In the year 2000, sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, still occupied a relatively small niche in the global car industry.
Today they commonplace, and only highly specialised manufacturers can get away without having at least one SUV in their ranges. In this gallery we’re going to see which manufacturers have been in the SUV business for decades, and which have recently been forced into it due to customer demand. Researching this subject is complicated by the fact that there is no single, universally-agreed definition of an SUV, but that’s the nature of the game.
Here, then, are the first SUVs produced by 50 manufacturers, listed in alphabetical order:
Acura: MDX
The first SUV marketed by Honda‘s luxury brand was in fact the SLX, but this was simply a rebadged second-generation Isuzu Trooper, which seems unsatisfying.
Acura made its proper SUV debut in 2000 with the launch of the MDX, which was closely related to the Honda Pilot and shared a platform with several other Honda models. The fourth-generation MDX went into production in January 2021.
Alfa Romeo: Stelvio
Alfa Romeo is one of many manufacturers on this list who would not have been suspected of venturing into SUV territory in the recent past. In fact, Alfa produced the Jeep-like Matta in the early 1950s, but only in very small numbers, and mostly for military use.
The Stelvio is a true crossover SUV in the modern sense, and has been built in large numbers since 2016. The Quadrifoglio version is one of the fastest SUVs in the world, with a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine which produces slightly more than 500bhp.
Aston Martin: DBX
Never a company to rush into things with unseemly haste, Aston Martin left a gap of well over a century between building its first car and entering the SUV market. The DBX is one of the very small number of road vehicles ever to have been built in Wales.
It is also even more powerful than the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, with a maximum output of 542bhp from its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, which is supplied by Mercedes-Benz. In 2021, the DBX became the official medical car for all rounds of the F1 World Championship. In 2022 a new 707 version launched, now with a 697bhp (707 PS) engine, and in 2024 it became the only DBX you could buy.
Audi: Q7
The Audi Q7 is closely related to the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg, but went into production three years later, towards the end of 2005. From 2008 to 2012, it was available with a 6.0-litre V12 TDI turbo diesel which produced just under 500bhp. This engine has never been fitted to any other production car.
The Q7 was the first Audi SUV, and the largest by some margin until the launch of the similarly-sized Audi Q8 in 2018.
Bentley: Bentayga
The Bentayga made its public debut at the 2012 Geneva Show in the form of the EXP 9 F concept. For the production version, Bentley considerably toned down the styling, which had been greeted with dismay in some quarters.
The Bentayga was unveiled in Frankfurt in 2015, and went into production a few months later. The available engines included V8 and W12 petrol units, all twin-turbocharged. A diesel version was even briefly available. A hybrid version with a 3.0-litre single-turbo V6 engine went on sale in 2018.