Is Nissan Going To Build Honda's Trucks In The US? Here's What We Know

Though Honda has long been one of the most popular Japanese automakers in America, one of the big things that's always separated Honda from its rivals Nissan and Toyota is its lack of a "real" pickup truck, which, of course, is a big market in the truck-crazed America.

Yes, Honda has sold the Ridgeline pickup for over 20 years now, but the Ridgeline is not a conventional truck. With its unibody platform shared with the Honda Odyssey minivan and Honda Pilot SUV, the Ridgeline does a lot of things well, but it's not going to have the same towing capacity or the off-road capability you get with a dedicated, body-on-frame pickup truck. 

But if recent, well-sourced industry rumors are true, there may soon be a body-on-frame truck on sale at Honda dealers. No, Honda isn't planning on developing its own, brand-new pickup to take on the likes of the Toyota Tacoma and Chevy Colorado. Instead, Honda is considering a partnership with Nissan, where Nissan would use excess production capacity in America to build pickup trucks for Honda as both companies work to navigate the tariff situation and Nissan tries to regain its financial footing.

If you've followed auto industry news in the last year, this likely won't be the first time you've heard about Nissan and Honda working together. In 2024, the two car companies announced plans to merge, forming what would have been the world's third-largest automaker by volume, but the merger plan fell apart in early 2025 after a number of obstacles, including the fact that, despite its ongoing financial troubles, Nissan did not want to become a subsidiary of Honda.

While the big merger talks were called off, the two companies remained committed to strategic partnerships where both could benefit, and according to reporting by Nikkei, one of those partnerships could result in Nissan building trucks for Honda at its factory in Canton, Mississippi. With the ongoing U.S. tariff policy causing auto companies to re-strategize their production plans, this partnership would allow Honda to enter the heavier-duty pickup segment while boosting its share of domestically produced vehicles. On the other side, it would give Nissan a financial boost by using excess production capacity to build trucks for Honda.

So what would a Honda truck built by Nissan look like?  Almost certainly, it would be a rebadged version of the Nissan Frontier mid-sized truck currently made in Canton, MS, as Nissan no longer offers the full-size Titan. We don't know when exactly this Honda truck would begin production, what it would be called, or if it would differ from the Frontier in any way besides its badging. It's also unclear how popular a Honda-badged Nissan Frontier would even be in today's market. 

Though improved in its current generation, we've still found the Frontier to be a few steps behind the competition in the highly competitive mid-size pickup segment. A Honda badge isn't likely to change that. But this also wouldn't be the first time that Honda sold a body-on-frame vehicle in America that was built by another company. The original Honda Passport of the 1990s was simply a rebadged Isuzu Rodeo, with Honda bringing back the nameplate in 2019 to use on its own ruggedized crossover SUV. 

Neither Nissan nor Honda has officially confirmed or even hinted at these pickup truck plans, but Nikkei is not your typical internet rumor site, and its reporting is usually well-sourced. Still, seeing as how the Honda-Nissan merger itself ended up falling through, this plan may never reach fruition either. Especially given how volatile the auto industry is right now as it works through ever-shifting tariffs and environmental regulations across different regions.