reclining to open up more leg room or boot space as it’s needed.
The Inster will be offered with two mechanical configurations at launch. Entry-level cars get a 96bhp front-mounted motor that delivers a 0-62mph sprint time of 11.7sec and a top speed of 87mph. It’s paired with a 42kWh battery pack, which is claimed to deliver a range of 186 miles between charges. The flagship ‘long range’ Inster is boosted to 113bhp and 49kWh, taking its range to 217 miles and its top speed to 93mph, while reducing its 0-62mph time to 10.6sec.
Both versions use the nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry and all Insters get a heat pump and 85kW (DC) charging capabilities as standard.
Although those specifications place the Inster roughly on a par with its classmates, Hyundai believes that it will stand out for its interior connectivity and on-board technologies.
Inside, all versions get a pair of 10.25in digital displays (an instrument panel and an infotainment touchscreen), and you can use your smartphone as a ‘key’ to unlock and start the car.
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Tall because the batteries are under the floor?, plenty of tech inside for all ages, it looks nice inside and out,and the price isn't that out there, aimed at new drivers first car( lucky them) or the over fifty sector as a second car shopper, it looks well put together, it's your choice.
> "Affordable"> "City car"> "£22k"
Gonna have to knock at least £10k off to actually be an affordable little city car. Also why is it so tall?
On the face of it this is a much better proposition than the Dacia Spring. Yet it will cost 50% more, offer a longer range and higher performance which many people will not need... and it looks so damn ugly!
So my money is with the Dacia - assuming its price doesn't suddenly escalate as a result of the new Chinese import tarifs.