Hyundai is recreating its 1974 Pony Coupe Concept - the car that was displayed at the Turin Motor Show that year. It's working with Italian design company GFG Style to bring the classic concept back to life; the original no longer exists, but a replica will be built from blueprints and photographs.
It's not merely another retro novelty. The Concept is a hugely significant and influential car that's becoming even more important as time goes by. It was the precursor to the (admittedly more prosaic) Pony sedan, Hyundai's first serious export model - and therefore arguably the origin point of the Korean car industry as we know it today.
The Coupe Concept also served as the styling inspiration for the Ioniq 5 battery electric vehicle (BEV). The new model's angular lines and geometric details refer directly to the 1974 show car. The Concept is also reflected in Hyundai's latest N Vision 74 "rolling lab" concept.
The intention to restore the 1974 car to its original glory was announced at a Hyundai Design Talk in Seoul last month, which featured Luc Donckerwolke (pictured above, centre), chief creative officer of Hyundai Motor Group, and Giorgetto Giugiaro (above right) - who styled the Coupe Concept as a young designer nearly 50 years ago.
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“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Giorgetto and [his son] Fabrizio to Seoul for this rare occasion and we look forward to collaborating with them and GFG Style on this extraordinary design project,” said Donckerwolke. “Not only does this project hold historical value, but it also represents a cross-cultural exchange that could pave the way for more collaborations down the road."
The Giugiaro father-and-son team are founders of GFG Style. So the Coupe Concept will be rebuilt by the family that created it in the first place.
In 1974, when Hyundai Motor was still in its early days of vehicle production, the company’s executives contacted Giorgetto Giugiaro to propose work on designing Hyundai’s first independent model and Korea’s first mass-produced car.
At the time, there was no vehicle design and styling capability in Korea, so Hyundai Motor commissioned Giugiaro to design, make blueprints and build five prototypes, one of which was a coupe. In the process of designing and prototyping, Hyundai decided to show the Pony and Pony Coupe at the Turin Motor Show to promote the brand’s debut in the global market.
With its wedge-style nose, circular headlamps and origami-like geometric lines, the Pony Coupe was intended for North American and European markets, but the project came to a stop in 1981 just before mass production.
However, it directly influenced Hyundai’s first independent production models under the Pony nameplate, which ran from 1975 to 1990 and were sold around the world.
The concept design also served as a source of inspiration for Giugiaro’s work on the DeLorean DMC 12 that debuted in 1983, as seen in the Back to the Future movies (1985-90).
In 2019, Hyundai Motor took inspiration from the original Pony for the 45 concept car, which directly influenced the Ioniq 5, launched in 2021. The same year, Hyundai reinterpreted the original Pony production car as a restomod electric vehicle concept. In 2022 came the N Vision 74 hydrogen-hybrid "rolling lab"’ development vehicle.
Of his original design, Giugiaro says: “I designed the Hyundai Pony when I was still a young designer at the start of my career. I felt very proud that I was in charge of creating a vehicle for a company and country that was about to take on a fiercely competitive global market. Now, I’m deeply honoured that Hyundai has asked me to rebuild it for posterity and as a celebration of the brand’s heritage.”