Good things come in small packages

I like small cars. The first car I drove ‘officially’ on the road belonged to the driving school where I took my test. It was a Morris 1100. I’d previously driven tractors, Land Rovers and a Seddon truck on the farm in the small village where I was brought up. Consequently, I didn’t have any driving lessons and took my driving test on my 17th birthday….and passed. Result.

After that, I borrowed my mother’s Mini. One of them passed me the other day, and on closer inspection, I was surprised that anyone could actually get into it because it looked so small. Many moons ago, a mate of mine drove from Newcastle to Benidorm in one with 5 other lads. It must have been snug. The minimal amount of luggage was strapped to the roof.

But the original Mini (as opposed to the current MINI) started my love affair with small cars.

And they don’t get much smaller than the Hyundai Inster.

Inster size, range & charging times

It can only seat 4 people, which is no surprise as it’s only 1.6 metres wide, but it’s meant to spend most of its life in urban areas where it’ll probably carry one person for most of the time and possibly be fully loaded on the school run.

It’s also electric.

Two versions are available - standard and long range - although there’s not a massive difference in the figures. The standard battery churns out 96bhp while the larger one ups the ante to 113bhp. The 96bhp version hits 60mph in 11.7 seconds and can manage a range of 203 miles. Go for the bigger battery and your range climbs to 223 miles while the 0-60 sprint drops marginally to 10.6 seconds. The more powerful version is available with 17-inch wheels rather than 15-inch ones. Okay, they look better because they fill the wheel arches, but they also slice 6 miles off your potential range. A 10-80% charge takes around half an hour.

Price

Prices start at £23,505 (August ’25) for the entry-level 01 model with the smaller battery. Add around £1500 for the long-range model. Yes, it’s a boxy design, but I think it looks rather cute. The beauty is that the square-ish design means interior room is surprisingly decent. Four adults will be comfy. You can tumble the rear seats and the passenger seat forward if you need to carry a long or bulky load.

You’ll certainly recognise it in the dark due to the pixel rear lights and indicators. The round lights at the front look like a pair of eyes. It’s not a gimmick and works really well...distinctive. I like it.

Driving experience

I also like the way the Hyundai Inster goes. The ride is seriously supple because the suspension is quite soft. This is no surprise because Hyundai has set it up to deal with potholed suburban roads. The minor downside is that it tends to roll around slightly when cornering quickly, but it’s still good fun to punt about, and yes, you can throw it around corners or dive into spaces. Performance is more than adequate for the sort of roads where the Inter will earn its living, but it can also keep pace with traffic on the quicker stuff, although you’ll hammer your battery range if you travel too far at 70mph. Tapping the pedal to get from 0-30mph is brisk enough for urban driving. There are paddles behind the steering wheel which allow you to alter the level of brake regeneration….you can bring the car to a complete halt without pressing the brake pedal.

Interior

The interior is a strong point for the Hyundai Inster. It looks good in a bright and breezy fashion and feels as though it’ll take plenty of knocks. If you go for the 02 trim, the rear seats can slide backwards to give passengers a stack of legroom. Okay, the boot space just about vanishes, but it’s a handy trick to have.

The driver's display is neat and clear. Hyundai also offers something that I’d recommend. When you indicate left or right, an option is a clever bit of kit which, say you’re switching to the outside lane and indicate right, the right dial on the instrument cluster becomes a screen which shows you a camera blind spot display. Turn left and the speedo becomes a screen. Simple but really handy.

There’s loads of standard kit. The standard 10.25-inch central display works nicely …simple and clear to operate. There’s also a double row of buttons for heating and audio controls as well as making the TFT screen tramp through various menus for the sat nav, audio and programmable favourites. It allows you to easily stab buttons rather than trying to hit something on a screen.

There are other clever touches to the interior, like being able to install a seat-back tray so that rear passengers can prop up a laptop or rest a book.

Worth spending a little extra

I’d probably recommend that you go for the level 02 trim. It adds around three grand to the price, but that looks like decent value when it includes stuff like front parking sensors, heated steering wheel, heated front seats, LED front and rear lights, bigger alloys, the sliding seats I mentioned earlier, powered windows all-round, roof rails and rear privacy glass. It makes the Inster feel a tad more special, although the entry-level 01 trim is perfectly acceptable if you’re watching the pennies.

In conclusion

This is one of the best small electric cars around. It’s competitively priced, good to drive, well equipped, has loads of safety gizmos, comfy and with a decent range. It’s got peppy performance which will be more than adequate for suburban driving. Hyundai also has a great reputation for reliability, so you shouldn’t have any problems.

Keep an eye out for special offers. There are loads around at the moment following the government's electric scheme announcement. Many manufacturers are also providing their own twists on the scheme, so it’s a good idea to keep checking if anything is in the pipeline.

words: Graham Courtney
pictures: Hyundai

Hyundai Inster - A Little Gem