​Hyundai has given its new entry-level electric car a new name – Inster – with a clear nod towards Instagram and social media in general, and the generation it hopes will take this cute, small car to its heart.

As exclusively revealed by Electrifying.com in May, the new car will go on sale later this year across Europe and in the UK and Hyundai has given us a hint of what to expect from the baby of it's electric range with two images showing its outline and familiar pixelated lighting cluster.

Although the Inster is a new name, it’s an electrified version of the Hyundai Casper – a cute supermini-sized car that’s only available with a combustion engine. It’s expected to take many of that car’s design cues, like its oversized circular headlights you can see in the image below, to put the Inster in competition with a host of budget EVs including Citroen’s e-C3, Dacia Spring, BYD Dolphin and the upcoming Vauxhall Frontera.

At this stage, we’re only allowed to give you the confirmed name of the car. Battery and range figures are still under wraps for now, but will be revealed officially on Thursday 27th June.

The Inster name was chosen rather than Casper to differentiate it as an EV-only model for Europe. Apparently Inster stands for “intimate and innovative”, with Hyundai telling us, “It celebrates its audience's love for seamless social interactions and connectivity. It is perfectly aligned with their fast-paced digital lifestyle and reflects the Inster’s innovative tech character and versatility.”

So why wasn’t the Inster called Ioniq 1, following the naming convention of Hyundai’s other all-electric models the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6? According to Hyundai’s Director of Product & Pricing, Raf Van Nuffel, “The Ioniq name for now is basically for our dedicated EV platform vehicles, whereas when it's a derivative platform that we share with ICE powertrains, we still have dedicated names. This is the case for Kona Electric for instance. And now the same logic applies for Inster.”

We’ll be able to update this story with more in-depth detail about the Inster on June 27, but our experience of the Casper bodes well for the Inster and we would expect a funky interior that's well-equipped and has enough room for four people, while those pixel shaped lights suggests that it will also take some inspiration from Hyundais current all-electric Ioniq line-up.

At long last it seems that small, more affordable EVs are all the rage in the car industry, with Volkswagen confirming plans for their own sub-€20,000 model to sit below the €25,000 (£21,250) production version of the ID. 2 all concept set to be seen in 2025 alongside sister cars from Skoda and Cupra.  

Dacia went early, announcing its Spring model – going on sale later this year from £14,995, while the new Citroen e-C3 will cost from £21,990. The new all-electric MINI Cooper is a more premium offering at £30,000. 

Chinese EV maker, BYD, has also confirmed a version of its budget Seagull for Europe, but it’s not expected to match the $11,000 (£8,800) list price in its home market. BYD Europe boss Michael Shu recently said, “The car coming to Europe will be a different concept, but still a Seagull. The plan is to bring it in at under €20,000.”