Nissan and Honda are back in the news with another partnership looming in the air. As reported by Reuters and Nikkei, Nissan’s manufacturing plant in Canton, Mississippi, could start producing a new, ladder-frame pickup for Honda.
The plant has been described as ‘under-utilized,’ and one of the most tangible optimizations eyed for it is to possibly supply Honda with a competitor against the likes of the Ford Ranger and the Chevrolet Colorado.
In the United States, Honda has the Ridgeline as the only pickup in its lineup. With a unibody frame, it lacks the structure to be a true workhorse and compete in higher truck segments.
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Nissan already manufactures its ladder-frame Frontier pickup—known as the Navara in the Philippine market—in the same plant. Interestingly, a Honda-badged ladder-frame truck would be a direct competitor against the Frontier. A similar scenario to this is the Isuzu D-Max and the Mazda BT-50 in the Philippines.
And for Honda, building a Ranger competitor in Mississippi would circumvent additional costs from tariffs.
The Yokohama-based carmaker has consistently been looking for ways to generate more funds, amid losses of up to P255 billion in its last fiscal year. Another report from Nikkei Asia mentioned that it could be manufacturing EVs for tech giant and iPhone manufacturer Foxconn. There have also been rumors that Nissan is considering selling its stake in French carmaker Renault, and even its headquarters in Yokohama.
Over in its Thailand plant, Nissan has already begun to integrate multiple assembly lines to optimize costs.
