The Hyundai Inster enters the growing compact electric vehicle market, to focus on urban and budget-conscious buyers out of their petrol-powered hatchbacks.
Competing with models just like the Citroen e-C3, Renault 5 and Vauxhall Frontera, the Inster is Hyundai’s strategic move to strengthen its position within the growing small EV segment and help double its electric vehicle sales in Europe.
Priced from £23,505, it sits above ultra-budget EVs just like the Dacia Spring but offers more by way of range, features, and overall refinement.
Ashley Andrew, Hyundai UK president, said: “Inster shouldn’t be only our small EV SUV for the UK market but can be our first fully electrified city automotive, albeit with a spread and fast charging abilities that provide customers with the arrogance to embark upon longer journeys.
“Our retailer partners and their customers have already enjoyed a sneak preview on our Inster Roadshow and early feedback suggests that the mix of design, equipment and price point is already generating excitement within the showrooms.”
PCP deals start at £249 monthly, which makes it cheaper than a petroleum i20.
With a rugged appearance, the Inster straddles the compact automotive and SUV segments. It’s designed for urban manoeuvrability but in addition offers practicality and a grown-up driving experience.
Two powertrain options can be found on the Inster. The primary uses a 42kWh battery and a 97PS electric motor, giving a spread (WLTP) of 203 miles.
A rather larger 49kWh battery is paired with a 115PS motor, giving a spread of as much as 229 miles. These cost upwards of £25,055.
Rapid charging is supported at as much as 73kW for the smaller battery and 85kW for the larger one. This implies a ten%-80% charge will be accomplished in around half-hour. There’s also AC charging at as much as 11kW.
Quick and direct steering gives the automotive a light-weight and nimble feel, which make the Inster an important city automotive. It will probably thread its way through gaps and around obstacles with little effort.
The ride quality is nice too. While a little bit firm over rutted and potholed roads, at higher speeds the Inster feels composed with impressive stability.
Most impressively, the Inster is de facto efficient. It’s quite ease to eke out five miles per kilowatt hour (mi/kWh) in urban driving – easily enough for a 240-mile range from the larger battery. Push harder and it’s an actual struggle to see anything lower than 4.0mi/kWh.
The Inster has a light-weight and airy interior which makes probably the most of its flat floor and tall roof to maximise interior space. There are two color option: black or beige. The latter gives a greater sensation of space.
Up front, the seats appear to be a bench arrangement with a central cupholder and armrest, but are independently adjustable. We found the driving position to supply adequate visibility and decent levels of comfort. The front seats and steering wheel are heated on the 02 grade.
The dashboard seems ‘old skool’ in that it retains loads of physical switchgear. There’s proper buttons for a lot of features, including a full climate control panel.
All of the touchpoints have a sturdy and high-end feel, with many components borrowed from other Hyundai models.
Within the rear, there are two seats that may fold flat and slide independently of one another. With each seats within the foremost position – leaving no legroom for rear passengers – the boot offers 351 litres of space. Move them back and the boot shrinks to a still respectable 280 litres. The rear seats are accommodating although all passengers can have to get used to sitting in close proximity to 1 one other.
Beneath the boot floor, additional storage is provided for the automotive’s charging cables. You too can fold the front passenger seat flat to suit items of around 2.0 metres in length.
Despite being a small city automotive, the Inster is full of ‘big automotive’ technology. It gets the total array of driver assistance systems found further up the Hyundai range. This includes front, rear and cross-traffic collision avoidance, parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring and a reversing camera.
It also gets a pair of 10.3-inch displays – one in front of the motive force and one other within the centre of the dashboard, for infotainment.
For buyers which are nervous about range but don’t need to spend their life savings on an enormous 2.5-tonne battery on wheels, the Inster is the best compact runaround that won’t break the bank.
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
