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Hyundai Pony Heritage Series: Electric restomod concept revealed

Retro reimagining of Hyundai's first car unveiled for a new exhibition, with pixel LED lighting and a cathode-ray dashboard.


The Hyundai Pony Heritage Series electric concept has been unveiled, as a zero-emissions reimagining of Hyundai's first-ever production vehicle.

Revealed at Hyundai's newly-opened Motorstudio Busan exhibition centre in Korea earlier this month, the Pony Heritage Series 'restomod' concept borrows many design cues from the brand's latest Ioniq 5 electric vehicle – itself inspired by the 45 Concept, another show car built as a retro-styled tribute to the original 1975 Pony.

Up front, a new set of LED headlights inspired by the original Pony's four-strong circular set feature, which see the daytime-running lights illuminate the outer region of the lighting unit, and the main headlight beam shine from a circular section in the centre.

The pixel motif seen in the headlights continues at the rear, where four, U-shaped tail-light units inspired by the Pony's rectangular lights feature, each comprised of 30 enlarged LED squares. A similar, albeit rectangular pixel light design can be seen affixed to the rear of the new Ioniq 5.

Camera-based side mirrors sit on the front quarter-panels, body-coloured bumpers replace the 1975 car's black units, and an aerodynamic lip spoiler sits towards the bottom edge of the front bumper.

15-inch metallic alloy wheels fill the arches, while the car is finished in a similar matte matte silver hue to the original Italdesign-penned Hyundai Pony Coupe Concept first revealed in 1974.

Inside, Hyundai designers have turned the retro dial up to 11, with the fitment of an elongated, driver-focused central binnacle reminiscent of the original Pony's dashboard.

Within the metal unit sit readouts for electric driving range and speed made from retro cathode 'Nixie' tubes, alongside a neatly-integrated curved centre display showing shortcuts for navigation, phone and media controls.

There's an all-new steering wheel, featuring a three-spoke design with PONY script in the centre, a physical voice control button on the left, two red leather centre markers, and swathes of black leather, thick metal and gloss black plastic – with similar materials seen on the indicator and wiper stalks sitting behind.

Front passengers sit in leather-wrapped bucket seats with contrast stitching, and are separated by a gloss black centre console with a touch-based gear selector inspired by a traditional H-pattern manual gearbox, with P, R, N, D and E settings organised in the same pattern as the 1975 Pony's four-speed manual transmission.

Other interior highlights include weaved leather door card inserts, perforated brushed steel speaker covers, and a large metal storage container behind the front seats, the purpose of which is unknown.

Little is known about the Pony Heritage Series' powertrain other than that it employs electric power alone, as confirmed by one of its designers in an Instagram hashtag.

For comparison, the first-generation Hyundai Pony offered buyers a choice of 1.2-litre, 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre Mitsubishi-sourced four-cylinder engines, with the mid-level mill developing just 50kW, and 'sprinting' from 0-60mph (97km/h) in an independently-tested 15.3 seconds.

The Hyundai Pony Heritage Series concept will form part of the first exhibit at the marque's new Motorstudio Busan brand centre in South Korea.

Dubbed 'Reflections in Motion', the exhibit will also include the Prophecy concept car unveiled in 2020, along with a 'Color & Light' room, a "room-filling" sculpture, and a media art installation from Korean artist Jin-Yo Mok, known as 'Media Strings (2021)'.

Don't expect the Heritage Series to reach production, with Hyundai keen to instead direct buyers looking for a Pony-inspired EV towards the new Ioniq 5, due to go on sale in Australia in the third quarter of 2021.

Click any of the images in this story to view the full gallery.

Below: Sketches of the Heritage Series alongside its 1975 inspiration, courtesy of Hyundai designer Yang Gu-rum

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Alex Misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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