Is it just me, or do many new performance cars almost seem too serious for their own good? Take the new BMW M5, for example. Huge power figures, huge weight, hugely complicated suspension, but the result is a car that doesn’t immediately elicit a positive emotional response. Cars need to get a bit silly again, and few automakers seem to be having quite as good a time as Hyundai. The Insteroid concept draws inspiration from video games and bonkers homologation specials to create an outlandish hot hatchback that looks like an absolute blast.
In case you’re wondering about the name, Insteroid is a portmanteau of Inster, the name of the electric car on which this is based, and steroid, because this thing ain’t natty. It also sounds like asteroid, which fits because this thing’s truly out of this world.
Basically, Hyundai’s taken its global entry-level EV and given it the Renault 5 Turbo 3E treatment. Think fender flares wide enough to be used as tables, a diffuser the size of the moon, and a proper bulldog stance. I particularly dig the aerodiscs on the front wheels, and the orange accents really pop against the neutral monocoque.
Keeping with the theme, the cockpit of the Insteroid is simultaneously sparse and novel. No carpets, no sound deadening, but the pursuit of lightness has yielded some lovely touches. The visual of the mesh dashboard is fascinating, the hydraulic handbrake sticking out of the console gets it, the two-tone cage is pretty baller, and that’s before we even get to the gauge cluster.
Now that is how you do a concept car gauge cluster! Forget holographic displays, give me cables, a dot-matrix display, tiny individual screens for individual functions, even some buttons. It feels like technology stopped being fun when it stopped being a little bit fanciful with hardware, and this cluster has just the right mix of sophistication and whimsy.
Speaking of whimsy, you know what a trackday car needs? Filthy amount of bass. The Insteroid seems to feature an infinite baffle setup with an amusing array of adjacent tubes, knobs, and even an aerial. Some of those bits sound outmoded, but there’s charm in antiquity. People still love Morgans with their wooden body framing, so having a bit of love for an antenna seems totally fair. It’s certainly charmed me.
So why build the Insteroid? Well, “INSTEROID is a celebration of pure fun,” wrote Simon Loasby, Senior VP and head of the Hyundai Design center, adding “It’s not just about how it looks, but also how it sounds and how it makes you feel. From its bold visual language to the immersive sound experience, it’s a concept that invites everyone to dream a little louder and smile a little longer.”
At the end of the day, isn’t that what we’re all here for? Cars should be fun, and the more automakers that take this idea and run with it, the better. Sure, insane zero-to-60 mph times are great, but in the real world, an ear-to-ear grin is more valuable than a ten-second quarter-mile time.
Top graphic credit: Hyundai
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“Silly” is a tricky word, but I fully support more cars that are “happy”, or even “cute”. Angry cars seem to be the dominant trend ATM. For some reason I’ve had a desire lately for a cheap wrangler to scoot around in for the summer and in what I assume is a response to the BROJEEP style I see so often in Chicago, I want it to be cute! Older model, maybe in a bright color, and really pared down to the basic original parts. No angry eyes, no vents, nothing you could call “tactical”… just cute and happy.
Angry eye jeeps are usually a sign of compensation.
I would drive this everyday.
I’m a certified Grown-Ass-Man™ and yet, seeing this somehow just makes my tingly bits get significantly tinglier. I have a very irrational desire to own this car. There, I said it.
Turns out that that thing has the two motor AWD platform, driveline and battery out of the Ioniq 5 N stuffed underneath it and it does work…
If only this were published another day
Looks like a joke
Man, remember when people thought that the FK8 Civic Type R was over-the-top?
Reminds me of a Renault 5 Turbo 2 from the 80’s
For a company that spent the 80s and 90s building objectively terrible cars, Hyundai has a fantastic sense of what made this era cool.
I’m here for Korea’s hard lean into a Cyberpunk future.
Almost none of this is my aesthetic, and I would loathe the driving acoustics, but I’m so starved for interesting new cars that I want it anyway. It looks so fun.
Um…April fools?
Apparently not. It was at the Seoul Mobility Show. Which doesn’t mean it’s not a joke, but it’s not Autopian’s fantasy.
Insteroid? Let’s just skip the pretense and call it Onsteroids. Or even better Anabolic Steroids or Nandrolone.
I would like the regular Inster just fine. Maybe with some colorful paint? Please?
They could have a special version sold only at Costco where you have to buy two of them shrink wrapped together.
They would call them the InStereo.
This is just fun. Realistic? Hell no, but fun? Absolutely.
That sorta smushed Pac-Man ghost below the gauges HAS to do something totally unnecessary but incredibly fun.
There are many things to love about this car, but this might be the thing I love the most.
For me it’s those gauges. They are such perfect fusions of retro and modern, reminding me of the tech in Rogue One.
….speaking of the body cladding hall of fame…
Ummm April fools? Hah
I was pretty sure it was an AI generated gag, but Hyundai did tease the reveal on March 25, so maybe it’s a real concept car? It’s the most interesting thing I’ve seen in EVs in a while.
https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000000919
Sweeet, even if they don’t offer this, at least give us a body kit, actually for Bolts and Leafs I could see them looking better with widebody and a spoiler.
OMFG that is amazing. This could NOT cost MORE than the stock version, can it? There is less stuff in there. This should be cheaper. I want one.
Now drop a hemi in it so we can call it a hemiro…..I’ll show myself out.
I’ve been watching European reviews of the production Inster for half a year or so now, and I’m 100% into a smallish, squared-off inexpensive EV hatch/crossover/wagon because why wouldn’t I be? The Renault 5, Dacia Spring, etc… are in this category too. I wonder how long it’ll be before manufacturers manage to bring truly affordable (like $25K for real affordable) little EVs to us in America? I won’t hold my breath.
I know it’s not the point of such designs, but it’d be so nice if buyers of production cars could option some of the wild tomfoolery into their ‘regular’ cars. I’d happily pay for a dash like the Insteroid’s over a boring/regular production car dash any day, and don’t get me started on how much I like orange interiors!
Every Renault 5 review is just, “This car is amazing. It has no right to be this good. I cannot figure out how it can be this cheap when it’s so good. Everyone should buy one right now. Except Americans. You’ll never get it.”
This should sell great in Canada.
Few cars offer a hockey stick holster.
It even looks like it’s wearing goalie pads.
Shorsey pronounces it ‘Hyund, eh?”
I absolutely want to see more companies making their low end cars into sports car variants. Give me the GT-R version of the Versa!
Also, I’m sure this will be expensive as heck, but it gives me hope that there’s room for EVs to hit that low cost, high (enough) performance sports car segment.
Kinda from the Mad Maxim school of auto design. Crazy sells.