11 New SUVs With Impressive Towing Capacity

Everybody knows you buy a pickup truck if towing is a priority. That's not what we're talking about today. For a certain kind of buyer — the one who wants to haul a boat on Sunday afternoon and still roll up to the school pickup line on Monday without looking like they just came off a jobsite — you need something that can wear both hats. Sure, you've seen your share of SUVs on the highway barely keeping it together while dragging an RV that's clearly testing the limits of physics, let alone the spec sheet. But modern SUVs are better than that. Buy the right one, stay within reason, and you can absolutely get something that tows real weight without turning your daily driver into a compromise.

That's what this list is about. It's not a definitive ranking of the highest tow ratings (your favorite might not be here), but a look at the different ways automakers are sneaking real capability into vehicles that don't scream "tow rig." And while your average sedan can tow surprisingly well, that's not the point either. Keep in mind that in some cases, the vehicles on this list will require options or packages to get to their advertised towing capacity, but these are SUVs that can handle the big(ish) stuff and then disappear into a mall parking lot like nothing happened.

The Jeep Grand Wagoneer isn't beautiful enough for its name, but man can it tow. This is the full-size heavy hitter that you probably don't think much about as it's easy enough to mistake in a crowd for its non-grand equivalent, the comparatively puny Wagoneer. It leads the large sport utility segment, and thus tops our entire list here, with a 10,000-pound towing capacity. With the discontinuation of the 540-horsepower engine option in favor of the Stellantis Hurricane turbo six-cylinder, you're now getting 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque.

The only trade-offs in this equation are an alarmingly high MSRP (you can push one past $100,000 if you want), a fairly pedestrian interior if you don't opt for one of the pricey ones, and abysmal predicted reliability, according to Consumer Reports. You can ride in comfort with total seating of up to eight (if you get the second-row bench), though, so a certain type of buyer just might decide that this thing threads the needle just right.

The Ford Expedition wants to be your everything, and especially in the context of this conversation, it kind of pulls it off. It's the major full-size contender that rivals (but notably doesn't beat) the Grand Wagoneer's maximum towing capacity as the Expedition boasts up to 9,600 pounds. It gets there with another turbocharged V6, this time Ford's 3.5-liter EcoBoost, good for 400 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque. This one is also available with seating up to eight and it's another option that will barely get you a second look when you're driving around doing non-towing things.

Although Car and Driver has nice enough things to say about the Expedition, we do want to take this opportunity to do a bit of a reality check in terms of the SUV audience. At least some of you out there are leaning into this SUVs-that-tow premise because you've got a family to wrangle, so for you it might be The Car Mom, not the enthusiast magazines, who really has a finger on the pulse. She named the Expedition her Car Mom Car of the Year, which likely either means nothing to you or quite a lot. It's the Expedition. It's exactly what you expect it to be and, by all accounts, plenty easy to live with.

If you were already raising a skeptical eyebrow as you read about the two turbocharged V6s above taking up space once reserved for rumbling V8s, well... it's time to stop worrying and love the Toyota Sequoia. Because at this point we're not just talking about a turbo six, but Toyota's i-FORCE MAX twin-turbo V6 hybrid powertrain, towing up to 9,500 pounds with 437 horsepower and 583 pound-feet of torque. It's closely related to the engine in the Tundra and paired with the same 10-speed automatic. 

So is it time to let go of outdated notions about the supremacy of big internal combustion motors and embrace a turbocharged, electrically assisted future? Your call. This is a complex powertrain that might not be the kind of thing you want to be thinking about once the warranty runs out. It is not the same configuration affected by the Tundra and Lexus recall that led to a wave of engine replacements on Toyota's dime. That aside, reviewers have noted a cramped third row and limited cargo space, so the Sequoia may involve more trade-offs depending on your needs, but 9,500 pounds is still 9,500 pounds.

The Lexus GX550 is a hell of a way to see the Northern Lights, but it's easy to overlook that you could tow more than 9,000 pounds on your way up there. The Lexus's 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 is paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission for an oddly specific maximum towing capacity of 9,096 pounds. Sharing its platform with the Sequoia, it earns some of the same complaints about rear legroom and cargo space, but with the Lexus the trade-off calculation is a little different.

This isn't a soulless grocery-getter that's going to annoy the absolute crap out of you when the groceries aren't actually fitting where you want them. It's a rugged but comfy, body-on-frame SUV  with enough credibility for the Lexus GX to become big in the off-road community. So it's less like being annoyed with your Toyota Sienna and more like being annoyed with your G-Wagen — those are very different experiences. Sometimes you have to pay the cost to be the boss, after all. Trade-offs are trade-offs, but when you're doing the math on the GX550, being able to tow 9,000 pounds plus a six-year-old is certainly a point in its favor.

Perhaps unfairly, this one doesn't get the love and consideration it deserves on its merits. But the 2025 Nissan Armada did finally live up to its Patrol heritage and could be worth your consideration from the perspective of enthusiasts and everyday I-just-need-an-SUV folks alike. It's practical enough and interesting enough, even if it comes with less interior space than you might expect and some cheap-looking materials. It's a Nissan, is what we're saying.

But underneath all that is some attention-getting towing capability, with a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 delivering 425 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque for a maximum tow rating of 8,500 pounds. That doesn't touch the highest numbers on this list, and unless you're a Nissan Patrol enthusiast, the Armada may not feel quite as compelling as something like the Lexus, but 8,500 pounds isn't nothing. If what you need to tow fits under that ceiling, this could be a real contender. It's also pretty big. 

So yeah, the Land Rover Defender 130 finally has a V8, and a supercharged one at that. If you opt for that available V8, you'll have 493 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque for a towing capacity of 8,200 pounds. And when you're not towing something, it'll do 0 to 60 in 5.4 seconds. Of course, this is a Land Rover, and if you want to roll like that you're going to have to pay for the privilege — the Defender V8 sits at the top of the 130 lineup and starts at $123,900.

If you can swing that, by all means. But the good news here is that the Defender 130's towing capacity isn't limited by its power, meaning you get that same 8,200 pounds of the entry-level Defender S at a comparatively reasonable $73,000. You won't go 0 to 60 in 5.4 seconds (it'll do 7.5), but with 296 horsepower and 347 pound-feet of torque from the 3.0-liter six-cylinder, it'll get the job done and look plenty sharp doing it. Some would argue that the design of the Land Rover Defender 130 is yet another step toward automotive homogeneity, but if you're into it, you're into it.

The all-electric Rivian R1S has a couple of dual-motor options that deliver either 533 or 665 horsepower, starting at $75,900. There's also a tri-motor variant good for 850 horsepower, priced north of $100,000, and a mildly preposterous quad-motor with 1,025 horsepower. But you don't need to spring for extra motors to get the R1S's maximum towing capacity, with every version in the lineup rated to tow up to 7,700 pounds across all available battery sizes. If you're into the whole automotive whimsy vibe Rivian has going on and have towing needs compatible with the fully electric experience, this might be the oval-headlight sleeper tow mule you've been waiting for.

If nothing else, Rivian is offering a fun and relatively attainable glimpse into the future of electric towing. The company's R1T with the Max battery will actually out-tow anything on this list at 11,000 pounds, so even though it's a truck and not an SUV, it proves electrification deserves a spot in these conversations. At the end of the day, anything from Rivian is going to have a lot of charm, stand out in a parking lot, and potentially underwhelm with respect to missing creature comforts like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but it's still a compelling option for buyers with relatively limited towing-range needs or plenty of patience at the charging station.

The 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee's 324-horsepower Hurricane turbo four-cylinder may be unrefined, but it's powerful and capable of towing up to 6,200 pounds with 332 pound-feet of torque. That's not a gigantic towing capacity — if that's what you're after from your family-sized Jeep SUV, go ahead and scroll back up to the Grand Wagoneer — but it is a pleasantly surprising amount of capability in an effortlessly dailyable vehicle with genuine off-road credibility.

Once you come in from the dirt or drop the dry cleaning back at the house and throw the tow hitch on, you've got something ready to pull a small RV, a horse trailer, or even a track car on an open trailer depending on the specifics of your setup. The Jeep Grand Cherokee just might change your opinion of Jeeps, if you let it. It's a capable midsize benchmark that helps bridge the gap between the SUV tow beasts where we started and some of the smaller overachievers we're about to get into. And if you don't actually need 9,000 pounds of towing capacity, there's a certain liberation in getting away with a much smaller vehicle that can still seat up to seven people in the Grand Cherokee L.

At this point the Mazda CX-90 feels like a bona fide luxury SUV. Plus, it can tow. And we don't mean "it can tow" in the sense of a pop-up trailer being dragged behind a late-'90s Honda Accord wagon like the little engine that could, but properly tow. Not all CX-90s are created equal in this regard, though, with a 3,500-pound towing capacity for the Select and Preferred trims, as well as the plug-in hybrid. Opt for one of the higher gas-powered trims instead and you'll have the 3.3-liter turbocharged inline-six generating up to 340 horsepower while towing as much as 5,000 pounds.

Towing aside, this is a vehicle that has had a compelling evolution lately. The Mazda CX-90 is a big and beautiful SUV built like a sport sedan, and it's earned consideration from buyers shopping in the luxury or luxury-adjacent SUV space who probably weren't thinking about Mazda until now. As for actually living with it, that'll ultimately be up to you. Reviewers have consistently noted frustrating infotainment and a third row that's less usable than some of the larger SUVs we've talked about here, but if you're after something that's pretty nice and pretty okay at towing, this might be one to think about.

Over a relatively recent span of time, the Hyundai Palisade and its cross-brand sibling, the Kia Telluride, quietly became quite good vehicles. And just to be clear, for the sake of not taking up two spots on the list, this entry could really be either one, but we went with the Palisade. The shared V6 puts up modest numbers — 287 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque — but it's enough to stand next to the CX-90 in terms of towing, with the same 5,000-pound maximum capacity. And yes, the Kia is the same. With or without being able to pull a U-Haul trailer in a pinch, we thought the Hyundai Palisade should be a wake-up call to other automakers, and the "hmm, not bad" tow rating only strengthens the argument.

It gives you a third row, if not a huge one, and you start getting amenities that approach luxury competitors at a downright attractive price point, provided you don't get too deep into the upper trim packages with names like "Calligraphy." So whether you're a Hyundai person or a Kia person (is anyone either?) the Palisade is probably a little more capable than you realized.

We've said before that the Subaru Forester Wilderness is wildly capable off-road and more refined on-road. But are we now telling you that these factory-amped-up Fozzies are putting up giant towing numbers, too? No, but they can tow up to 3,500 pounds and that's kind of more than you'd think. It's enough to creep down a fire road to haul a teardrop camper full of climbing gear, rescue dogs, and coffee equipment deep into the woods so somebody can explain pour-over technique to their friends under a string of Edison bulbs, or whatever it is you Subaru folks are into these days.

Anyway, to get to the 3,500 pounds of towing you do need the Wilderness package, which adds, among other things, a beefier transmission cooler and a temperature sensor for the rear differential. The engine itself remains a 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder making 180 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, so this isn't suddenly a heavy-duty tow rig. But that's also kind of the point. The Forester Wilderness closes out this list at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Grand Wagoneer, proving that "impressive towing capacity" doesn't always mean "biggest towing capacity." Sometimes it just means enough capability to do something interesting in a vehicle you never expected to do it.