Hyundai INSTER

no, still parked up at the garage since mid august. When the warning light came on, I took it to the garage as per the manual. They analysed the data, sent it to Hyundai Ireland and told me that they (the garage) told me they would not be comfortable letting me drive the car with a faulty battery. So the car in theory can be driven (everything works, I drive it to the garage) but with a faulty battery, it shouldn’t be driven and so it has been parked up since August waiting for the replacement battery. I am very lucky that i live in a town with transport connections and that I can cycle to work because, as per the Hyundai battery warranty, Hyundai or the garage don’t have to give me a replacement car while waiting for the part to come in.

That's mad. I'd be pushing them to sort a replacement with Hyundai Ireland.

Should they really keep some stock of spare batteries or are these specific to each individual car?

I know! Makes me wonder how many cars are awaiting replacement batteries.

This guy is very thorough on the detail, he also confirmed there is no internal 3 pin socket on the Ireland 49kWh version. have seen his excellent run through of the new Kona Ev variants also, however, he does work for a Hyundai main dealer so perhaps not the most obective review, but good information all the same

How come the version in Ireland is missing the sunroof and socket. Is that part of the trade off for the low price?

Took it for a spin this morning in Sligo, couldn't get over the headroom and also the legroom in the back. They reckon they should have them in stock by the end of January some time and I'll be picking up mine then

Is the 360° camera confirmed to not be on Irish models?

If so that's three things missing compared to the UK, sunroof, 230V socket and 360° camera.

No wonder it's priced a bit cheaper than in the UK then, but the lack of a socket sounds a tad disappointing... Still a lot of car for less than the Renault 5 certainly, but it's an EV... It would be nice to have the option to power appliances from it if the leccy goes. Renault had the right idea there, making a socket adapter for the Renault 5 and giving it V2G capabilities for if the government ever gets such a scheme off the ground.

Shopping for a small car at some point in the new year, at this stage it's a three way decision between the Inster, the Renault 5 or an electric fiat 500.

v2G is a good while off, you can’t even buy a bidirectional charger right now, not to mind the ESB Networks issues to be sorted out, this could take a few years to actually happen here.

The bigger Renault 5 battery 52kWh, is apparently starting about 30k, remarkably, with all the hype, over many months. prices have yet to be officially announced in Ireland, so there is a significant price difference of circa 7k. on the bigger battery Inster, for an additional 40 km range, albeit the Renault 5, is a 5 seater.

Yeah, V2G is a good way off, but if I was buying a new car, I'd want to keep it as long as possible, so it may well come into play.

And there's still the V2L that might be handy, the electricity's gone off for a few hours here twice this month alone. Would need to go to northern ireland or the UK for an Inster with V2L, whyyyyy Hyundai???

I am expecting for some reason that you would be able to get a middle spec Renault 5 with large battery for about 28k. Remains to be seen though, indeed.

As a plus for the Inster, the Renault 5 is notably longer + wider. And the sliding rear seats on the upper Inster trim are a really good idea. Honestly that single-handedly puts the lower trim out of consideration imho.

Still, the Renault 5 has something that makes it more attractive to me personally than the Inster. Less SUV-y proportions? The bright colour paint options? The way it's a little more sporty?

I might just have to forget about both of them and buy a used fiat 500e for 17k instead! Avoid the inital new car depreciation until I'm sure of which to pick. The 500e doesn't have V2L either but people have hooked up an external inverter to their 500e's by tapping into the 12V battery charger, doesn't look hard and I'm more willing to mess about with an used car than a new one...

Re the V2L situation, I am hoping that the V2L adaptor that you plug into the actual charging port will be offered as an option. That at least would cover the power cut type situation (and probably a better solution for that than just the inside socket).

Is it confirmed that V2L adapters would work on the Inster? Doesn't seem like something that's guaranteed.

Someone needs to test it. :)

the R 5 E Tech starts at 31k for the larger 52kw battery, so will be 32k ‘ish on the road after delivery, thats circa 9k more than the bigger Inster battery model,

Renault updated their price list in recent days:

https://www.renault.ie/CountriesData/Ireland/images/PDF/pricelists/renault-pc-pricelist.pdf

Looks like it is available. Tow bar for bike rack is also listed on European brochure. I had quick look around and test drive two weeks ago and was very impressed. Only got up to 100km/hr but it certainly felt nippy enough up to 80. It handles pretty well and had more presence than most small cars.

It's a incredibly well packaged car for its dimensions. Smaller than a Yaris but basically with as much space as your average family hatch for 4. Leg room for rear passengers even with bench forward is more than okay. With bench back its very spacious. The folding passenger seat means Ikea runs are still possible!

Trying to decide if I would be okay down sizing to it. Currently in a 7 seater diesel, basically never need the extra seats any more but the massive boot in 5 seater mode is very useful. 95% of the time the Inter would be all I need. My commute is 30km cross country on roads with an 80 limit. Boot with seats forward is big enough for my dog. Once I have a towbar for bikes I can live with the compromises most of that other 5% off the time. If it's really to much of a compromise in the long term when my wife changes her car she can get something slightly bigger. At stage might even need the Inster as a third car in the household. My children aren't that far of driving and the Inster is a perfect starter car.

Next option up from this price wise is probably the Kona at €32k or Kia EV3 or Elroq at just under €37k. The Megane E-Tech is slightly tempting at €34k but I would pay the extra for the EV3 or Elroq over it. The 0% finance available on them also also closes means the monthlies over 4 years wouldn't be that much more over the Insters 4.9% over 3 years. Kona is 1.9% HP so with cost of credit isn't worth the savings I think.

It's still an extra 14k to fork out though even if spreading the cost over 4 years eases the pain of it. I can nearly buy Inster outright with my trade in so in reality don't need to finance much. The savings I make on fuel means I can afford the higher repayments though if I do go for the bigger car. I really want out of diesel I had a big bill just under 2 years ago for the ad blue tank and and exhaust sensor that was replaced at the same time had to be replaced again 2 months ago. Luckily it was under parts warranty but I just don't thrust at this stage to not land me another big bill. Annoyingly there actually is nothing wrong with the car or engine it has never let me down and drives perfectly after 8 years with 180k km on it, I just don't trust the adblue or DPF systems.

https://dmassets.hyundai.com/is/content/hyundaiautoever/Hyundai_INSTER_MY25_Accessories_Brochurepdf

It's just slow to charge when cold, nothing wrong with it.

Passed a car transporter on the M8 tonight heading to Cork with 6 to 10 insters on board.

Deliveries must be imminent.