The Hyundai Inster is made in Korea, but is entitled to the ecological bonus, its price drops!

Good news for Hyundai, which has just received approval from the French state for its new Inster to be entitled to the ecological bonus.

If the ecological bonus for electric cars has been further reduced for 2025, with a reduction to a maximum of €2,000 for tax households earning more than €26,200 per year, the eco-score put in place by France in 2024 remains well in place. It therefore remains essential for manufacturers claiming the CO2 bonus in France to justify the environmental score of their electric vehicles, which evaluates the entire carbon footprint of a model, from its construction to its sale. As the delivery of the model to its point of sale remains essential, we quickly understand that this deprivation of French tax assistance mainly targets electric vehicles manufactured in Asia. A sort of punishment which does not violate the rules of international trade, which notably require not taxing a product based on its simple origin.

The bonus for the Hyundai Inster

But since the eco-score remains an average of several factors, it’s all a matter of ratio. This is how the new Hyundai Inster has just received approval from the French State to be “bonussed” in 2025. Certainly, Hyundai’s new electric city car is entirely manufactured in Korea, whether it is the battery like the rest of the car. But due to its low weight – the quantity of metal used counts in the eco-score – which implies its very small size (3.82 m long), its battery of reasonable size (49 kWh) and the available in a 5-seater version, this very well thought-out electric city car will benefit from the ecological bonus. This therefore brings the Inster back to the price of €23,000.

This advantage in “measurement” also allowed the Mazda MX-30, which also used a small capacity battery and therefore a better environmental score despite being manufactured in Japan, to benefit from the French bonus. On the other hand, for the Inster, the bonus will not be valid in the 4-seater version, since the eco-score is also weighted according to the number of passengers accepted on board. In the 5-seater version, the Inster loses its sliding bench seat, but it remains foldable to continue to benefit from a completely flat floor, one of the strengths of this city car.