Is Honda looking to take on the Toyota LandCruiser with a rebadged Nissan Patrol?

Honda is edging closer to merging with Nissan, and this union could allow the former to enter new segments with rebadged vehicles from the latter.

“We are still discussing with Nissan how we will proceed,” said Honda Motor Company director and executive vice president Noriya Kaihara at a media roundtable at CES, in remarks reported by Car & Driver.

“In the short term, especially in the U.S. market, Nissan has a large class… vehicles that we don’t have.”

He appears to be referring to the Nissan Armada, sold here as the Patrol, and its more upscale Infiniti QX80 cousin.

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New generations of both have recently gone on sale in the US market, but Honda doesn’t offer a rival to either. Its largest SUVs are the circa-5m long Honda Pilot and Acura MDX unibody crossovers, quite a bit smaller than the circa-5.3m long, body-on-frame Armada and QX80.

“So, if maybe we can exchange some of the vehicles, that would also be a benefit for us in the short term,” said Kaihara-san.

“Maybe in the future, we can co-develop those vehicles. But in the short term, if we need we can get some of the Nissan vehicles for Honda as well.”

That suggests Honda could look to rebadge certain Nissan vehicles ahead of eventual co-developed models, though Kaihara-san said nothing had been decided yet.

“The important thing is the Honda brand is still Honda, we are not merging the brand of Nissan with Honda,” he said.

Honda is in the driver’s seat with this merger – given its financial situation is much, much more solid than Nissan’s and its market capitalisation is four times higher – which means it will nominate a majority of the combined carmaker’s board and fill out the top executive positions.

Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has claimed the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is forcing the merger, and Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe reportedly had trouble specifying what makes Nissan a strong business partner.

According to the timeline laid out by the two car companies, a definitive agreement laying out the specifics of the merger, including share transfers, will be completed by June 2025. Shareholders in both firms will then vote on the merger in April 2026.

Assuming approval is given, Honda and Nissan will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange by late July or early August 2026, with a new holding company taking their place.

Mitsubishi Motors will decide on whether it will join the Honda-Nissan merger by the end of this month. Nissan is currently the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi Motors, but due to its recent financial troubles recently sold off some of its stake, and no longer holds a controlling 34 per cent stake.

Though it hasn’t been in a position like this before, Honda has had no qualms putting its badge on SUVs from other brands in the past.

In 1993, it launched its first SUVs… though they weren’t its own.

The Crossroad, sold exclusively in Japan, was a rebadged Land Rover Discovery and the only V8-powered vehicle ever sold by the brand. It was discontinued in 1998.

More successful was the Passport, lasting for two generations in the US market; the second generation of this model, a rebadged Isuzu Rodeo, was sold here as a Holden Frontera.

The Passport ended production in 2002 and Honda subsequently introduced the Pilot; both the Crossroad and Passport names were later dusted off for Honda SUVs developed in-house.

Honda’s premium division Acura also rebadged the Isuzu Trooper, known here as the Holden Jackaroo, dubbing it the SLX.

Arriving in the US for the 1996 model year, it was the first SUV from the then decade-old brand and filled a gap but was discontinued in 1999, with a Honda-developed replacement – the MDX crossover – not launching until 2001.

The Isuzu Trooper was also sold in the Japanese market as the Honda Horizon, while Honda even rebadged Isuzu’s TF ute (aka the Holden Rodeo) for Thailand as the Tourmaster.

While far from simple rebadges, Honda also currently sells the Prologue and its fancier Acura ZDX cousin which both ride on General Motors electric vehicle (EV) underpinnings.

The duo, however, have completely different styling inside and out.

Honda sold more examples of the Prologue in the US during 2024 than GM did of any of its EVs.

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