The Hyundai Insteroid Concept Is No April Fools' Joke

We’ll kick off with a reminder to be vigilant today because it’s 1 April, a day when hashtag brands decide to get involved with April Fools' festivities by issuing ‘hilarious’ press releases touting some imaginary new product or service. Take the Hyundai Insteroid, for instance – Hyundai’s claiming it’s turned its tiny little Inster EV into a WRC-inspired widebody performance machine, complete with a puntastic name. Ha!

No, hang on – we’ve just checked, and this thing’s not a prank. Granted, the chances of it hitting production feel about as slim as the typical automotive April Fools' joke, but Hyundai really is going to be showing this thing off at automotive events across Europe and Asia this year.

Said to be inspired by the world of racing games, the Insteroid (Inster plus steroid – geddit?) takes Hyundai’s tiny new EV and does away with its cutesy looks for a properly, well… steroidal attitude.

It’s got a wing like a WRC car, arch flares like a Pikes Peak racer, and aero wheel covers that look like they’ve been nicked wholesale from an ’80s IMSA GTO machine. Inside, all the non-essentials have been stripped out, replaced by big racing seats and a minimalist digital display complete with what, for copyright reasons, definitely isn’t a Pacman ghost. There’s also a set of truly banging speakers where the rear seats used to be.

Hyundai hasn’t given us any powertrain details, but assuming this is actually going to be a working vehicle and not just a static piece of display stand dressing made of fibreglass and MDF, we imagine it’ll pack the twin-motor drivetrain from the Ioniq 5 N. That means 641bhp and 568lb ft of torque in its spiciest mode, plus all kinds of clever torque vectoring tech.

The latter should come in handy because, like any self-respecting display of EV performance prowess these days, the Insteroid has a drift mode. That explains the enormous wand of a handbrake sprouting forth from the dash, then.

Eduardo Ramírez, Hyundai Europe’s chief designer, said: “Insteroid represents a modern take on the idea of a dream car. It is designed to inspire and create enthusiasm. 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.”

Following on from a debut in Seoul last night, the Insteroid will be pride of place on Hyundai’s stand at the Seoul Mobility Show later this month. It’ll then pop up at various other events throughout the year, so we’re rather hoping to see it slithering its way up the Goodwood hill in July.

As for whether you’ll ever be able to buy one… yeah, dream on. You will get to drive one in a sense, though, because in a move in keeping with the Insteroid’s retro stylings, it’s going to get a tie-in browser game, just like it’s 2005. Epic win, etc, etc.