BYD Song Plus vs Toyota RAV4 Hybrid: which costs less over five years?

We can measure one side of this comparison. A new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid costs AED 130,500 to own for five years in our cost engine¹¹, which works out at AED 2,175 a month¹¹. The BYD Song Plus gets no five-year figure at all: the engine returns n/a¹⁰.

That is not a draw. It means the RAV4 Hybrid has a cost we can estimate, while the Song Plus has a showroom price and a long warranty, and its resale value is unknown. This page goes through what we know about each car and where the gap sits.

The two cars on the showroom floor

Both are five-seat family SUVs in the same price band. The Song Plus is a plug-in hybrid (it charges from a socket and also has a petrol engine). The RAV4 Hybrid is a conventional hybrid that never plugs in.

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Prices were read on the dealers’ own sites on 8 October 2026. The BYD configurator lists the car as the “BYD Song 2027”, in a FWD trim at the bottom and a Premium trim at the top. Toyota’s cheapest hybrid is the EX and the dearest is the VXR. At the entry level the BYD costs AED 11,000 more (BYD, Toyota). Between the two top trims the order flips, and the Toyota is AED 2,000 dearer.

Toyota is also running a RAV4 finance offer that bundles a service contract and an extended warranty. Our engine prices the car as a cash purchase, so neither dealer’s finance deal is in the five-year figure.

How the RAV4 Hybrid’s five-year cost compares

AED 130,500¹¹ includes loss of value, fuel, insurance, servicing, tyres, repairs, registration and the return your cash would have earned elsewhere, among other lines, for a car bought new, kept five years and sold. The engine tries every version of the RAV4 and keeps the cheapest one that passes its checks. For the RAV4 that is the hybrid. The petrol RAV4 is cheaper in the showroom but came out dearer over five years in the engine run behind this page. It loses less value, but it spends more on fuel.

Against its peers it does well. The median five-year cost across the 30 compact models in the engine is AED 137,970². Across the 27 Japanese models it is AED 138,060⁶. The RAV4 Hybrid sits AED 7,470 under the compact median^2,11.

The resale end of that figure rests on Dubizzle asking prices for RAV4s by model year, and an asking price is not a sale price. A listing that disappears was not necessarily sold. The engine applies a discount for that, but it is still built on what sellers ask.

The RAV4 Hybrid also has fewer used listings of its own than the petrol RAV4. To fill the gap, the engine reads the price trend across all RAV4 listings and adjusts it by the premium the hybrid listings show. That is firmer ground than the Song Plus has, but it is still an estimate.

Why the Song Plus has no five-year figure

To price five years of ownership, the engine needs to know what a five-year-old Song Plus is worth. The Song Plus has only been on Dubizzle in used form for a couple of model years, and the listings are thin. Getting to a five-year-old value would mean stretching the trend well past anything the listings show, and the engine refuses to rank a car on a number it would mostly be inventing. That is the n/a¹⁰.

Most Chinese models are in the same position. Only 8 of them came out of the engine with an eligible five-year figure⁵, too few for a median, so there is no brand-group figure to lean on either.

It would be easy to borrow the median of mid-size models instead, AED 163,380³. We do not. That median is built from 17 other cars³, and it says nothing about how a BYD holds its value in the UAE, which is the question that decides this comparison.

If you open the Song Plus on our running-costs page, it will still show a monthly figure. Next to it you will see a warning that it is an estimate only, because the data is too thin. Treat that figure as a sketch.

What the warranty changes

BYD’s basic warranty runs three years longer than Toyota’s (BYD, Toyota). For someone keeping the car five years, that means most repairs in years four and five fall to BYD on the Song Plus and to the owner on the RAV4. The exceptions are the RAV4’s hybrid battery, which Toyota covers for longer, and any extended warranty that comes with a Toyota Care plan or a finance deal. Both warranties also stop at a distance limit, so a high-mileage driver may reach it before the years run out. The free servicing on the BYD offer comes with the free-insurance option, not with 0% finance, and it also has a distance limit (BYD offers).

None of that touches what the car is worth when you sell. A long warranty can help resale a little, since the next owner inherits the remaining years, but we have no measured figure for how much that is worth on a Song Plus. Toyota’s case is the opposite: a shorter warranty, and a resale record that the engine can read across the whole RAV4 range.

What this means if you are buying

The decision rule we would use: if you expect to sell within five years, take the RAV4 Hybrid unless the BYD dealer closes the AED 11,000 entry-level gap with a cash discount (BYD, Toyota). On a five-year plan, resale is the line you cannot see on the Song Plus, and paying more upfront for an unknown exit price carries more risk than the RAV4’s estimated one.

If you will keep the car well past five years, the picture changes. Resale matters less the longer you hold, and the six-year warranty matters more. A buyer who can charge at home and plans a long ownership can make a fair case for the Song Plus. We just cannot put a number on it yet.

Two checks before you sign either deal:

• Put both cars side by side in the comparison tool and change the yearly kilometres to your own.
• Look at what used RAV4s and Song Plus cars are listed for today on the RAV4 page and the Song Plus page. If you are buying used rather than new, run the asking price through the Check a seller’s price page.

Once older Song Plus cars reach the listings in numbers, the engine will be able to price it, and this comparison will get its second figure. Our Chinese cars page tracks the rest of the newer brands in the meantime.

How we measured

The five-year figures come from the same cost engine as our running-costs page, with one set of rules: bought new, paid in cash, kept 60 months, then sold at the resale value the engine reads from Dubizzle asking prices for that model and year. For each model it keeps the cheapest version that passes its checks. Market data is as of 7 October 2026, and the factsheet was built on 8 October 2026.

The group medians use 30 compact models², 17 mid-size models³ and 27 Japanese models⁶. Only 8 Chinese models had an eligible figure⁵, below our minimum for a median. Dealer prices, warranties and service offers were read on the linked BYD UAE and Toyota UAE pages on 8 October 2026. Full method: methodology.