EV MADE EASY

A new wave of electric vehicles (EV) from Korea, starring Kia's EV3 and the £23k (Rs 24.73 lakh) Hyundai Inster, have 2025 at their feet. We drive them

- Ben Whitworth

IT IS WELL PAST MIDNIGHT. Seoul is a sprawling and sweating 8,000-square mile (20,720-square kilometre) sauna. Despite the energy-sapping combination of 35° Celsius heat and 95 per cent humidity, the Gangnam district is absolutely heaving. People pour in and out of brightly illuminated cafés, bars, photobooth shops, and barbecue houses, their hands full of phones, cigarettes, and mini fans. They swarm across Gangnam’s tight grid of roads and alleys with scant regard for the cars, scooters, and e-bikes that deftly weave through and around them. The shimmering lights, the pulsing K-pop soundtrack, the aromas of grilled steak, perfume, beer, and smoke, the gritty back-of-your-throat taste of hot urban concrete—welcome to the world’s most dynamic city.

I slip silently past Gangnam’s saturated late-night revellers, relaxing in the icy air pouring out of the Kia EV3’s air vents and the wonderfully comfortable chilled seat. Heading north through the Korean capital’s 24/7 traffic, I cross the River Han and then peel west for Hyundai’s design centre in Goyang to collect the electric-only Inster, Hyundai’s new urban car. Two very different cars from two brands on fire.

They are chasing different customers, but both favour a fusion of class-leading battery technology and jaw-on-the-floor design.

They are buoyed along by hallyu, Korea’s cultural wave spearheaded by musical phenomena like BTS, NewJeans, and Blackpink, the television sensations “Squid Game” and “All of Us Are Dead”, and Oscar-winners Parasite and Minari. And both marques are rocketing into the future, fuelled by the confidence that comes from stealing buyers from their American, European, and Japanese rivals.