There’s a big hip-pocket problem with the new Hyundai Inster EV

There’s something irrepressibly joyful about this new model from the Korean carmaker. That is, until you found out how much they’re charging for it.

Stephen Corby

The problem with being all-electric is that EVs are expensive – so much so that they ask us to redefine what terms like ‘affordable’ and ‘entry level’ mean.

3 min read

10 hours ago

The Weekend Australian Magazine

Style, performance, practicality and price are the factors one tends to ponder when looking at which car to buy, while “cuteness” – which seems to be the most obvious selling point of the tiny new Hyundai Inster EV – is not, or at least not for me.

The Inster, which would quite likely fit in Clive Palmer’s shirt pocket, seems to have been designed by someone who spends an inordinate amount of time making “awww” noises. With its “signature pixel lighting” it looks like a particularly ebullient robotic dog; it reminds me a little of the dog that lives in my house, which resembles a canine in only a distant way, being incapable of performing the functions of a proper dog – sleeping outside, ripping the throats out of intruders and barking in a frightening manner.

Daisy (yes, the name does say it all) is a dog, or at least a Cavoodle, chosen, as far as I can tell, on the basis of cuteness, which makes the Inster (which Hyundai laughably calls an “SUV”) a Carvoodle. I must admit I was further amused by the fact that some of the buttons inside the Inster’s admittedly very stylish, cool and surprisingly spacious cabin have a little drawing of an actual SUV – possibly borrowed off a Hyundai Santa Fe – on them.

It turns out that Hyundai is also offering a tougher-looking variant (complete with black bits of plastic, chunkier bumpers and an optional roof basket) called the Inster Cross, which is described as “embracing an off-road spirit”. In ye olden days, when SUVs were bigger than prams, I would have guessed that Bundaberg Rum was the off-road spirit, but today I think it might be a Skinny Bitch (or a vodka and soda as it’s known in polite circles).

I’m sorry for all the carping, but honestly, having a spent a whole day driving in and following several Hyundai Insters, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by just how tiddling this thing is (3.2m long, 1.6m wide and 1.57m tall). But the other thing you can’t help but notice is just how well this perky little EV works as a city car.

The Inster will put the kind of smile on your face that children produce when seeing its cute, Japanime exterior go past. Picture: Supplied

I’d spent the previous 10 days in a wheezing, revving, complaining and underpowered Mazda 2; the silent, surging effortlessness of the Inster felt like bliss by comparison. A car like this is not one that you’re going to often take on long journeys (although, again unlike a combustion car of this size, the Inster cruises easily at 110km/h on a freeway, with overtaking punch still in hand) so the fact that it’s an electric vehicle with a relatively small battery (42kWh in the Standard variant or 49kWh in the Extended Range) and a range of between 327km and 360km is not really an issue.

In terms of outputs, you’re only getting 71kW in the Standard or 84kW in the Extended Range (the “rugged” Inster Cross gets the bigger battery), but in either case you’re getting 147Nm, which is what gives this little non-buzzing buzz box such pleasing levels of punch. That and the fact that EVs have no gears and deliver all of their torque, effectively, all of the time.

Throw in the go-kart-like short wheelbase and light but reasonably entertaining steering, and on a twisting bit of road the Inster will put the kind of smile on your face that children produce when seeing its cute, Japanime exterior go past.

The problem with the Inster being all-electric, of course, is that EVs are expensive – so much so that they ask us to redefine what terms like “affordable” and “entry level” mean. In EV world, the $39,000 Hyundai is charging for the Standard model ($42,500 for the Extended Range and $45,000 for the Inster Cross) might sound reasonable, but in the real world it sounds like a whole lot of money for not very much car (and while the front and rear passenger space is very impressive, at least in terms of leg and head room, the width is so slim that it’s only a four seater, and the boot is more like a shoe).

The Inster boasts a very stylish, cool and surprisingly spacious cabin. Picture: Supplied

Buyers could, of course, look at various Chinese EVs for that kind of money – cars that are both bigger and offer a longer range, including the new Geely EX5 at $40,990. Or they could consider the Mazda 2 at $26,990, if they are less fussy than me.

None of those options look anywhere near as cute, nor feel as much fun to drive, or even just to sit in. As much as I abhor cuteness, as a red-blooded man, there’s just something irrepressibly joyful about the Hyundai Inster that will surely appeal to cashed-up Australians who already have several cars but would like one of these just to make parking easier in the inner city, in the kind of suburbs where Cavoodles are plentiful.

I don’t think Hyundai will sell a lot of Insters, or not unless they find a way to drop the price by $10K, but I do believe the few people who buy one will be awww-shucks happy with their choice.