Hyundai Inster 2026 review: Extended range long-term | Part 1

In many ways, the Hyundai Inster is exactly the kind of electric car we need more of.

Ultra-compact for city duties, light enough that it doesn’t require an enormous and resource-intensive battery pack, and yet cleverly laid out, it’s a little slice of Asian megacity car culture which we too often miss out on in Australia.

We like big cars here, and the distances between our cities as well as our homes and workplaces tends to be a lot longer than the kinds of conditions these cars enjoy in their home market. And yet city cars like the Inster are the perfect gateway to electric motoring - they are the ultimate ‘second car’.

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So how does it stack up? Should Australia embrace the city car in the electric era? And can the Inster possibly make sense at its starting price in the face of more affordable rivals from China?

We’re long-term testing one to find out.

As always with my long-term tests, I like to start out by explaining exactly which car we have, how much it costs and what the competitive landscape is.

Our Inster is the mid-grade Extended Range version, priced at $42,500, before on-road costs and prior to ticking options boxes. It sits above the entry-level Standard Range version ($39,000) but below the Inster Cross ($45,000).

Thinking about it, this one is the pick of the range. It scores a welcome dollop of additional driving range compared to the entry-level car, with a side of additional punch for its electric motor at a modest price increase.

The price is this car’s biggest problem, though. While it might have been a novel offering a few years ago, it now faces stiff competition in a growing small car segment.

BYD’s incoming Atto 1 city hatch has made waves with its starting price announced at just $23,990 for the entry-level Essential version, and even its top-spec longer-range Premium variant starts lower than even an entry-level Inster at $27,990.

Compelling if it’s just an emissions-friendly runabout with ultra-low running costs you’re looking for.

What became immediately apparent to me, though, is the Inster feels like it’s shooting for a bit more than that.

For one, as soon as I picked it up, it was exceeding my expectations of what a small car could and should feel like.

Usually a little tinny and rattly, I was pleasantly surprised by how quiet and refined the Inster is, even at freeway speeds. The 84kW/147Nm electric motor sounds underpowered, but proves to be punchy enough for this little car. And somehow it’s geared pretty well to even allow freeway overtaking which, again, I didn’t expect.

I immediately noticed a few things about the touchpoints in this car, too. The steering wheel and stalk-mounted hardware are all from the much larger Ioniq 5, making them feel a little high-end for a small car, and there’s a pleasing array of physical buttons, too.

It even feels huge on the inside despite its tiny exterior footprint. I was easily able to find a comfortable driving position, and even for me at 182cm tall, the windscreen is super tall for excellent visibility, and the roof feels distant.

Even the steering gives the feeling that you’re driving a more substantial vehicle, and the suspension is hardly the kind of stiff, rattly style which used to come on cars this small, feeling a lot more sophisticated to deal with the additional weight of the batteries.

It all adds up to a car which feels as though it’s punching above its weight class a little, and this might help explain its higher price-point compared to some rivals.

You’re hardly short-changed on standard equipment ,either. You get the same dual 10.25-inch digital dash and multimedia cluster as other Hyundai models, and even the software is nicely responsive and practically laid-out.

This might not make it look or feel as tech-heavy or fancy as some of its Chinese rivals, but it is immediately much easier to control and find everything. I didn’t feel the need to have to dig through a million menus as soon as I get home to find out where simple functions are, as I have to with far too many cars I pick up these days.

There are some downsides, though. The interior is hard plastic fantastic, which is a hard sell these days. Sure, this is a small car, but most cars in this price bracket are coming with more generously-appointed interiors with plenty of soft-touch surfaces, whether they’re synthetic leather or cloth.

Our car also came in the rather twee brown interior with houndstooth cloth seating, which definitely won’t be for everyone. Thankfully the bench seating arrangement front and rear proved comfortable, even on longer journeys. What I did notice on some of my summer travels was the lack of a padded surface for your elbow in the door.

It feels like a petty complaint, but it wears you down on longer trips, and I feel like it’s something we’ve been complaining about in Hyundai models for years now. Why do they persist with this hard plastic stuff!

I’m really enjoying the extra range this car offers compared to most small EVs I’ve driven. That little extra over something like the Fiat 500e, which I also ran as a long-term test car, from 311km to 360km is all it takes to give me much more confidence and range left over for those out-of-city jaunts. I find I’m charging it much less than I expected, despite racking up plenty of kilometres for a city car in my first month.

So, first impressions are surprising. The Inster is expensive for its size, but I can see at least some part of where the money has gone to make it punch a little above what we’re used to seeing in this segment.

Next month I’ll talk a little more about range and charging, and explain some of the super clever bits of this car’s cabin which I’ve been appreciating.

Acquired: December 2025

Distance travelled this month: 828km

Odometer: 5039km

Average energy consumption this month: 14.0kWh/100km