Nissan might build rebadged Honda pickups, avoid tariffs

A media report states Nissan is considering building rebadged Honda pickups to avoid tariffs as well as utilize plant capacity sitting empty.

And it wouldn’t hurt Nissan’s bottom line to build more trucks to sell to another automaker.

Nissan might build rebadged Honda pickups

The Nikkei Asia news story states the plan would be for Nissan to build more Frontier pickups with Honda badging at its Canton, Mississippi, plant.

This would allow Honda to expand its offerings in the midsize truck market and have a true body-on-frame truck model to go along with its unibody Ridgeline pickup it offers for sale today.

For Nissan, this would allow it to use the existing capacity at the plant and reap the financial benefits of putting the plant capacity to work. The automaker would then sell the trucks to Honda and turn a profit.

Since the trucks would be built in the U.S., they wouldn’t be subject to tariffs. U.S. President Trump plans to enact a 25% tariff on Japan starting on August 1, 2025.

Failed merger talks could still reap rewards

This plan comes after the failed merger talks between Honda and Nissan.

The merger was big news at the start of this year, and talks collapsed after Nissan didn’t see itself as being a subordinate of Honda.

During those talks, Honda CEO discussed one of the potential benefits was creating more trucks for the U.S. market with that vehicle type being the most popular.

Our take

Rebadged pickup trucks aren’t new. As a kid there were all sorts of rebadged trucks from various automakers. It was an easy way for automakers to supply dealers with trucks they could sell on their lots without making a large investment and dealers didn’t have to lose customers. It just makes sense, and it is quite shocking nobody has done it in years.