The Hyundai Motor Company is one of the world’s leading carmakers. It is arguably one of the world’s most innovative too, and with models such as the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, as well as the Kona Electric and Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, is a leader in automotive electrification.
The company was established in South Korea in 1967 – 20 years after the company’s founder, Chung Ju-yung, created the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company – and in 1968, construction of the company’s Ulsan car factory was completed.
That year, in cooperation with Ford, Hyundai began assembly of the Cortina for the local market.
Following the success of the Cortina, Hyundai decided to develop its own vehicle and hired a slew of European engineers as well as automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign to fashion something special for its first foray into in-house car manufacturing.
The result of this decision would be the Pony – a small passenger car which, over a couple of generations and a whole range of styles from hatchback to wagon to pick-up – was in production for 15 years, was sold across the globe, and was a massive hit for Hyundai, establishing its credentials as a manufacturer.
In 1974, Hyundai presented a rather special version of the Pony – the Coupe Concept – at the Turin Motor Show. Styled by Giugaro, the Pony Coupe Concept was a design classic with its wedge shape, the sliced rear end, and a futuristic interior and dashboard. It was way ahead of its time.
Guigaro would go on to design the DMC DeLorean, which shares some of the Pony Concept’s styling.
Although it was marked for production, the wonderful-looking Pony Coupe Concept never made it past the concept stage – a result of the adverse global economic conditions of the late 1970s – and was actually, in Hyundai’s words, ‘lost to history’.
However, nearly 50 years later, the company has recreated the car, and the ‘new’ vehicle debuted last month in Italy. The concept comes with a 1.2-litre four-cylinder engine developing 61kW at 6000rpm, which means that while it might look like it could break some records, it’s highly unlikely. But who cares when it looks like this.
Hyundai says the Pony Coupe Concept is an important vehicle in the company’s history and design heritage, and was the inspiration for the jaw-dropping N Vision 74 flagship concept unveiled last year.
That concept has an altogether more muscular performance to match its styling, with the hydrogen fuel-cell N Vision 74 packing plenty of punch. There’s a 62.4kWh battery paired with the hydrogen fuel cell stack, and a pair of electric motors at the rear developing 500kW/900Nm. Hyundai says top speed is over 250km/h.
While the Pony Coupe Concept did not make it into production, it’s clear that a company that had plans to build such a machine as one of its first in-house creations was always going to have the determination to be a big player in the industry. 50 years on, that’s exactly what has happened.
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (June 2023)
1 July 2023
