Mom's Kitchen / Where

The Family SUV in Eight Countries

A buyer sees a price. The price includes whatever the government chose to add.

Picture a couple named Dev, 61, and Anita, 59. They want an SUV that can take grandchildren and luggage. They like the Toyota RAV4 and want to know what it costs where they might retire.

Country RAV4 version Price in US$
Japan Adventure hybrid 28,400
Canada LE hybrid 28,500
United Arab Emirates 2.0L 28,800
United States LE hybrid 31,900
Australia (drive-away) GX 35,000
Mexico LE hybrid 36,100
Germany (with a rebate) hybrid 44,600
South Africa 2.5 hybrid GX 46,300
Brazil hybrid 63,700
Singapore (with a right to own) 2.0 196,500

Prices were read from Toyota national sites on 8 October 2026, and trims differ.

The pattern

Four countries fall within about US$3,500 of each other, even though they have different taxes. Mexico is about US$4,200 above the US price, around 13 percent. Brazil is about double. Singapore is about six times higher.

Brazil is a useful case. It has long used import duties and domestic-content rules to encourage car makers to build there. Electric car import duty rose in steps from 10 percent in January 2024 to a scheduled 35 percent in July 2026, according to trade press. That kind of policy is meant to favor local factories and the people who work in them.

What a buyer sees

A buyer sees a price. The price includes whatever the government chose to add. In a country that taxes imports or protects a local plant, the price of a mid-size SUV can carry a large share that goes to neither the maker nor the dealer.

You could…

  • Look up the maker's price in your own country and in two others.

  • Ask whether the model is built locally or imported, and what duty applies.

  • Check whether a hybrid is taxed differently from a petrol version.

What did your last SUV cost compared with the same model somewhere else? Tell us here. Another reader may be planning a similar move.

Sources: Toyota national websites, 8 October 2026; trade press on Brazil's import duty schedule. Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data.

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