Pitch: a BYD Seal ute variant could be a massive hit in Australia and maybe also NZ
Yeah, images are AI. They're for discussion, attention and visualisation. Wrote an opinion piece on r/CarsAustralia and I've decided to cross-post it because the more people that actually see this and put it around, the more chance there is of it actually becoming a thing, especially if emails are sent, news outlets catch wind, and interest grows. There's no denying that nearly every Australian misses the Commodore and Falcon. I know I do. Especially missed are the ute variants of these cars. And for good reason; you could buy one fairly cheap and it gave you a combination of the engagement, comfort, performance and handling of a typical car, and the practicality and versatility of a pickup. They were rightfully best-selling vehicles. And the death of the body style was an unfortunate mix of circumstances. Restrictive emissions standards, harsh crash testing, and big dual-cabs invading their market. All of this, combined with GM publicly executing Holden (seriously, General Motors is a parasite) and Ford killing the Falcon, as well as coupe utes failing to find much markets in the USA, led to the body style becoming obscure. However, modern tech and public opinion could make the coupe ute genuinely appealing once again. EV powertrains eliminate the biggest hurdles of packaging, torque and emissions. Buyers here are slowly starting to veer away from massive dual-cab utes, especially American ones. Modern EVs are generally very safe. And, on top of this, the yearn from the public for a spiritual successor to the Holden Ute and Falcon Utility is hard to ignore. And the Seal would be the perfect base for this passing down of the torch; it's already super popular here, platform wouldn't be hard to build a ute off of, it's RWD, safe as hell, honestly has the sex appeal that the Commo and Falcon had, and if it was priced well, then Tesla, BYD's biggest rival in Australia (and already faltering in popularity thanks to their CEO being... uh... y'know) would have no way to compete with them. They'd have total domination of the market. Another thing that I'm sure is hindering the return of the coupe ute is the USA and its consumers wanting cars so massive you could fit three whole Minis in one of their cars, and the fact that the US is one of the biggest car markets worldwide. Which is fine there, since it's a big country with fairly even population distribution and big roads. This is actually sort of a win for BYD in that sense, since the US withdrew from the possibility of Chinese competition by basically blanket banning their cars. So the big market most companies have to please isn't an issue for them. BYD should do this. There's lots to gain, not much to lose. If you really want this to become a thing your voice can count to it. Email BYD's marketing team. Message members of their design team on LinkedIn. Hell, even just share it around and discuss it further on other platforms. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
