Out of time! The Tesla Model Y-beating GM electric cars that could have saved Holden in Australia | Opinion

Could a pair of advanced General Motors mid-size electric SUVs have given Holden an effective one-two right-hook against the Tesla Model Y if it had held on for three more years?

This and other tantalising what-if scenarios have come to light now that GM has announced plans to expand to Australia with production right-hand-drive (RHD) electric vehicles (EVs), starting later next year with the Cadillac Lyriq.

Confirmed in Melbourne this week with much fanfare, which included visiting US executives and even a personalised video from GM CEO Mary Barra talking up our importance, it was revealed that the Mazda CX-90-sized five-seat, six-figure luxury SUV employs an all-new EV architecture – dubbed Ultium – designed specifically for RHD and Australia in mind.

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Speaking to CarsGuide at the Lyriq unveiling event, Cadillac Global Vice-President, John Ross, disclosed that it was one of Holden's former managing directors and later GM product development director at the time of the Ultium's gestation, current GM president Mark Reuss, who helped champion RHD development to help ensure accessibility for markets like Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

"It was a 2015 timeframe when Mark Reuss (and his team) all came together to really re-architect what the future of Cadillac was going to look like," he said.

"Not just in the US but around the globe, and really thinking differently as we step through the brands and what's the right progression."

the Equinox EV will be available soon in the US in either front-motor/front-wheel drive or dual-motor/all-wheel drive.

This decision to include RHD was made at a time when Holden was still a top-three player, behind only Toyota and Mazda but ahead of Hyundai and Ford, with over 100,000 sales annually in 2015. Sales of its popular Trax small and Captiva medium SUVs were healthy and actually rising, as was Colorado ute volume, while even the VF Commodore/Caprice duo managed to shift nearly 30,000 units combined that year.

Yes, Holden had announced in December 2013 that it would cease Australian manufacturing by the end of 2017 to become a full-line importer like Ford (and a little later, Toyota) had done earlier that year, but with ex-Toyota marketing supremo David Buttner now at the helm at Fishermans Bend, a revival was expected.

The Blazer largely mirrors the Model Y in pricing and positioning Stateside.

"There's a whole lot of product in the GM stable," Buttner told the automotive industry publication, GoAuto, back in late 2018 at the launch of the Acadia large SUV.

"Having such a choice, in terms of picking from a whole host of brands within the GM stable, you really have a world of cars available to you, so it's just a matter of choosing the right ones that are suitable to your marketplace and the way the market is moving over time."

Both are good-looking, spacious, capable and – most importantly – affordable EV SUVs.

Off-the-record, an excited Buttner admitted to some journalists that he had seen what was coming from GM out to 2022/23 following a visit to Detroit, and that Holden was ready to pivot with the times as a result.

Could he have been referring to the project that became Ultium?

More intriguingly, their RHD-ready Ultium architecture might have futureproofed Holden well into the 2030s had GM allow it to stick around.

However, GM retreated from South Africa and sold Vauxhall to Peugeot as part of a systematic withdrawal from RHD markets, announcing instead that it would continue with left-hand-drive only development for all of its internal combustion engined (ICE) petrol and diesel models.

This, along with catastrophic sales falls and the failure of the GMC-based Acadia large SUV, ultimately helped seal Holden's demise in 2020.

The Equinox offers a claimed range from 400km to 513km depending on battery size and drivetrain.

But what if GM granted Holden a stay of execution?

Hindsight suggests that, with the COVID-19 pandemic initially decimating new-vehicle demand but then quickly recovering from late 2020 to cause a surge in orders for all-things SUVs, Holden might actually have been extremely well-placed with the existing Colorado, Equinox and Acadia, to have enjoyed a profound sales recovery.

The Equinox can be had with vehicle-to-load appliance charging, amongst other useful features.

The latter, in particular, might have had its wings clipped a tad too early, if the unexpected belated massive sales success of full-sized three-row SUVs including the Nissan Y62 Patrol is anything to go by. Australians were starved for lifestyle vehicles right up to fairly recently.

Then there's what we now know what lay ahead.

Sales of its popular Trax small and Captiva medium SUVs were healthy and actually rising, as was Colorado ute volume.

Clearly, RHD engineering development continued on the Ultium EV architecture models as the 2010s drew to a close, leading to the Lyriq's North American production debut in early 2022, and followed soon after by the second and third vehicles off Ultium – the 2023 Blazer EV and 2024 Equinox EV.

Despite being similar sizes and sharing legacy badges with established existing Chevrolets of the same names, these two midsized electric SUVs could have been the future Holdens to take on the Tesla Model Y, Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

“There’s a whole lot of product in the GM stable,” Buttner told the automotive industry publication, GoAuto, back in late 2018 at the launch of the Acadia large SUV.

Costing significantly less than the cheapest Tesla Model Y in North America (the latter starts from $65,400 before on-road costs in Australia), the Equinox EV will be available soon in the US in either front-motor/front-wheel drive or dual-motor/all-wheel drive, offering a claimed range from 400km to 513km depending on battery size and drivetrain, and can be had with vehicle-to-load appliance charging, amongst other useful features.

The larger Blazer EV, meanwhile, is slightly bigger, more performance-orientated and ushers in greater range, and largely mirrors the Model Y in pricing and positioning Stateside.

Australia might yet eventually see them here, though GM Australia and New Zealand won’t talk about future models for now.

Both are good-looking, spacious, capable and – most importantly – affordable EV SUVs with advanced technical specification to help convert ICE buyers in North America. More intriguingly, their RHD-ready Ultium architecture might have futureproofed Holden well into the 2030s had GM allow it to stick around.

Australia might yet eventually see them here, though GM Australia and New Zealand won't talk about future models for now.

Do you think the Equinox EV and Blazer EV could have saved Holden?