Hyundai Inster: The Tiny Car That Makes Giant SUVs Look Silly
Hello. Behind me is a fantastic teeny weeny little car, the Hyundai Insta. Next to me is a fantastic teenyw weeny little person, Imagin Bogle. And today we want to see if we can put this through its paces and ask a big bold question. Is it better than the brilliant Renault 5? Shall we? Shall we? race you [Music] All right, I imagin welcome to the Insta. Oh, thank you very much for having me. This is, I have to say, quite a delightful day. It’s a beautiful day to be wafting around the Cotsworld in a teeny tiny Korean car. Let me give you a sort of entry. Please do. I entry elevator pitch. Hyundai Inst. This is Hyundai’s smallest and cheapest electric car. Bone dry, small battery, no options, just squeaks in under £25,000. By the time you put the big battery on it and the pack that gives you the heated seats and the heated steering wheel, you’re looking at 27 and a half, that kind of areas, under 30. But given that I did a whole video the other day about all the electric cars you can have for less than 25 grand now that’s only fairly cheap, which means that this thing has to be not just good for a cheap car, but really properly excellent. 100%. And I think that’s the lens that we’re going to scrutinize it through today. Um, especially because I’m coming so fresh to it. Haven’t been in one before, but I am a Hyundai Ionic 5 driver, so I have some sort of baseline of what to expect from this brand. Yeah, you parked up next to me in your Ionic 5 and it was like a solar eclipse happened this morning. The difference in size between these two things is extraordinary. It is because I think you’ve said before that Ionic 5, you expect it to be one size and it’s pretty huge. It’s always bigger than I think it’s going to be. Yeah. This quite the opposite. As I sit in here with you, I’m convinced that we’re in a mediumsiz car and you get out and you’re like, “Oh, it’s teeny.” Yeah, there’s definitely some sort of illusion going on. And you know, so aided by the fact that there are just these huge, enormous windows and something that is often a problem for me is this massive blind spot that happens in the A-pillar. Not a problem in this. It is wonderfully glassy, isn’t it? Let me just run you through some speedy specs and then I’d like to hear your snap first impressions. Key stats, 39 or 46 kWh batteries. Real world range, you’re probably looking at about 180, maybe 200 miles, respectively, on a nice warm day like this. We’ve been doing well I’ve been doing 4 miles to the kowatt hour on my drive here which is pretty good with the air con blasting mind you 85 kW charging that’s probably quick enough for such a teeny weeny battery and then this is the stuff I like about Hyundai the EV stuff they’re good at so a vehicle to load as standard check three pin domestic socket down there in the cabin no why is no one else doing that what’s the point of an electric car if you can’t plug your hairdryer in you know I will actually return to that thought in a moment In fact, I’ll I’ll return to it right now. So, 85 kW. Some people might look at that and think that’s a bit annoying. But you have to remember it’s a small battery. So, actually, you’re anticipating stopping for what, like 20 minutes if you’re doing 20 to 80% or something like that. Yeah. I personally use that time to do my makeup in the car if I’m on my way to a shoot or whatever. However, it would be so brilliant if I could curl my hair using that socket in the car with these fantastic mirrors, which you shouldn’t do while driving. Shouldn’t do while driving, but can do whilst charging. You You absolutely can. I’ve spent plenty of time with this. Tell me about your snap first impressions from these first few miles of driving. Well, you get in and it immediately feels like any of the other Hyundai and Kia cars that you drive. So, the paddles are all the same, which is great. You immediately know how to adjust your regen and bits and pieces like that. I guess because it’s at the cheaper end of the spectrum compared to the other Hyundai stuff, there are more physical buttons. There’s less stuff hidden in the screen. I personally love that you kind of get into automatic pilot of knowing precisely where a button is versus having to fiddle around on the screen. So, top marks for that. But I think the thing, you know, we’ve touched on it a little bit, just this sense of space is incredible because I know on the channel we’re all about small, cheap, affordable electric vehicles, but I definitely suffer from small person syndrome in which I like a big car. You do like to be up high. You like your eye level to be above other road users. I really do. And I cannot give you a good reason for that. Um, but when you’re in this, you are sort of tricked into thinking that you are in this enormous car. So, I can kind of get over that. It’s the best of both worlds in that sense. Um, and got to say this sort of bench-like seating is just so cute. Oh god, these h these seats are unbelievable. I love that they’ve gone strict four-seater in the back. None of this teeny tiny middle seat that no one wants to sit in. Just big, huge, roomy, squashy seats. It’s basically a sofa, isn’t it? Yeah. And then you’re totally tricked into that again, that perception of space by just this seat seeming to go on forever. I think it’s very very clever and also has sort of a slightly charming retro feel about it as well. What do you think about the design then Bogs? Do you know? I really like it. And something that we’ve been speaking about already is the fact that this is a TARDIS. It’s so huge inside, but outside it’s so diddly and cute. It does remind me a little bit of a Barbie car, which I personally don’t have any problem with. A Barbie Jeep, I would say. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tough. A tough Barbie car. It’s It’s a really interesting shape. It’s super narrow. It’s pretty short, but it’s dead tall. I’m actually looking at it next to you right now and thinking, “God, that is quite high for such a teeny weeny car.” And if you look at most modern crossovers, they are just hatchbacks but raised up, which means you don’t really benefit space-wise from it being tall. Whereas this, it’s like they’ve just taken a normal car and just stretched it in Photoshop. And the result is just so much interior room in a tiny little footprint. But then I think they’ve been at the same time really clever to soften that boxy nature of it so it doesn’t just look like a a shoe box. things like we’ve obviously got the round headlights which I think really soften it, make it look very friendly, very cute. We were talking about we love the Hyundai language of the the pixelated bits and pieces. Well, this is a difficult shape to make look good. Car designers want stuff to be low and wide, and this is tall and narrow, but it’s it’s funky. It is. Um, and I really like this color as well. That is just a bit of fun. It looks like snow that someone’s done a wee on, I think. But I do kind of like it at the same time. I am very glad that you’ve joined me here today. Meaning, no offense at all. It would have been handy if you were my height because I just I the only way I could possibly demonstrate the amount of space in this car is by having a second version of myself because I can sit really comfortably behind myself. But you’ll do for now. Jump in. So, this is my driving position. I’m 6’6. I’m very happy with this. I’ve got a ton of headroom. Life is good. How are you doing back there? I am doing I think I’ve got, you know, a solid 30 cm between my knee and the back of your seat. Oh, you’re absolutely laughing. That is huge amounts of space and for you. So, this is now me behind myself. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. In a tiny little car, I couldn’t make my knees. Oh my goodness. Okay, now we’ve just gone into imaging driving position and it’s a Mayback. It’s a It’s a private jet. This is amazing. I will not get over the amount of space in this thing. I just think it’s staggering. Super flat floor. Also, you don’t have your knees too high. You know, you get that a lot in electric cars. Not so much of a thing here. Well, I think that’s it because it’s not a super low car and yet it is a super low car. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s sort of the battery is obviously flat to the floor, but you can just sort of slide in. You’re not getting down into it, so your knees aren’t being forced up by a big battery pack. [Music] So, while we’re in here, we’re agreed we like the space. What do you think about how this interior looks? Let’s start with the plus points. Houndstooth seats. Oh, yeah. It’s so good. Yeah, that’s a huge I mean, it’s it’s If the rest of the car sucked, I’d still kind of like it just cuz the hounds tooth armchairs. They are so comfortable and just so interesting. Yes. And you know, you said, “Well, okay. Well, is this bit a bit bland?” And I’m not even thinking about that because I’ve got this and I can see it all the time with this lovely bench seating. This covers up a lot of its maybe, you know, negative points. So, the base trim of this car comes without the hounds to seat and the interior suddenly feels really bland when you lose these. This is all it’s quite old school actually having a big bank of buttons. Don’t mind it. Works very well. very intuitive, but not especially eye-catching if you’ve jumped out of something like a Fia Grande Panda or a Renault 5. But these 10 out of 10. I like the physical buttons partly because I sit close so close to the wheel. They’re just a bit easier to find. But also, I love that this whole setup, it looks like a little nerdy frog. So, you’ve got two eyes here, a little mouth here. So, every time you put your phone in Oh, I know you said that earlier. I can’t unsee it now. I’m really annoyed by that. Let’s quickly move on. talk about these removal panels which I’m I’m really hoping that somewhere under the bonnet there’s like an emergency tool kit with a giant sort of inflatable screwdriver for swapping those out. I this I find confusing because we do have as much as you know we’ve spoken a bit about not the most exciting. There are some things that feel quite refined despite being a cheap car. The buttons feel good, the regen buttons feel good, etc. That feels like a gimmick. It feels to me like the design team, they were almost done with the car and they went to the boss and they’re like, “Boss, we need to make the car more fun. We need some budget.” And he was like, “You can have £20 to make it more fun.” Yeah. And that’s what they that’s what they they’ve 3D printed some bits of plastic and put them in the door. Or it was a work experience person and they’ll put this on their CV and say that panel that was me. Final thing in here, dash shelf. Once you have a dash shelf, you can’t live without a dash shelf. The Jeep Avenger, I think, was the first car I drove that had one. And there’s a whole there’s a dash shelf shaped hole in my life whenever I’m in a car without it. Now, look at that. That’s so much handier than a glove box cuz I know what’s in it. What do you What do you What are your go-to bits and bobs that you popped? Well, look, those are my sunglasses. That’s the key. That’s going to fall out in a moment, admittedly, but it’s just it’s just handy being able to see your stuff and it’s neatly tucked away. And you know, that’s something I wouldn’t have thought about because obviously I would normally just dump my handbag somewhere. So, good to get your your very seasoned perspective. What we’re saying is I should carry a handbag. Yeah. Right. We’ve talked a lot about the immense practicality of the Insta. Would you care to reveal the magnificently enormous, spacious, huge, gigantic? It’s actually a very, very, very small boot. H Shindai does give a literage, but I’m not even going to bother saying it because this boot is so adjustable that I’m not sure in what configuration they’re talking about. So, this is maximum back seat mode that we’re in now. Maximum back seat mode where you’ve got maximum leg room, but also maximum core engagement of reclining big time. So, this is the smallest that you could possibly hope the boot to be. These seats are all the way back, huge leg room, and they’re leaned back as well. So, big big room back there. And what you can’t see in this, you know, very modest situation is all the goubbins that we’ve hidden in here. Pack lunch. It’s a lot of It’s a lot of pack lunch and cable. Yes. It’s like a It’s like we’re going to a year four birthday party. That’s how you and I like to eat lunch. So, this is mode number one. Mode number two. Do you remember? Mode number two. If we slide these seats all the way forward, you sacrifice some leg room in the back obviously, but that’s now really quite a decent boot. That’s two carry-ons on an easy jet flight. Yeah. And there’s a clever little flap here to ensure that there’s no gap that you’re going to sort of lose change down the back of. I really like that. I think that is really neat. Or, you know, another way to you’ve got a secret compartment for losing change. Yes. If you want to. But then let’s say let’s say you’re moving a house. Uncip fold. Oh, hang on. Oh, no. Oh, dear. Yeah, there we go. That’s fine. It’s all fine. Now, that’s that’s bloody impressive. You You could sleep in that at Glastenbury. Still the special flaps ensuring we have no gaps to lose change. I love how it’s completely flat. And worth mentioning that we bumped into someone in the car park who was looking at this thinking is this a practical option for perhaps storing a wheelchair and they’re looking for that completely flat floor and lo and behold here we have it. I would say I don’t know the exact me measurements but looking at that opening looking at that space this is probably now the smallest and cheapest electric car that would be suitable for someone that regularly needs to put wheelchair in the back which is a real credit to Hindi. I really thought that you were gonna say looking at this I’m gonna say and then give an exact literage and I’d have been extremely impressed performance ride comfort handling anything jumping out to you in those departments it is extremely comfortable um the sort of height that you are is absolutely perfect it feels like the Ioni I’d say with the difference that you can hear a bit more road noise. Of course you can because it’s a it’s a cheaper car. It doesn’t have as much sort of sound damping or anything like that. But that is the only thing that really tells you that this is not a super duper premium car. I agree. I agree. There is quite a lot of wind noise when you get up to motorway speed. I learned that this morning. That kind of makes sense cuz this thing is the same shape as a front door. It’s fair enough really. But it is nice and refined. I will say that the Renault 5, which we have to talk about because it’s kind of the best small Jeep EV, has distorted my expectations for comfort in a small electric car cuz it’s so bloody supple that thing. It’s unbelievably comfortable for a little car. I think this is not quite as luxurious in the way that it rides, but for a small car, very, very agreeable. Oh, 100%. And I think it does come down to why are you buying a car? What is it that’s on your checklist of criteria? And the Rena 5 is fun. It’s refined. It’s silly a little bit, but it’s not overly practical. Like, I don’t know if you can fold the seats quite so flat. You definitely haven’t got as much headroom. The rear seats aren’t as comfortable. So, this is sort of like, okay, maybe it’s not ticking the the as refined as fun box, but it is ticking a much bigger practicality box. I think you I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. The Renault 5 is definitely the more fun option, but this that doesn’t mean that this is the boring practical option. There’s still a lot of charm in this thing. It’s just really really practical and spacious. And if you’re a onecar household, you do need something that can do both or doubles down slightly more on the practical side, in which case something like this would probably clinch it. I will say having spent time with Renault 5 and also the Fiat Grandandy Pandy, I don’t know if you’ve seen that one yet, looking at this interior, could they have had just a little bit more fun? Yeah. And that’s where Renault 5 is quite clever that it can play around with customization. It’s got little hidden features. Like I love, for example, that the uh drive selector looks like a a lipstick, whereas this is practical, but hasn’t doubled down on fun. It’s a little bit more sensible and grown up inside. I wouldn’t mind a smattering of denim across the dash or some sort of weird kind of translucent framing for the infotainment screen like you get in the Panda. But you know what? The hounds tooth seats go a long way in terms of jazzing things up. And also, you know, cuz there is other things going on in here like this sort of greeny beigy sagey color plus the hounds tooth. Maybe they were like we’ll overdo it if we, you know, get involved on the dash. That’s true. I have to say for me the one overarching joy of driving this car over the last week is something we’re not going to get to experience so much today because we’re out in the countryside. It’s the joy of its smallness around town. It’s a bit like the ID bars in that it took my brain a really long time to adjust to the packaging in the bars. You’ve got so much room that you’re like, “This thing must be 3 m wide.” and you drive it as if it is 3 m wide for the first few days and then you realize it’s kind of normal car size. This is the same thing but shrunk down. You’re kind of like this must be a mediumsized car. Look how much room we’ve got. And you get out and you look at it in a parking space and there’s a foot between the you know the your wheel and the painted line. It’s such a small narrow car. It’s smaller than the last generation of Ford Fiesta. It’s a properly properly compact car. Again on the Ionic 5. I love that car. I absolutely do. But it is, you expect that to be a small car and it’s actually a very big car. And you may have noticed some yellow paint from a little ball. I didn’t want to say anything. Yeah, I’m quite upset about that. And then when you park that next to this, you can see why this is immediately compelling. And this is to be celebrated because the rise of the small electric car has only taken place in the last 2 years. As recently as 2022, if you wanted a really good electric car, you’re sort of compelled by something slightly bigger than you needed perhaps, certainly if you needed big range. And that’s just not the case anymore. I think that is such a fascinating thing because the early electric vehicles kind of had to be bigger because electric vehicles were more expensive. So, they had to exist in the bigger, more premium sector. So, we’re not used to them being huge. Yeah. And also battery technology was less energy dense. So they did take up much more room. We hadn’t had innovations like cellto pack technology and just clever, you know, more space efficient packaging. And in the interview that I did with um Jaguar the other day, they were like, you know, the ride height on electric vehicles has to be really high because of great big battery packs. I thinking, where are you getting your information from? Because that is like 5 years out of date. We’re now seeing an abundance of these small, highly efficiently packaged, very reasonable range electric vehicles. Hi, my friend. What a lovely day. What a lovely day. What did you make of our tiny Korean box? Deeply practical. Mhm. Got a few fun elements. Yeah. Could have a few more. Overall, perfectly sized, perfect car. It is a wonderfully useful object. And I think one of our favorite things on this channel is clever design. Whether it’s clever because it maximizes space or it maximizes range, just using something to the maximum, it makes us happy, doesn’t it? Yes. And anything that gives that indication of this has been given thorough thought and things have had that intentionalness. Most definitely. Does it match up to the Renault 5? Well, I think I’m going to make a prediction. I think we’re going to have slightly different answers on this because from my side I have a dog and therefore having a big practical boot that you can put a dog in is absolutely essential. The size of it is obviously great. I also live in a city so for me the Insta just clinches it. And by the way, we get so many comments about people saying all these big crossovers can’t hold dogs. They’ve got useless boots. So, how nice to see a tiny weeny Eevee with a properly Well, could you get a dog in the back of that with the seats down? I’ll go Jack Russell. She’ll be fine. Oh, you can put her in the in the glove box for goodness sake. I, as you rightly predict, I’m staying with the Renault 5. I love that thing. I think both cars do their job equally well. They both execute the brief equally well. It’s just the brief of the Reno 5 suits me a bit more. It’s a bit more design forward. I don’t need big back seats. I don’t need the extra practicality. rather have the superior comfort and slightly superior driving dynamics, but they are comfortably my number one and number two small cheap electric cars. And ultimately for anybody watching, the decision is going to be between fun, bit sort of jazzy and super duper practical. And that’s how you make your decision big time. Shall we uh should we get a sandwich? Ice cream. Yeah, ice cream. Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh that’s all we have time for. if you have been. Thank you for watching.
Imogen and Jack get behind the wheel of the all-new Hyundai Inster. With an enormous interior crammed into a tiny charming package, could this affordable EV be better than the brilliant Renault 5?
00:00 Headlines
02:30 Specs
03:20 Battery
04:00 First Impressions
04:45 Space
05:45 Design
07:30 Interior
11:30 Boot
14:10 Performance and Comfort
14:55 Renault 5 Comparison
17:15 Compactness
Why not come and join us at our next Everything Electric expo: https://everythingelectric.show
Check out our sister channel Everything Electric TECH: https://www.youtube.com/@EverythingElectricShow
Support our StopBurningStuff campaign: https://www.patreon.com/STOPBurningStuff
Become an Everything Electric Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fullychargedshow
Become a YouTube member: use JOIN button above
Buy the Fully Charged Guide to Electric Vehicles & Clean Energy : https://buff.ly/2GybGt0
Subscribe for episode alerts and the Everything Electric newsletter: https://fullycharged.show/zap-sign-up/
Visit: https://FullyCharged.Show
Find us on X: https://x.com/Everyth1ngElec
Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/officialeverythingelectric
To partner, exhibit or sponsor at our award-winning expos email: commercial@fullycharged.show
Everything Electric VANCOUVER – Vancouver Convention Center – 5th, 6th & 7th September 2025
Everything Electric FARNBOROUGH – Farnborough International – 11th & 12th October 2025
Everything Electric MELBOURNE – Melbourne Showgrounds 14th, 15th & 16th November 2025
#fullychargedshow #everythingelectricshow #homeenergy #cleanenergy #battery #electriccars #electric-vehicles-uk
