Do Any Modern SUVs Have Split Tailgates?

A split tailgate is one of those features that you might not recognize the benefits of until you use one. It was a feature that many of the older SUVs had, mainly station wagons, but it has slowly diminished in modern cars. Some manufacturers, however, have kept the split tailgate alive in their SUVs and a few of them still offer this feature in 2025.

They are very practical because they allow you to easily slide luggage over the lower portion which acts as a ledge. With a split tailgate, you also don't need to open the full tailgate, and only a small portion can be opened up to load up with small items. The biggest advantage of a split tailgate in our opinion is that most SUVs that come with this feature allow you to sit on the lower part since they are designed to hold a lot of weight. This is great as you can park at a cool location and sit at the back of your car with the upper hatch protecting you from the elements as well.

Now the couple of SUVs that offer a split tailgate option are few and are on the more premium side of things, but it is a trend we are seeing come back.

We will start with the BMW X5 and the BMW X7, both have come with split tailgates since day one. There is also the full-size Range Rover, but it is no longer available for the Range Rover Sport. Ford recently introduced the split tailgate on the newest Expedition and its sister car, the Lincoln Navigator.

Moving a little more upmarket, if the Range Rover wasn't enough, the Rolls Royce Cullinan has a split tailgate. It comes with two leather-wrapped seats that can be opened, and it is called the Rolls Royce Cullinan Viewing Suite. It goes a bit further than giving you two plush chairs with the addition of a table in the middle so you can chug champagne while you sit at the back.

Now there are some SUVs that offer split functionality with the glass that opens separately. In Toyota 4Runners, the glass rolls down into the tailgate, and in the Lexus GX, the rear windscreen can pop out independently of the tailgate. However, those systems offer half of the functionality that a split tailgate offers.