Hyundai to remake the legendary Pony coupe

Hyundai will rebuild the influential 1974 Pony Coupe Concept. Photo: Hyundai

Hyundai Motor Company has announced it will work with Italian design firm GFG Style to rebuild the influential 1974 Pony Coupe Concept.

GFG Style, notably father and son founders Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro, created the Pony for Hyundai’s debut at the 1974 Turin Motor Show. 

The rebuilt concept will be shown in the springtime (northern hemisphere).

 Hyundai Motor announced the plan during a Design Talk in Seoul, featuring Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro along with Luc Donckerwolke, Chief Creative Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, and SangYup Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Hyundai Motor’s Global Design Center.

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Giorgetto and 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.”

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.

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 amid an adverse global economic environment.