Honda Mulling Large SUV With Nissan Armada Roots
Ever since Honda and Nissan officially began talking about a possible merger, speculation has grown but so has criticism. Just ask former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn. While it’s true that the two automakers have similar strengths and weaknesses and that their products mostly overlap, there are some voids to fill on both sides.
More specifically, Honda could leverage Nissan’s expertise in the full-size vehicle segments. A pickup seems unrealistic given the discontinuation of the Titan, but a spinoff of the Armada SUV might be in the cards.
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Noriya Kaihara, executive vice president of Honda Motor Co., expressed interest in such a vehicle last week while fielding questions from journalists at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, where the company hosted the world premiere of two electric prototypes serving as a preview of its future Honda 0 series.
“Nissan has a little bit larger class, e-segment vehicles that we don’t have at this moment. So, if we can exchange some of our vehicles, that would be a benefit for us in the short term,” he said.
Honda’s largest SUV right now is the Pilot, a three-row midsize model with unibody construction, but consumers and dealers in North America have been asking for an even bigger and more rugged SUV for many years.
The Nissan Armada fits that bill as a body-on-frame SUV, and it happens to be completely redesigned and improved for 2025.
Kaihara stressed the importance of keeping Honda’s brand identity intact, however. But that’s easier said than done. For example, the Prologue is not that different from the Chevrolet Blazer EV it shares its platform and powertrain components with.
A full-size SUV from Honda would certainly require a more powerful engine than the naturally aspirated 3.5-litre V6 that currently drives the Pilot, which is limited to 285 hp. The 2025 Armada benefits from a new twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 that produces 425 hp and as much as 516 lb-ft of torque, taking the fight directly to the segment-leading American competitors.
Speaking of which, one has to wonder how much success a future “Honda Armada” would enjoy. We believe it would outsell Nissan’s SUV, ironically, but probably not the Toyota Sequoia. With 1,001 units sold in Canada last year, the Sequoia lagged way behind the best-selling GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe (over 4,000 units sold apiece). The same thing happened in the U.S.
As for production, Kaihara confirmed in Las Vegas that Honda is operating at full production levels in North America, which is not the case for Nissan. Obviously, the decisive factor here is U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to slap a 25-percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico.
“We might have to consider maybe changing production locations, for example, from Mexico to Japan or somewhere else,” Kaihara noted.
