It’s cheaper to spend R32 on diesel than own a Ford Ranger Raptor in South Africa

It’s cheaper to own a diesel bakkie than a Ford Ranger Raptor in South Africa, but the gap in running costs has never been closer.

The past two months have seen the wholesale price of diesel skyrocket to a new record high of R32.09 per litre, which is a major headache for light commercial vehicle owners.

The vast majority of bakkies sold in South Africa feature a diesel engine, as there are only 11 double cabs on the market that have a petrol powertrain.

One of these is the Ford Ranger Raptor, which is the halo model for one of the country’s best-selling pickup series.

The Raptor is a unique offering in South Africa, as it is a double-cab bakkie with performance rivalling hot hatchbacks like the VW Golf GTI.

This is thanks to a 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol engine, which produces a staggering 292kW and 583Nm.

Of course, the trade-off is that the Raptor is quite a thirsty car, consuming an average of 11.5l/100km.

However, given how expensive diesel has become, we were curious as to whether the petrol Raptor is technically one of the “cheaper” bakkies to own right now.

The short answer is no, but the difference is surprisingly small compared to other high-end pickups.

Petrol vs diesel running costs

TopAuto looked at the running costs for different models in the Ranger family to see whether the petrol units are actually cheaper to run, based on the current price of fuel.

As of May 2026, motorists are paying R26.63 per litre for petrol 95 at inland rates, while the wholesale price of diesel 0.05% is sitting at R32.09 per litre.

However, we added R1.20 to the diesel price to account for the average fuel retailer margin, so the diesel value used in our calculations is R33.29 per litre.

For the vehicles, we used the following Ranger double cab models to highlight the differences in fuel consumption:

• Ford Ranger 2.0SiTD XL – 7.4l/100km
• Ford Ranger 2.3T Sport – 9.3l/100km
• Ford Ranger 3.0TD V6 Wildtrak – 8.4l/100km
• Ford Ranger 3.0T V6 Raptor – 11.5l/100km

Note that the Sport and Raptor use petrol, while the XL and Wildtrak use diesel.

These are the results for all four models:

The first thing that stands out is that the petrol models are considerably cheaper to refuel, costing R532.80 less per tank.

This is to be expected, given the disparity in price, but the more important aspect to consider is each vehicle’s running costs.

While the Raptor’s fuel is cheaper, its much higher consumption means it still costs more to run per kilometre than the other bakkies.

That being said, we’re talking about a 26c per litre gap between the Raptor and the Wildtrak, which is incredible given the latter’s consumption is 3.1l/100km lower.

To put that in perspective, if prices were to remain this high for the rest of the year, the Raptor’s fuel bill would only be R5,200 higher than the Wildtrak’s after 20,000km, despite a massive performance boost.

What’s more, the diesel XL and petrol Sport are practically identical in terms of running costs.

It’s also important to highlight that this phenomenon is not unique to the Ranger, as most bakkies in South Africa, like the Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-Max, use diesel.

The Hilux 2.4GD-6 Raider, for example, consumes 7.7l/100km, meaning it costs more to run than the petrol Ranger Sport.