A new Nissan pickup is coming ... kind of

Yes, it’s built in a Nissan plant, but the badge might say Honda. Nissan and Honda might be working together again. This time, reports from Reuters and Nikkei say that Nissan’s factory in Canton, Mississippi could be used to produce a new pickup truck for Honda, as reported by TopGear PH.

The plant is said to be underused, and Nissan is now looking at ways to make better use of it — including helping Honda bring a new ladder-frame truck to life. Right now, Honda only sells one pickup in the US, the Ridgeline. But the Ridgeline is built with a unibody frame, which makes it more of a lifestyle vehicle than a full workhorse. It doesn’t quite match up to models like the Ford Ranger or Chevrolet Colorado, which use tougher ladder-frame platforms.

If the plan goes through, Nissan would basically be manufacturing a truck that directly competes with its own Frontier, a similar setup to what we’ve seen between the Isuzu D-Max and Mazda BT-50 here in the Philippines. Honda’s current pickup, the Ridgeline, uses a unibody platform and isn’t seen as tough enough to rival models like the Ford Ranger or Chevrolet Colorado. But a ladder-frame Honda truck could change that, and Nissan could be the one to make it happen.

For Nissan, this could be a smart way to keep profits up. Reports say the company is looking into other big financial changes too, like possibly selling its stake in Renault or even putting its Yokohama HQ up for sale. Over in Thailand, Nissan has also started combining assembly lines at its plant to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

At the same time, Honda is also exploring ways to cut costs after posting losses of around ₱255 billion in its last fiscal year. Aside from the pickup project with Nissan, it’s also rumored to be working with Foxconn, the maker of iPhones, to build electric vehicles. For now, nothing is final, but if this pushes through, we might be seeing more shared pickups on the road soon, even if they come with different badges. In the meantime, check out Nissan's current lineup at AutoDeal.com.ph.