A Production Hyundai N Vision 74 Might Not Happen After All: Report

Earlier this week, the Hyundai N Vision 74 returned to the headlines when news emerged from Korea reporting it’ll reach production and the final design would be revealed later this month. But that no longer looks certain, as another Korean outlet has called that rumor a load of bull. Even more confusingly, Hyundai has nothing to say on the matter, and evidence in favor of the car or against it only gets murkier the deeper you look.

The debacle began when Korean outlet Money Today reported a production version of the Hyundai Pony Coupe-inspired concept would drop at a “Pony Day” event in Seoul on May 27. However, another Korean publication, newspaper conglomerate Wikitree, says Hyundai told it “there is no plan to mass-produce the Pony Coupe, and there is no [May 27] Pony Day event planned.”

That sounds clear-cut, but when we contacted Hyundai USA for clarity, the picture blurred again. Hyundai’s spokespeople couldn’t comment on whether the N Vision 74 will reach production, saying: “We’re totally in the dark about that.” If even parts of Hyundai don’t know, then all we can do is speculate—and the available evidence only makes that more difficult.

Over the years, Hyundai has put concept cars into production pretty consistently. The Santa Cruz, Ioniq 5, and Ioniq 6 are all recent examples of concept cars made real, and an Ioniq 7 SUV is expected to follow in their footsteps. But it’s not a rock-solid record, as demonstrated by the more restomod-like Heritage Series concepts with the Pony Coupe and Grandeur—both bought-in designs. The former came from Giugiaro, and the latter was a rebadged Mitsubishi.

There are also issues with the business case for the Pony Coupe’s spiritual successor, especially one as technically advanced as the N Vision 74. Hyundai recently canceled a mid-engined sports car—one designed to fit an ICE or a hydrogen fuel cell like the N Vision 74—for being too pricey. It also tested mid-mounted ICE drivetrains in a series of Veloster-based mules, but if there isn’t money to be made from the ICE model, then there’s no hope for a more niche hydrogen car.

Then there’s the question of accuracy at the Korean outlets that dispute this high-performance Hyundai’s existence. Business and financial outlets like Money Today tend to be conservative with their reporting, though their story is at times fuzzy on the details, while Wikitree meanwhile is more of a general-interest paper. Neither appears to cover automotive industry news closely, but it’s likely the former would be better connected—though there’s no discounting the weight of the latter’s reportedly official statement from Hyundai.