Bye your dreams: BYD to ditch divisive 'Build Your Dreams' badging from new models in Europe, so what about Australia?

If you’ve ever wondered what the initials of the car brand BYD stand for, you only need to see the back of one of its models - in Australia it’s likely you’ve seen a BYD Atto 3 around.

BYD, or Build Your Dreams as it’s also known in full, uses the full text of its name on the tailgates of its cars, which is unusual and odd in that its brand name represents a phrase more than a name.

For most Western markets, seeing ‘Toyota’ or ‘Ford’ spelt out in full on a car is rare enough, but a full three-word name isn’t to the tastes of some - especially in the UK, it seems, where customer feedback has resulted in the brand removing the ‘Build Your Dreams’ lettering.

According to Car Dealer Magazine in the UK, the brand will no longer use the full phrase across the tailgates for new models like the BYD Seal in Europe, after "dealer, journalist and dealer partner feedback" saw some opposition to the ‘Build Your Dreams’ slogan’s appearance.

European Customer and Experience Manager at BYD Tim Bryant told the outlet at the launch of the new Seal EV sedan that the badging had proven divisive.

“BYD has listened carefully to dealer, journalist and dealer partner feedback during this past year, some in favour of the lettering and others less so,” Bryant said.

“We’ve taken the majority viewpoint and utilised the speed and agility of our vertically-integrated supply chain to ensure that all Seals built for Europe will feature a cleaner rear tailgate design featuring discreet BYD lettering.”

It wasn’t always ‘Build Your Dreams’, as BYD Chair Wang Chuanfu once explained the BYD name was taken from the ‘pinyin’ (or Romanisation, the conversion to Latin characters from languages that don’t use the Latin alphabet, such as Mandarin) of the company’s name in China.

The ‘Build Your Dreams’ slogan was later created to fit the name in English.

CarsGuide has asked Luke Todd, Managing Director of Australia’s BYD distributor EV Direct, if there has been any direct feedback from customers regarding the badging locally, or if there has been any consideration to change it on Australian-spec cars.

Here in Australia, a brief search yields some forum and social media posts questioning the use of the full phrase, though it doesn’t appear to be an overwhelming opinion, nor one that’s costing the brand sales.

So far in 2023, the brand is averaging about 900 BYD Atto 3s delivered each month, with space for that number to ramp up.

Soon enough, BYD will begin to roll out the Seal in Australia, alongside the Atto 3 and its entry model, the Dolphin, which is priced as the cheapest EV available in Australia with a $38,890 price tag.