Recent reports that that Honda and Nissan could co-develop body-on-frame trucks and SUVs have led to a rebuttal of sorts by Honda, which is dismissing the claims as “purely speculative.”
That is a bit of a non-denial, since by definition, the report by Automotive News is speculative. That does not make it necessarily inaccurate.
The report by the media outlet claims that Honda could take advantage of Nissan’s upcoming rear-wheel-drive truck platform to build a true ladder-frame pickup and off-road SUV for itself. Nissan is currently developing the architecture to underpin the next-generation Frontier pickup, a revived Xterra and a more rugged variant of the Pathfinder. Mitsubishi is also expected to use a version of the new platform.
Body-on-frame
For Honda, adopting such a platform could help its standing in the North American light-truck market. While the company continues to rack up decent sales of models like the Pilot, Passport and Ridgeline enjoy steady sales, their unibody, crossover-based construction leaves Honda without a traditional, heavy-duty rival to body-on-frame stalwarts like the Toyota 4Runner or Tacoma.
Co-developing a platform with Nissan appears to make economic sense, allowing Honda to avoid spending billions in standalone development costs. In return, it could potentially give Nissan the ability to benefit from its expertise in V6 hybrid powertrains.
No concrete plans
A Honda spokesperson told Road & Track that no such vehicles are in the pipeline. And it’s true that while Honda and Nissan maintain a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in March 2024, alongside Mitsubishi, to collaborate on standardized components, unified vehicle operating systems and EV software, vehicle platform sharing for traditional trucks is not part of the agreement.
"As Kaihara-san mentioned during the roundtable, there’s nothing to announce at this point," the spokesperson stated. "Regarding the AutoNews claim, ‘could yield BOF models’ is purely speculative."
The clarification confirms that Honda will stick to its established philosophy, keeping its light-truck lineup, including the Ridgeline pickup, anchored to unibody architectures. Honda may also be cautious following its previous venture into ladder-frame vehicles during the 1990s. A partnership with Isuzu yielded rebadged models like the Passport SUV, Acura SLX and the rare, short-lived Tourmaster diesel pickup, none of which achieved commercial success.
For now, Honda remains focused on scaling hybrid powertrains across its existing unibody range, leaving traditional body-on-frame duty to its rivals.