With their merger seeming increasingly inevitable, Honda and Nissan are considering more than just the benefits of cost savings on future electric products. With Trump returning to office and some import manufacturers feeling pressure to adjust their production strategies, Honda could leverage Nissan’s partially idled truck and SUV manufacturing infrastructure to fill gaps in its lineup without exposing itself to the volatility of tariffs.
Honda Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara told Automotive News and other reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show this week that while the two companies are particularly interested in sharing the development costs of next-gen (and maybe after-that-gen-) tech, including investment in a new software-defined vehicle platform, the two companies also need to find ways to reduce redundancies and exploit existing manufacturing in the short-term.
We’ve already heard rumors that the two automakers might share living space, and Kaihara effectively confirmed that such discussions are either likely or already underway. Both manufacturers operate several research and manufacturing facilities in the United States. American-market Accords, CR-Vs, Odysseys, Passports, Pilots, and Ridgelines are all built here, along with the Acura Integra, MDX, RDX and TLX. For its part, Nissan builds the Frontier, Murano, Pathfinder, and Rogue here, along with the Infiniti QX60.
So the capacity is there; the problem, Kaihara says, is that Honda’s is already maxed out. Nissan, however, might not be. Kaihara declined to elaborate on his knowledge of Nissan’s current output, but he heavily implied that the automaker has capacity to spare. The now-discontinued Titan was built alongside the (also about to be discontinued) Altima and the redesigned Frontier in Canton, Mississippi.
Since the Frontier and Titan shared a platform, it should stand to reason that Nissan is in a position to at least somewhat expediently tool back up for the production of large, body-on-frame trucks and SUVs in Canton. And while the Titan itself wasn’t particularly successful here, the allure of local manufacturing for vehicles in a popular and profitable segment of the U.S. market may be too much for Honda to ignore.
Does this mean we’ll see a full-sized Honda pickup soon? Not necessarily. But whether you were a fan of the Titan and hope to see it return, or you’d just like to see Honda take a swing at Detroit’s goliaths, this seems like good news. And with Acura and Infiniti on the table, things could get interesting really quickly. Do you have “Acura builds an Escalade competitor” on your auto industry bingo card? You may not need it in 2025, but never say never…