Most powerful SUVs under R500,000

With the popularity of SUVs rising, there has been a myriad of models introduced with various powertrains and prices.

Smaller engines have become a market-wide trend, and most of South Africa’s best-selling “SUVs” in 2021 feature sub-2.0-litre engines with relatively low outputs.

These best-sellers also tend to be some of the cheapest SUVs on the market, with their small dimensions and motors usually going hand-in-hand with their price tags.

Unfortunately, this also means that they do not provide all that much in terms of utility or sportiness.

The market

To see what you can buy to better satisfy these needs without breaking the bank, we looked for the most powerful medium-to-large SUVs on the market for under R500,000.

At this price point, we found that SUVs typically have 2.0-litre engines and larger, with not one producing less than 103kW of power.

While this is nowhere near monumental, it is around 34% more than what the Toyota Urban Cruiser – South Africa’s best-selling SUV – offers.

We list the most powerful SUVs in South Africa under R500,000 below, ranked by power output.

Click on the underlined prices to visit TopAuto Car Prices for more information.

Mahindra XUV500 2.2CRDe W6

Nissan X-Trail 2.0 Visia

Kia Sportage 2.0 Ignite Plus

Subaru Forester 2.0i

Mazda CX-5 2.0 Active

Renault Koleos 2.5 Expression

Toyota RAV4 2.0 GX

Haval H6 2.0T Premium