Hyundai is riding high as a global car-making giant these days, especially where electric cars are concerned. The company has motoring roots that are rather more humble, however, and the Korean company is looking back at that history as part of its new 'Motorstudio' museum in Busan.
Based on a '74 original
Back in 1974 - with a little help from disgruntled former British Leyland senior executive George Turnbull - Hyundai started making the Pony, its first home-grown, home-designed car. Well, almost home-designed. Turnbull had huge input into the Pony, hence its close visual and mechanical relationship to the old Morris Marina. Equally, the exterior styling was done by the great Giorgetto Giugiaro (possibly on a Friday afternoon, but still...), and the mechanical bits came mostly from Mitsubishi.
Nonetheless, the Pony was Hyundai's first true car (it had made Cortinas from knock-down kits before that) and all of that huge success and influence flows from that point. To both celebrate that heritage, and to look to the future, Hyundai has made this - the Heritage Series Pony.
Electric power
At first glance, it looks like a nicely restored original. Underneath, though, this Pony is a bit more sophisticated than that four-cylinder 1.3 hatchback that first rolled out of Hyundai's factory. This one is, in fact, electric although thus far Hyundai isn't mentioning any specific performance nor range data (presumably because it's designed to sit on a stand in a museum, not to be seriously driven).
Look at the lights, front and rear, and you'll see that they use the same 'pixel' LED technology as the new Ioniq 5 electric car (a car whose wedge-shaped styling owes a certain debt to the Mk1 Pony's fastback look). Those retro-style wing mirrors? They're not mirrors, they're actually rear-facing cameras.
Vacuum tubes
Inside, though, the cool factor gets ramped up a notch or twelve. Instead of digital instruments, there is a rack of 'pixie' vacuum tubes, which light up with the appropriate number to display your speed or range. The whole cabin has been hand-finished in brushed aluminium and leather, and the bucket seats are bespoke made for the car. There are other touches - a voice-activated steering wheel (we assume that's for infotainment functions, rather than for actual steering) and a little touch-sensitive pad for gear selection, with a groovy, retro H-pattern on it. To bring things bang up to date, there's a Hyundai-branded electric scooter in the boot.
Don't go expecting any of this to go into production, sadly. As we said - this is a museum special, although hopefully some of the Pony's achingly cool interior details might eventually filter through to Hyundais we can actually buy.