Hyundai Inster Cross

New trim level gives one of our favourite small electric cars a tough new look and lots of standard kit On sale Now Price from £28,755

- OLIVER YOUNG

BARBOUR JACKETS HAVE been bringing country chic to city slickers for generations, and this new Cross variant of Hyundai's tiny electric Inster similarly looks at home in the urban and actual jungles alike. This is all in an effort to set the Inster apart from its Fiat Grande Panda and Renault 5 (R5) rivals.

The ruggedised Inster wears a different design of front bumper, along with skid plates and a unique style of 17in alloy wheels, and there's the option of a roof basket. It certainly looks the part for rural adventuring, but don't be fooled by its attire; the Cross is mechanically identical to the regular Inster in its 02 trim. That means it has the bigger, 46kWh (usable capacity) Long Range battery and a 113bhp electric motor driving the front wheels only. The Cross has no more off-road ability than any other Inster.

Happily, though, the Cross is just as good to drive on paved roads as the 02. It's nothing like as quick as the R5 (in E-Tech 150 form, this rival manages 0-62mph in just 7.9sec, compared with 10.6sec for the Inster Cross), but it feels usefully nippy around town. It can cope with motorway speeds just fine, too, even if a bit more oomph wouldn't go amiss.

It's a better drive than the Grande Panda, too, with more consistently weighted steering and less body lean, even if it can't match the R5 for driver appeal.