Η Hyundai Motor commissioned Italian design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro to rebuild the Pony Coupe concept from 1974, which the company still considers to be the roots of its design DNA.
The Korean carmaker had hired Giugiaro's company at the time, Italdesign, to design and develop the Pony compact hatchback, which would become Hyundai's first independent model and South Korea's first mass-produced car.
The Pony Coupe prototype was unveiled at the 1974 Turin Motor Show and the Pony hatchback went into production in 1975.
A production version of the wedge-shaped coupe was planned for Europe and North America, but the project was abandoned in 1979 after Hyundai had already spent $80 million on development. Over the years, however, the original concept as well as the development prototypes were lost.
Still, the Pony Coupe prototype remained a huge influence for Hyundai, Hyundai Motor Group design chief Luc Donckerwolke said Wednesday at an event in Seoul.
"The Pony Coupe concept has already inspired the Ioniq 5 and the N Vision 74 (with hydrogen cells), as well as other new models to come," he revealed.
Given the importance of the original concept to Hyundai's past and future, the automaker commissioned Giugiaro's new company, GFG Style, to recreate the Pony Coupe.
The new Pony Coupe, which will be built in Turin and unveiled next spring, will look exactly like the original concept, including its chassis, which is derived from a first-generation Pony hatchback built in South Korea.
"We have entrusted Giugiaro to rebuild (the Pony Coupe) because it fits with our design philosophy, 'Shaping the future with heritage,'" said SangYup Lee, senior vice president of design for the Hyundai and Genesis brands.
Historical background
The original Pony Coupe came about in 1973 after Giugiaro met in Turin with Hyundai's founder and then chairman, Ju-Yong Chung, who invited him to go to Korea to better understand his plans for Hyundai to become an independent car manufacturer.
"I wasn't impressed to see an antiquated factory building old models from Hillman (the British automaker that has closed down), so Chairman Chung took me to Ulsan to see the Hyundai shipyard that was building a 250,000-ton oil tanker," Giugiaro said last week.
Impressed with what Hyundai had achieved in just three and a half years as a shipbuilder, Giugiaro accepted the task of developing the Pony family of models.
"When I see what South Korea is today and where Hyundai is in the global automaker rankings, I'm really proud to have helped them develop their own models," Giugiaro said.
In addition to the first-generation Pony, built from 1975 to 1986 with a production run of about 685,800 units, Giugiaro designed four other production models for Hyundai. The Stellar midsize sedan, launched in 1983 and considered South Korea's first premium model; the Excel compact hatchback and the Presto sedan, which was Hyundai's springboard to successfully enter the U.S. market; and the Sonata large sedan (1988).
