Spotted: The New Hyundai Casper Testing In The UK

Automakers love keeping new cars under wraps, but at some point, they usually need to do some testing outside. That’s when the camo wraps come out, and that gives eager car spotters the perfect opportunity to catch them in the wild.

That’s precisely what happened in this case. Our reader, Tom Newis, managed to spot a curious wrapped car in the Lake District in the United Kingdom. He snapped a few pics and raised the question of what he was actually looking at. His leading theory? Perhaps a new Fiat 500L.

In house at The Autopian, I  gathered the council messaged Slack, and only Jason was awake. Our conclusion? We thought it looked like a new Fiat Panda. I spent two hours researching and working on that theory, ending up in confused loops because we’ve already seen the new Fiat Panda—or Grande Panda as it’s now known. Then I finally Googled the wheels. This isn’t a a Fiat at all. It’s the bloody Hyundai Casper!

I want to issue a heartfelt thank you to The Korean Car Blog and Daum.net, which both posted photos of of a prototype Casper testing in Japan. Notably, we can see this is the same vehicle, because of the matching wheels, front lights, and the distinctive roof racks that are supported in three locations.

Hyundai threw us off, because parking this thing in front of a Fiat just sent our mind racing that way. But it shouldn’t have been that hard. We saw hazy concept pictures of this very vehicle just a couple of months ago!

Unfortunately, the Casper won’t be called that in all markets. Hyundai will brand this diminutive city car as the “Inster” in places like Australia, which is a lot less fun and harder to say, to boot.

Funnily enough, we got to see the sub-compact EV in full detail at the end of June. Which begs the question—why is Hyundai still driving this thing around in camo in the UK?

The Casper will first drop in Korea this summer. It will come with over 186 miles of range in standard form with the 42 kWh battery. That jumps to approximately 220 miles for the Long Range version with a 49 kWh pack. Standard and long range versions get 96 hp and 114 hp respectively from a single motor driving the front wheels. It will recharge at up to 120 kW, which can take the battery from 10 to 80% full in 30 minutes.

The Casper (or Inster) is shaping up to be a capable and attractive EV city car. It’s also got retro good looks that are altogether somewhat similar to the Rivian R3, which sent the world wild just a few months ago. Hyundai has also promised an Inster Cross model to come down the line, with a more “rugged, outdoor-focused design,” so get excited for that one.

We can only speculate as to why Hyundai has these things still camouflaged in the UK. The model is already confirmed for Europe, after all, and everybody knows what it look like. Perhaps most likely, it’s just a mule car that’s doing some final approval testing ahead of a UK launch date yet to come.

In any case, we love it when readers send in shots of test mules—especially when we can figure out what they are! A big thank you to Tom for hitting us up. If you’ve got your own spy pics, you can send them our way too—post them to tips@theautopian.com!

Image credits: Tom Newis, Hyundai