Hyundai Insteroid Concept: What Is It?

Take Hyundai’s small family car - the Inster - feed it way too many energy drinks, and you get the Insteroid. It’s the Inster “on steroids” - a one-off, gaming-inspired concept designed to make people smile.

Simon Loasby, Hyundai’s Head of Style, told me the project “was never supposed to be a car.” It began as a sketch exercise by younger members of Hyundai's European design studio - something fun to make the team grin. But as he explained, the passion in the studio grew and the budget was found to bring it fully to life as a design study.

Insteroid has been designed as a poster car, something to grab the attention of gamers, younger drivers, and anyone who wants their car to be packed with performance and make them happy.

Hyundai Insteroid Design and Features

The Insteroid takes the proportions of the Inster and cranks everything up. It’s wider, lower, and meaner, with a body kit that wouldn’t look out of place on an ’80s rally car and an outrageous wing designed to increase downforce. It could give a Lamborghini Countach a run for its money.

Inside, it’s part arcade game, part race car: the bucket seats, roll cage, drift handbrake, and chunky gear lever all scream drama. Hyundai even fitted a customisable grid of lights across the dash that can flash messages or react as you drive. And then there’s the sound system, a beat-box-style setup so powerful it turns the cabin into a nightclub on wheels. It’s all a bit mad. But brilliant at the same time.

Loasby told me the design team wanted to inject “the spirit of funk, of little light-hearted moments.” That 23 on the side is the number of Easter eggs you can hunt for - one of those is a playful hidden character called Boost, which you’ll find tucked away in different parts of the car.

Hyundai Insteroid Performance and Sound

There are no figures on performance, other than it would be ‘fun’ and would be able to draw on the likes of the Ioniq 5N and Ioniq 6N for inspiration. That would mean serious performance potential, complete with Drift Mode for sideways antics and a lot of drama.

And the sound? Forget fake exhausts. Loasby grinned as he told me: “All I ever played as a kid was Pac-Man and ‘angry Pac Man’ became the theme for the sound design.” From its visuals to its noises, every sense has been dialled up to deliver fun.

Hyundai Insteroid Gaming Connection

The Insteroid is more than gaming-inspired – it could become part of gaming culture. Hyundai debuted the car at Gamescom, a first for the brand, and Loasby told me it was “a way to connect with a completely new audience.”

Talks are already underway to bring the Insteroid into a game like Forza Horizon, ensuring fans will be able to drive it virtually even if it never hits showrooms.

Could the Hyundai Insteroid Go Into Production?

Officially, Hyundai insists it’s not for production. But the Insteroid has been designed to sit on the RN24 underpinnings, the same platform used for Hyundai’s Ioniq 5. That means, technically, it could be built.

Loasby pointed to Renault’s success with the limited-run R5 Turbo 3E as proof there’s a market. “They sold out instantly. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do something like that too?” he told me with a glint in his eye, adding that he’d love more people to push for it. 

Could the Intsteriod be set for production?