Honda sees the broader push in the body-on-frame truck market, and it wants a piece of the action.
It’s official: Honda confirmed the first product out of its partnership with Mitsubishi will be a new pickup truck. About three years after the two automakers first announced the tie-up in 2024, Honda announced it will bring a body-on-frame model based on the Mitsubishi Triton/L200 to market by 2028.
With this move, Honda will officially have its first frame-based vehicle in decades, essentially since the second-generation Passport — then based on the Isuzu Rodeo SUV — was discontinued in 2002.
Now, if you’re wondering what this truck will look like, so are we. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Thursday that Honda will source a truck from Mitsubishi. It may be awhile before we see Honda’s version, as even they are using Mitsubishi’s own Triton as the reference image for its truck. Based on that fact, at least, you can imagine the Honda truck will fundamentally look similar to the Triton, if not identical outside some badge-swapping and minor styling changes.
This truck likely isn’t coming to the US…but will we see a similar idea play out?
As part of the collaboration, Honda says it will primarily market this truck in Southeast Asia, as the Japanese automaker focuses on fending off competition from China. To that end, Mitsubishi can boost output at the Thailand production plant that builds the Triton, shoring up its outlook in the process.
The outcome from this venture will see three global market trucks based around the same platform: the Mitsubishi Triton, the Nissan Navara and Honda’s forthcoming model. Much like the other two trucks, though, the odds of Honda’s 2028 body-on-frame pickup making it to the US are slim to none. However, we could see a similar situation with Honda bringing a body-on-frame truck or SUV based around Nissan’s vehicles — either the new Xterra or the Frontier. Honda has not confirmed that development (at least for now), but it’s possible the partnership will continue to net Honda more models to flesh out its truck lineup over the coming years.
