Hyundai's journey from the Pony to world's No.3 carmaker

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. will open its first retrospective exhibition this week, chronicling its 50-year-long journey from its start as a small automaker to becoming the world’s third-largest carmaker.

At its heritage exhibition, “PONY, the timeless,” in Seoul, visitors will share Hyundai Motor’s reflection on its past and be guided into its future direction as the carmaker is accelerating its push into electric vehicles and autonomous cars.

It will be held at Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul from June 9 to August 6.

The exhibition follows the inaugural Hyundai Reunion event held in Lake Como, Italy last month, where it restored the Pony Coupe Concept, its first independently developed mass-production model, unveiled in 1974.

It traces the Pony’s journey through time, which inspired the designs of the all-electric IONIQ 5 crossover and the hydrogen fuel cell concept N Vision 74.

"In an age when artificial intelligence and robotics have a profound impact on the way we live and work, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on the core purpose of the company and the direction of our future,” Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun said during the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Wednesday.

The N Vision 74 concept was recently shown alongside the Pony Coupe Concept.

The 60-day Seoul event will connect the company’s present with its past, bringing a piece of 1970s nostalgia back into the spotlight, Hyundai said.

Its visitors will reminisce about the beginnings of the Pony, known as a compact car model in the 1970s, through videos, music and paintings of the 1970s and 1980s. It was produced until 1990. 

Along with the exhibition, Hyundai will introduce the RETRACE Series – the RETRACE Collection book and the RETRACE Magazine –  to disclose the Pony's development to the public for the first time.

Last year, Hyundai Motor Group, which includes the namesake carmaker and Kia Corp., climbed to the third position in the global automobile market by sales volume, outpacing Detroit-based General Motors Co.

Write to Il-Gue Kim at Black0419@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.