Honda and Mitsubishi confirm Triton-based pickup for ASEAN in 2028

Honda and Mitsubishi sign supply agreement

Honda and Mitsubishi Motors have signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of a Honda model based on the Mitsubishi Triton pickup, the two companies announced on 22 October 2026. According to the joint statement issued in Tokyo, the arrangement marks the first initiative between the two companies for complementary supply to each other's product lineups, and the new Honda model is scheduled to go on sale in the ASEAN market in 2028. ²

CarExpert reports the memorandum was signed on Thursday night, with Mitsubishi to supply Honda with utes out of its factory in Laem Chabang, Thailand. No name for the Honda ute has been announced. The companies frame the arrangement as mutually beneficial: Honda says it will let it "enhance its product lineup quickly and efficiently" in a market where it does not currently offer a pickup, while Mitsubishi says it will "increase production volume and improve capacity utilisation" at the Thai plant. ¹²

The deal flows from the strategic partnership framework signed on 1 August 2024 among Honda, Mitsubishi Motors and Nissan Motor, within which the three companies have explored complementary supply of vehicles from both short- and medium-to-long-term perspectives. The two companies say they reached agreement after determining the collaboration would generate synergies for both, and state the three-way partnership will continue to deepen. ²

Neither the joint announcement nor CarExpert's report specifies engine options, variants, specifications or sales targets for the Honda model, and no volume figures have been published. ¹²

A Triton by another name — and a familiar playbook

The donor vehicle is the current Mitsubishi Triton, a one-ton pickup built on a ladder frame that Mitsubishi describes as one of its global strategic models, in high demand particularly in the ASEAN region. CarExpert notes that given the tight timeframe, the Honda version is likely to differ from the Triton only in styling details such as a new grille and bumpers, revised badging and possibly new headlights and tail-lights — a reasonable expectation rather than a confirmed specification. ¹²

The Triton is already sold under a second badge: Nissan, which currently holds around 24 per cent of Mitsubishi Motors according to CarExpert, launched a Triton-based Navara this year, distinguished visually by unique front and rear fascias. A Honda version would make the third badge on the one ute, as AutoTrader noted in its earlier reporting. ¹³

It is also not Honda's first time rebadging body-on-frame vehicles. CarExpert details 1990s examples including the Isuzu Rodeo sold in the US as the Honda Passport, the Isuzu Trooper sold in Japan as the Honda Horizon and in the US as the Acura SLX, and the first-generation Land Rover Discovery sold in Japan as the Crossroad. CarExpert separately records the Isuzu TF sold in Thailand as the Honda Tourmaster from 1996 to 1998. ¹⁴

Honda's only current pickup, the Ridgeline, is a unibody design closely related to the Pilot SUV, built in the United States and offered only in left-hand drive — a fundamentally different proposition to the ladder-frame utes that dominate the Australian and Southeast Asian markets. ¹³⁴⁶

From report to confirmation

The agreement was foreshadowed before it was signed. Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reported in early October 2026 that Honda planned to sell a rebadged Triton in Southeast Asian markets from as early as 2028, with other regions under consideration — a report carried by AutoTrader NZ, CarExpert and Torque Cafe ahead of the official announcement. At that stage neither company had confirmed the arrangement. ³⁴⁵

The pre-confirmation reporting attributed similar motivations to the companies: Yomiuri reported Honda was struggling in Southeast Asia and saw a ute as a way to lift volumes, while Mitsubishi would gain higher operating rates at its Thai plant. Cars24 adds reported context that Honda's sales in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand fell 20 per cent over the first eight months of 2026 amid pressure from expanding Chinese brands — figures that should be read as the outlet's reporting rather than a Honda disclosure. ⁴⁶

Yomiuri also reported, ahead of the signing, that Honda could source other Mitsubishi models and that the companies were weighing joint development of components such as instrument displays. No additional models have been named or confirmed since the memorandum was signed. ³⁴

Could it come to Australia?

Neither Honda nor Mitsubishi has confirmed the Honda-badged Triton for any market beyond ASEAN. CarExpert notes it is unclear whether other markets will receive the model, but a Yomiuri Shimbun report earlier in October indicated the automaker is giving wider distribution some consideration. ASEAN's eleven full members include right-hand-drive markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, alongside left-hand-drive Philippines. ¹

Cars24 reports that an Australian launch remains unconfirmed, though it argues the Triton's existing right-hand-drive production in Thailand makes Australia a potential market, and that the vehicle would align Honda more closely with this country's traditional ute segment. That remains the outlet's analysis, not a manufacturer statement, and Honda has not indicated it will expand the model beyond Southeast Asia. ⁶

Torque Cafe took a more sceptical view before confirmation, noting it would be unlikely to be sold in Australia given the rarity of three vehicles sharing the same core being available here — the Triton and Navara are both already on local sale. If a Honda version did arrive, it would give Honda a ladder-frame rival to the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max and its own donor Triton, a positioning outlined in CarExpert's earlier reporting. ⁴⁵

The broader alliance context extends to North America: Reuters reported in mid-2025, via CarExpert and AutoTrader, that Nissan was in talks to build pickups for Honda at its under-utilised Canton plant in Mississippi, pointing to a rebadged version of the US-market Frontier. Mitsubishi has separately confirmed it will soon begin US sales of a rebadged Frontier, according to CarExpert. These are separate arrangements from the newly signed ASEAN deal and remain unconfirmed for Honda. ¹³⁴

The alliance that survived a failed merger

The announcement comes despite the collapse of the proposed Honda–Nissan merger, announced in late December 2024 and officially called off in February 2025, with Nissan blaming Honda for changing the terms of the deal, as CarExpert recounts. The three companies nonetheless agreed to keep discussing areas of collaboration. ¹

Collaboration has since progressed on other fronts. At the beginning of September 2026, CarExpert reports, Honda and Nissan announced they will jointly work on core electronic control units and software for a new Electrical/Electronic architecture underpinning their next-generation software-defined vehicles, with the first expected around 2030. The Triton supply deal now adds a concrete product-level outcome to that framework. ¹

The companies themselves frame the arrangement as continuing the partnership: the joint statement says the three companies will continue to deepen the strategic partnership to strengthen competitiveness and meet diverse customer needs while utilising their respective products and technological assets. What remains unknown is the Honda ute's name, its specification, pricing, production volumes, and whether any market outside ASEAN will see it. ¹²