One-Off Hyundai Insteroid ‘Dream Car’ Concept EV Unveiled

Hyundai took the wraps off its wild, video-game inspired Insteroid concept EV this week, and it's a very radical redux of the H-marque's humble Inster EV supermini.

Korean automaker Hyundai took the wraps of its latest concept pictured earlier this week. Christened as the Hyundai Insteroid concept, this one-off sees its ‘sedate’ Inster EV base car undergo a wild revamp inspired by the gaming world.

Aptly, the ‘Insteroid’ name is a direct execution of the concept’s description of being “an Inster EV on steroids.” The ‘gamified’ design concept’s styling is indeed very radical, boasting squared and ultra-wide fenders, as well as very striking rolling stock.

Included too are rather extreme aerodynamics, evident through the deep front bumper with integral splitter, saw-tooth slats above the front wheels, and a massive hatch-mounted rear spoiler element, amongst others.

According to Hyundai, the Insteroid concept design merges elements from both video games and motorsports.

Clearly, the rear of this follow-up to the similarly shaped RN24 drift concept are so wide the entire wheel appears to be located beyond the stock bodywork, and the back doors are rendered redundant.

On board, the Insteroid concept sees its rather Spartan cabin rock a race-ready roll-cage with bucket seats plus racing harnesses combination. Notable here too is the integrated Beat House sound system with playful retro Space Invader-like graphics.

Yes, on board, the Insteroid concept appears equally as wild and as radical as its exterior. It even boasts an integrated Beat House audio system.

As this is merely a concept, Hyundai elected not to divulge mechanical details and specs of the Insteroid concept. Clearly through, the regular road-going Inster EV’s 95 HP single e-motor has been swapped out at least for something far more powerful.

Being a concept means it’s not hard to imagine it adopt the potent – read: tyre-shredding – setup from the RN24 concept mentioned earlier. As a refresher, said demonstrator packed no less than 641 HP from its dual-motor setup lifted from the highly lauded Ioniq 5 N performance EV.

Hyundai RN24 'rolling chassis' concept pictured. This concept packed the dual-motor driveline lifted from the Ioniq 5 N, boasting up to 641 HP too.

“This project allowed us to fully embrace unrestrained creativity, drawing inspiration from video games to create an emotional and engaging vision of Hyundai’s brand,” says Eduardo Ramírez, Chief Designer at Hyundai Design Europe.

Sadly, status as a concept also means we won’t be seeing a watered-down production version hit showroom floors anytime soon.

However, as rivals Renault confirmed a limited-run production for the Renault 5 Turbo 3E recently, this might entice Hyundai to do the same, though we won’t bet on it just yet...