I’ve been fascinated with the Hyundai Inster EV ever since it was called the Casper and unveiled in Korea a couple of years back. It’s a friendly, yet utilitarian-looking thing that’s slightly bigger than a kei car and seemingly designed for usability first. This meant that the moment a test car became available nearby, I had to spring for the keys. While this car isn’t yet planned for the United States, it’s the kind of small-yet-capable EV some of you keep saying you want. I also think this one could be priced just affordably enough to be interesting to a certain subset of buyers.
Hyundai’s just started to roll the Insters out at Finnish dealerships, where it must do battle with a bunch of other small sub-30k-euro EV hatchbacks that seem to be hitting the market near simultaneously. For someone considering to lease or buy a commuter car or a second car in this price range, there’s currently the choice of the new Fiat (Grande) Panda, the Renault R5 E-Tech, the Citroën ë-C3 and its slightly stretched crossover sibling the Opel Frontera, and the Inster, which is available with a choice of two slightly different powertrains.
The available battery packs are 42kWh and 49kWh, which aren’t spaced that far apart, and power output is 97hp and 115hp, respectively. Even the “fully loaded” cars slot in under 30k euro in this country, but the basic 42kWh, 26k euro version is still well equipped, sadly missing out on V2L charging.
This bone white Inster is a dealership demo from the next town over, handily available as I took my Peugeot EV to get a tire change next door. I’ve had a Peugeot e-2008 for a couple of years now as a family car, and thanks to a very dynamic marketing campaign, they were briefly available for a similar amount of money as the Inster and its competitors now are.
What The Little Inster Is Like
The Inster is at least a size smaller than my car, but it’s certainly not too tight if you come in from a Peugeot e-208, the hatchback sibling of my longer crossover. At 12.5 feet long and just 5.25 feet wide, it’s a little bigger than a Kei car and smaller than an ordinary commuter hatch. In Korea, the Casper is available with a one-liter, three-cylinder gasoline engine, but no ICE-powered versions are exported to Europe.
Behind the wheel, the Inster feels familiar to anyone who’s driven an Ioniq 5 or a Kona recently, just a lot narrower. It’s got the same gauge graphics as other Hyundais, a similar center display, too, and drive direction is engaged from a similar steering column twist knob as on the Ioniq 5. To save space, the cabin does away with the center console and armrest: it’s just a split bench seat with cupholders formed in the middle.
The HVAC controls and associated buttons are all housed in an android face-shaped pod that almost looks like an aftermarket A/C unit, especially in these press shots with the lightly colored interior. The interior is designed to look special enough not to be mistaken for a car you’d borrow from a car-sharing service like Car2Go, something the Renault Zoe couldn’t really avoid, especially in its earliest form.
As a six-foot tall driver, I had the front seat back enough to sit slightly behind the B-pillar, but it’s not impossible to sit “behind yourself” with the seat adjusted to your needs if you’re me: the Inster EV in European specification has a longer wheelbase than the Korean-market, ICE powered Casper. This is also why this otherwise somewhat Fiat Panda Mk2-sized car is noticeably longer than the Fiat. At 3000 lbs, it’s also a lot heavier.
The doors open wide and the rear seat is easy to access, something to consider if the Inster would need to do family car duty instead of hauling just a laptop bag around. A few weeks back at the showroom, I happened to try the rear seat for size at the same time as a burly guy, and accommodation was passable, especially for a car of this class. The trunk isn’t as big, as the car seems to end right after the rear tires, but I could probably fold our kid’s buggy in there, and in the fully loaded “IN” spec car you can slide and adjust the rear seat to create more space where needed.
How It Drives
At least with the more powerful 49kWh/115hp drivetrain, the Inster has decent pickup thanks to the instant electric torque we’ve come to expect. There are four drive modes, from Normal to Eco and Sport and Snow, and with a quick sampling, the Eco mode retains enough oomph to not make the Inster feel neutered. The Sport mode makes throttle response more eager, but it’s down to the driver to decide which suits their driving style the best.
I did a short stint on the open road, which was particularly windy today, and it’s probably down to the low center of gravity and 3000-pound weight that the tall and narrow Inster didn’t sway as much in crosswinds as I expected, but felt sure-footed. Compared to my well-insulated Peugeot, it was louder at 55mph, but that’s a characteristic I’ve noticed with my previous Korean EVs. I would even expect the Inster to be quieter than the old-shape Kona I ran for a few years, as the road noise was mostly from the wind instead of the tire roar typical to the Kona.
Given it’s designed for an urban environment first and foremost, I also needed to do a quick detour through town. On cobblestones, the Inster’s 15-inch tires seemed to find enough faults to transmit some to my backbone, but no squeaks emerged. Visibility and maneuverability in town is great, helped by the way the bulky front corners are visible from the driver seat. A backup camera is standard to help with parking, but blind spot and rear cross traffic alerts are a feature reserved for the higher-spec cars.
Charging speed and range are some of the things any EV buyer pays attention to, and with a short drive with a dealership demo that had a decently topped up battery, I elected not to try out the Inster’s charging capabilities. Neither of the available versions, the 42kWh or the 49kWh, are particularly fast at charging, as Hyundai mentions the smaller one tops out at 73kW and the larger one at 85kW when plugged in at a CCS station.
Small enough batteries help keep charging stops short, claimed 4+mi/kWh average consumption (WLTP) keeps them farther apart. The range is mentioned to be as much as 200 miles for the smaller and 230 miles for the larger battery, with 290/320 miles imaginable in “City WLTP” driving.
What Would This Cost In The United States?
Partially due to changing EU regulations for both safety and emissions, the sub-20k small ICE hatch class is all but extinct in Europe, which shows when you consider how well the Dacia Sandero is selling; you can still buy an outgoing old-shape Fiat Panda in Germany for less than $15k, too. The Inster and its competitors cost a cool $10k more than one would have paid for a supermini a decade ago, but inflation’s also taken its toll: a $27k car in today’s money would have cost closer to $20k a decade ago.
Small EVs were only really starting to come out back then, starting with the Nissan Leaf, and those used to cost a lot more than far more capable small cars do today. Were Hyundai to export the Inster to the States, I could see it costing $25k nicely equipped, which is $10k less than the Kia Soul EV cost new a couple of years back. That’s a lot of money when you consider you could get a larger Chevy Trax for the same amount, but this is clearly targeted at someone who wants an urban or near-urban EV. Currently, there’s nothing like this for sale in the United States. The closest is the new electric Fiat 500, which costs about $35,000.
Like the Grande Panda and the Renault 5 E-Tech, the Inster relies heavily on being a desirable object, something one would buy simply because they like the way it looks. But thanks to its real-world design, decent EV tech, and that important wheelbase stretch, the Inster is also credible as an only car. Also, it comes in colors other than appliance white.
Photos: Antti Kautonen as well as the manufacturer / Thanks to Hyundai Automaa Kokkola for the keys
Welcome Antti! Great first article and I look forward to more. My first EV was the similarly sized 2018 Fiat 500e. It’s the car that convinced me that EVs are the future, even with all its (the Fiat’s) limitations. Sadly, this size car just isn’t practical in the US. When you’re side by side with semi tractor/trailers, gigantic SUVs and pickup trucks that are just too damn big, you’re just one bad lane change away from being a smear on the highway. It’s very disconcerting to be in traffic and look to your side and see nothing but tires. We moved up to a Polestar 2 (which is still much smaller than most other cars here) and a Nissan Ariya and we’re much happier and safer on the road. But my wife and I are never going to own a gasoline car again (unless I decide to buy a Studebaker Avanti sometime as a collector car).
Thank you very much for this Antii! 🙂
I’ve been reading/watching/talking about the Inster and other small/urban EVs available in Europe but not here in the States for a few years now. I know plenty of Americans will scoff at the idea of such small cars, and consider them to be nothing more than EV hatchbacks (which is of course what they are, albeit a bit taller and with some butch design cues to vaguely suggest rugged off-roadiness). It kind of kills me that we’ve got nothing like that at all in the USD$25K price range, while the EU is almost spoiled for choice with Renault’s R5 and R4, a couple of Citroens, a Dacia or two, plus more than a few more that I can’t recall at the moment. Heck, even Ford makes some small interesting EVs for sale there (the Kuga has an EV version I think, though I don’t know much about it yet).
But here, new EVs start in the mid $30K area (other than the 2nd gen Leaf which is about to be replaced). And they’re OK cars at that price (though I’ll be damned if I’ll drive anything with a Tesla badge at this point, no matter how cheap it gets). Volvo’s EX30, which I had high hopes for, was supposed to start at $35K but it’s now $45K for the same thing (and I’ve yet to see one on the road, even here in car-saturated LA). The Hyundai Ionic 5 is still pretty impressive (and just got a refresh) but the base version MSRPs at just over $43K, even though Edmunds seems to think they go for about $35K new for some reason. Even the Niro/Kona EV twins start right around $40K.
I’m hoping we’ll get Kia’s EV3, even though it’s a step up in size and price from cars like the Inster. I’m not wild about that whole cyberpunkish design thing Kia’s got going these days (seems like it’ll feel awfully dated in 10 years or less) but as long as the cars are good, I can put up with fashion-victim design. Everything I’ve read about the EV3 sounds pretty good… not perfect, but decent if they can manage to sell it here for under $30K (fingers crossed but not holding my breath). Sadly, it seems like the Pistachio Green color is only reserved for the high-trim levels. 🙁
I have been thinking for awhile that for EVs to make inroads in the US, there needs to be something smallish and cheap that Americans would consider as a *second* (or more) car. This is how “foreign” and Japanese cars caught on. Except for first-time buyers and the cheap/poor, people still had their Buicks and Fords, but the little car was the runabout, or car that one spouse used as a commuter, but wasn’t the primary “family” car. I think the issue of range is overstated, especially for people who live in detached houses with parking and a plug. That’s a marketing problem. You don’t need the cost, expense, and weight of a battery that matches the range of a full tank of gas in a car that stays mostly close to home. But that’s a hard problem to solve in a culture where people buy off road vehicles that never go offroad, single people buy 3-row mommy wagons and insist on AWD in southern climates, and where non-cooks buy stoves that can cost more than a car. (oh, and military weapons for “self-defense”)
I think this is where the Bolt currently fits in (the discontinued one). Anyone who owns one today (either EV or EUV) seems to absolutely love it (as opposed to a lot of people who ended up getting theirs bought back back when they had their original issues which seem to have been resolved by replacing most battery packs), but the people who then bought those cars as used one with a new battery love the deal they got and the car for what it is.
Bolts will be interesting to watch as car prices start to go up, they seemed to hit their low point price-wise a year or so ago and seem to be trending up at the moment.
They’re small but roomy inside, have lots of pep, I see them on the freeway cruising at 80+ and the range is just long enough for most anyone to easily fit their entire day (and usually week) between charges at home.
Antti, WELCOME! what a pleasant surprise to find you here; who knew The Autopian has a Finnish correspondent?! Perfect introduction article, too; more coming, I hope.
What an INSTERDUCTION am I right
Huh. Nice car. I hope we will see the drivetrain moved to the slightly larger Venue here in Canada.
I also should point out despite folks says no one wants small cars, the Venue is a decent seller. I see a lot of them in the Greater Toronto Area.
2024 sales
Canada 11,500
USA 24,500
Before folks scoff at those sales numbers, the Mustang sales were
Canada 3,800
USA 44,000
Sales worldwide in 2024 were just under 190,000 units. So a successful car. Canada and USA sales are a healthy 19% of those sales. Not bad at all.
I think the Venue is actually a pretty nice vehicle and the price is amazing. An electrified version would certainly be an interesting option.
It’s cute, I love the look. But there’s a reason the US isn’t given this “choice”. It’s dead on arrival.
Nearly $30k for something so small, so underpowered and so weak on range won’t ever fly here.
I hate those stupid twist shifters in new Hyundais. I had a Sonata rental car recently and it was more like playing with a bop-it than shifting a car into gear. Stop trying to reinvent this! It is so annoying. They figured this shit out like 80 years ago. F* your dials and weird buttons and stupid twisty BS!
I’d probably buy one. Hyundai is getting pretty good at EVs, and this is the right size for a daily commuter in an urban/suburban area. It’s getting harder to find basic bare bones transportation.
I think these could find a niche as delivery vehicles and run-into-the-city second cars, especially in older Northeastern cities with narrow streets. I’m thinking of Boston specifically, except that in Massachusetts, the way this car’s name is pronounced would be spelled “Incester”.
Everything problematic with the US, as seen from the outside :-), in one sentence:
“I think these could find a niche“
“Inster” is a strange name. Is it supposed to have any sort of meaning?
We all shrugged and accepted the “Veloster”, although it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. “Inster” is a huge pile of nothing.
Naming cars is not easy, but wouldn’t there be a city in Europe somewhere that could lend its name to this little E-box? Something short and small, such as the Hyundai Riga. Or just call it the E-box.
Something tells me that a product named “Incester” would not go over very well…
…particularly with families.
The proportions remind me a lot of the current-day Suzuki Ignis – looks good in photos but potentially a little ungainly in real life – especially from the rear. I still really like the idea of it though – even if at my current life stage it wouldn’t suit requirements. A few years ago when we were child-free and spent a lot of time driving in and around the city, it would have been ideal.
Oh good, commenters on a car blog say they want a particular segment of car. Therefore a) that car will never be brought to North America, or b) that car will be brought to North America to great fanfare and rave reviews, and will sell fewer than 2,500 units a year, continent-wide, for 3 years before it is withdrawn forever.
I like the overall look, but I think it would look better with a blacked out B pillar and that bevel was carried across the window ledge of the front and rear doors.
There’s something slightly off looking about the proportions of the front door and rear door windows in relation to each other.
Those Iron Cross/Marching hammers from The Wall wheels could use a re-think.
100%. Those wheels are nasty.
The comments here feel like a bizzaro flipped version of all the anti-suv mall crawler comments elsewhere.
Totally. I guess the US is kinda fucked up in this regard, but a lot of Canadians are perfectly happy to drive small cars.
Unfortunately, this reeks of “manual brown wagon” syndrome. I’m sure enthusiasts will go ga-ga over it but very few would would actually put their own money down to buy it.
…replied to wrong comment, whoops
That interior looks like a reborn PT Cruiser
Every commenter here is right. *Most* Americans don’t want small cars. The Honda Fit left the chat because the HR-V was outselling it 10:1. Put this powertrain in a Venue or Kona and you’d get more buyers, and the price wouldn’t be significantly higher.
Even the Venue is exceedingly rare because it’s too small. Kona is about as small as Americans seem to tolerate.
I was gonna say, seems like an EV Fit. Even the fold flat seats are similar.
My 2017 Fit was a great car. However, I’d say it was about 2 inches too small for my 6’3″ frame.
They do make the Kona as an EV.
I’d love to see this in the states, but would hold out on buying one until the N version drops. Will need a dual-motor with at least 350hp, bigger brakes and better suspension. They should be able to do that for $40k-45k no problem.
I think the only way cars like this could succeed in the US is if they are very cheap. This is the sort of thing people have as a second or third car, reserved for driving around in town. But people don’t want to spend a lot on a second or third car. If it’s going to be much smaller, slower, and limited in range than their other car(s), then the price needs to reflect that. $25,000 seems a bit steep when you can buy cars without as many compromises for the same price. Or just have one car with the capability to do everything you need or might need, which is how I imagine most folks shop for a car.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see more cars like this on sale in the US. But because most people here don’t live in dense, urban areas, the small size doesn’t matter much. It’s just so easy to pilot a large truck or three row SUV around most of America that truly small cars are a hard sell. Even when I’ve driven in NYC, a regular sized car or crossover never felt “too big.”
For reference, my $4000 scooter serves approximately the same purpose for me that one of these would. Admittedly, that was $4000 quite a few years ago so it’s probably more like $6k these days, but that’s still a far cry from 25.
Sure, but not everyone lives somewhere they can ride a scooter year round.
On the way into the office today I was behind a Chevrolet Spark in my Lexus GX. The thought of how dangerous that could be in an accident did cross my mind.
A few years ago, we had a 10 year old relative die in a rear end collision in a Prius. She was in the back seat. Car was stopped in traffic on CA route 1 and a delivery truck plowed into them.
I’m not intending to diminish your tragic loss, but I guess they should have had that mandatory empty third row seating behind them that every pearl clutching ‘murcan now needs to take precious anywhere.
Sorry, but the logic that people need to drive tanks is victim blaming. Go after the assholes who cause the crashes please.
I am not sure why an older child can’t sit up front.
If you’ve ever wondered “am I part of the problem?”, now you have your answer.
I’ve watched so MANY reviews of the Casper/Inster on Youtube over the past year+, and the fact that there are NO SUCH CARS available for sale here in the States, while there are a WHOLE BUNCH of small hatch/crossover affordable EVs to pick from in Europe… well, it sets my blood aboil. Citroen, Dacia, Renault, and other manufacturers (even Ford FFS!) all compete actively and aggressively in this segment, whereas I honestly can’t think of a single small/practical/affordable EV like this offered for sale here. MAYBE we’ll get the Kia EV3, but I’m not holding my breath, and even if we eventually do, it’s going to wind up costing more than it should.
This whole business of us not being able to drive what we want (provided the vehicle meets certain minimum roadworthiness standards) irks the ever-livin’ F out of me. Suzuki Swift? Can’t have it. The Jimny? Can’t have it. The Toyota Hilux Champ w/a manually shifted diesel and Lego-looks for well UNDER US$20K? Nope: can’t have it. ANY $20-25K small, practical EV CUV at all? Of course not, but we can have MULTIPLE flavors of RAM’s cartoonish behemoths to offset our perceived sexual inadequacies.
Like, W T F ?
I know we now inhabit a future dystopia, but does it have to be so endlessly irritating as to keep such practical and interesting choices forever out of our reach?
I agree with you.
So, if you haven’t figured it out, we all went into the universe where Hillary didn’t win and we all live in a hellscape now. Meanwhile in the other universe they have flying cars, universal pre-K and planes aren’t crashing.
All we get are monster trucks and SUVs. The SUVs can be any color you want as long as it’s white, black, or grey.
Americans buy the most car for their money. Why buy one of these for 30K when the Maverick or the Trax exist? Most Americans don’t live in tight cities and like going on road trips. The other thing is that Americans widely believe that the bigger the car, the safer the car.
Honestly, the Fiat 500 is a great example of why we don’t get small cars. You can get them cheap with huge incentives, and they still sell incredibly poorly.
The Fiat 500 EV is overpriced for what it is, TOO small, and frankly, Fiat’s got a less-than-enviable rep in the US when it comes to reliability and resale value. It is NOT an example of cars like the Inster by any stretch of the imagination. My point is that we don’t get ANY of these small, practical, affordable EVs at all in America. I’m pretty sure that if the top five EV CUVs available to European drivers WERE available here at equivalent U$D prices (without any tariff or chicken tax tomfoolery) they’d sell well here.
Not every American motorist equates the size of the vehicle they drive with their supposed sexual prowess.
The 500 is also based on a nearly 20 year old ICE car, has no rear doors (sometimes a Saturn coupe style door on one side) and the trunk is thumbnail sized. The Inster is a far handier approach and the rear seat is actually useable.
Two doors absolutely kills it. It’s shocking (pun intended) how many people use Leafs and Bolts for Uber.
Also, it’s a Fiat.
But most live in metro areas were an EV would work for them. In 2024, 86.4% of the U.S. population lived in metro areas. Metro areas as a whole increased by nearly 3.2 million from 2023 to 2024, accounting for 96% of the nation’s total population growth. I know that people buy what they perceive they want and not just what they need.
Our “metro” areas sprawl out. We are also cutting back on support for more public EV charging. So this car would not do well.
I don’t think it’s the EV factor on this as much as it is the size for the price, although I see how the road trip mention might look that way. This is over a foot shorter and ~6″ narrower than a Kia Soul, an established “small-and-tall” car here. A Soul costs thousands less however and is still efficient; same with the roomier-still Elantra that would be in the same showroom.
Nobody would buy it in the US market. People want others to buy it while they drive their behemoths. As a group of car weirdos, we may be enthused by something like this but nobody else is. Even as car weirdos we would not buy it, except maybe Jason.
Perhaps if the US could allow cars that meet safety standards and regulations in part of the EU making it much cheaper than it could be worth it for an automaker to bring over. With the tariff situation that just is not going to happen.
I would buy it as a 3rd car. I wonder if they tried to sell it to people as a run about to save their behemoths for hauling and towing and to make them last longer, would they sell then?
Given the choice of this, or a motorcycle as my “city” or limited distance transport, I would have to go with this because of safety. Mostly because I don’t trust the other drivers.
I gave up my motorcycle because it was just to dangerous in the city and adjacent highways. The problem is fewer motorcycles also means fewer people looking out for them making it more dangerous for the remainders.
Trucks already last longer than most vehicles on the road and most of their buyers don’t live somewhere that the size is much of a compromise. At least not enough of one to justify buying an entire extra car.
How many people can afford a third car? I work in a pretty good sized downtown area where parking is a problem but there are still a ton of large SUVs all around.
Yes, the math for small cars doesn’t work. A Mirage is something like $20k, and I can get a ton of nice mid-sized/large cars on the used market for that sort of money. All of them with 10+ years left in them. Yes a couple of small cars will sell because there are a couple of weirdos, but not enough to justify the cost to get them in the NA market.
Now it there was a harmonized safety standard between the US, Asia and Europe where a $15k car from Europe or Asia was available because they don’t have to redo all the certifications, then I think sales would be better on small cars in the US.
But to do this, we would need to have free trade where the freaks in Europe that want giant pickups and SUVs can get ours for around the same price as what we pay and the freaks that want tiny cars from Europe can get them here reasonably. But we are 4 years at least from even discussions of standardizing regulations and likely another 4-8 to restore free trade.
Interesting taillight configuration; all on the hatch, behind a single pane of glass (or lens). Would that be legal in the US?
Good question. I was also disappointed to see the rear turn signal cluster was changed from its original round configuration.
If the lights on the hatch are the brake lights, it would not be legal in the US, as they need to be affixed to a non-moving panel.
Could be legal if there are redundant lights visible when the hatch is opened, like on the BMW iX or various Audi Q5 models.
But I’m sure it wouldn’t be legal for a whole host of other reasons. Automakers don’t design these cars to meet US regs because they know they won’t sell them here.
This reminds me why I miss my old 78 Rabbit. I would love one of these to run errands and save the bigger cars for road trips. Of course someone will just comment “buy a used leaf” I do not want a used leaf.
Jim, have you considered a used Leaf?
But does it have mechanical door handles? The people want to know!
Based off the photos, they’re either mechanical, or electric made to look mechanical. Which would defeat the entire purpose of electric door handles. So I’m voting the former.
Why the authors cannot write one extra sentence clarifying this is beyond me. I’m half convinced the automakers have an embargo on talking about the door handles on BEVs.
Haha, they’re extremely normal EXCEPT the hidden rear door handles that are in the window frame like on an Alfa Romeo 156. Probably less brittle, though.
The front door handles have the small square buttons for keyless entry.
Thank you for the clarification.
Or proper rear door handles. I guess that c-pillar fashion gimmick still gets the adolescent stylist excited. :SIGH:
So far, Hyundai seems to be sticking with mechanical door handles on all their cars. I am ready to be corrected if this is not the case BTW. But all cars in Canada that I played with when at the dealer recently (and that was all of them) had mechanical door handles.
My Ioniq 5 has mechanical front and rear door handles.
Hyundai is also sticking will buttons for a lot of the controls too. Heck, the Inster has all those buttons as well.
Did not know the Ioniq 5 had mechanical door handles.
GOOD ON HYUNDAI!
I agree. I really like the Ioniq 5 door handle design. It tilts open when you unlock and then you pull the handle to release the mechanical door latch.
What is even cooler is they still have a hidden keylock hole that can unlock the car and open the door even if the battery in the remote fob is dead. The keyfob has a hidden physical key integrated into it.
There is also a spot on the steering wheel where you can touch the fob to and it uses NFC to let you start the car with said dead keyfob.
It is a great compromise for acting futuristic with the handles swinging partly open electrically (which seems to be required in the market), while depending on well trusted mechanical mechanisms for fallback.
While I’d prefer all mechanical that’s certainly better than all electric.
All mechanical door handles are great. Good for you, Hyundai!