CROSS PURPOSES (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_hyundaiinstercross_2026

By Jonathan Crouch

Hyundai adds hiking boots to its little EV hatch. Jonathan Crouch tries the Inster Cross.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 36

Hyundai creates an adventure-themed little EV hatch in this car, the Inster Cross. Its natural habitat is Surbiton, not Snowdon, but for a bit of Bear Grylls in a small little EV, you might like it.

Backgroundword count: 130

You might think that the last thing anyone would want to do with a small electrically-powered shopping hatch would be to take it into the wilds. Hyundai though, seems to think there might be a market amongst people who imagine themselves doing exactly that and with this in mind has bought us this car, the Inster Cross. Even in its standard form, the Inster stands out on the high street and in this ruggedised Cross guise looks more unusual still. You can't help feeling that this wild variant was styled first, then de-contented to produce the ordinary shopping model. But is there really a market for a small EV that looks like it might be up for transporting insurgents from Fallujah? If there is, then this car could corner it.

Driving Experienceword count: 193

It's not surprising that this Inster Cross doesn't front up with the kind of twin motor 4WD powertrain those wild looks would suggest. The sort of thing that you might get on a fractionally larger, similarly targeted small EV - like a Volvo EX30 Cross Country for instance. It would have been nice though, if Hyundai had added a simple grip control system (like you can get on a Peugeot E-2008 for instance); or, at the very least, raised this car's ride height. None of this has happened. That does at least mean that EV driving range is unaffected. Unlike with the ordinary Inster, there's no option for a base 42kWh battery version; the Cross only comes in 49kWh form with a 115PS motor and 223 miles of EV range. Top speed is 93mph with 147Nm of torque and 0-62mph takes 10.6s. As with all Insters, there's a standard heat pump, which draws heat from the ambient air so that in cold weather, the climate system draws less on battery power. Expect the tall, glassy body to make urban manoeuvring easy. And there's the usual wide range of Hyundai standard camera safety features.

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