Honda knows the Ridgeline.
They know it sells okay. Barely.
Under 45,00 units last year. Maybe less than 50,00 recently.
Compare that to the Chevy Colorado. The Tacoma. Hundreds of thousands of units. The Ridgeline is the truck that slips through cracks. It sneaks under radar because it barely exists on the leaderboard.
So Honda is stopping the presses.
Report from Auto News says production halts. Not just for a facelift. For survival. Specifically, emissions survival.
The Gap
Here’s the timeline.
Alabama plant stops making the midsize pickup in late 2026.
Restart? Late 2027… no, wait. Q3 of 2028.
Eighteen months. A huge void.
Honda doesn’t like idle machines, so they fill the empty slot with Passports and Odysseys. More SUVs, more minivans, no trucks. It’s a stopgap measure wrapped in an engineering problem.
The core issue isn’t design fatigue. It’s the tailpipe.
Honda can’t make the current model meet new emissions rules without a rewrite. They are swapping in a revised V6 engine. Changing components. Refreshing the styling, sure, but mostly it’s about passing tests that didn’t exist two years ago.
Juggling Act
Why wait? Why not fix it sooner?
Complexity. Internal squabbles. Resources diverted from EV efforts that may have stalled or slowed down. Supplier snarls. Honda has been stretching product lifecycles like cheap taffy, squeezing value out of old platforms while the market shifts underneath them.
Ridgeline remains an important model… with unique appeal.
Standard corporate speak. Honda told Carscoops the truck matters. It’s a top “conquest model,” whatever that means in boardroom language.
Does it matter, though?
Last year it beat only one truck: the expensive GMC Canyon.
That is a tough benchmark.
This year isn’t better. 10,98 sold in the first three months of 2024 (assuming the article implies recent quarter data). Keep that pace and 2026 looks like 2025.
Look at Toyota.
They moved nearly 70,00 Tacomas in a single quarter.
Can the new Ridgeline keep up?
Maybe. The gap gives Honda time. 18 months is an eternity in auto land to fix an engine, tweak a chassis, and redesign a front end.
But the truck market is unforgiving. If Honda launches this reboot and it’s just fine, it might still be ignored. People don’t buy pickups for subtlety. They buy them for status or utility. The Ridgeline offers neither in the eyes of the mass market.
It needs to be exceptional.
It needs to not be boring.
Who knows if it will be.
