本田拟2028年起在东南亚贴牌销售三菱Triton皮卡，为约30年来首次换标采购

TOKYO -- Honda Motor plans to sell Thai-built Triton pickup trucks built by Mitsubishi Motors under its own brand in Southeast Asia and elsewhere as early as 2028, the former's first rebadging arrangement in roughly three decades.
The move is part of collaboration talks ongoing since August 2024 with Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors, partly owned by Nissan.
The Triton sold about 130,000 vehicles in 2025. Built with a cabin mounted on a ladder frame, the truck is known for its durability and excellent off-road handling. Honda's pickup uses a passenger-car-based structure, and the automaker does not make a ladder-frame vehicle.
Except for vehicles jointly developed with General Motors, Honda last sourced an auto from a third party back in the 1990s: a sport utility vehicle from Isuzu Motors.
Rebadging is a common practice among automakers seeking to fill gaps in their lineups or to expand their presence in markets where they have limited offerings. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors have supplied models to each other, for example. Toyota rebrands and sells models from Suzuki Motor and from Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu Motor.
After decades of going it alone, Honda is having a change of heart amid rapid changes in the business environment. Advanced technologies require ever-increasing investments, and Chinese automakers are increasingly winning customers overseas.
Until recent years, Japanese automakers had together controlled around a 90% market share in Thailand and Indonesia. This has since shrunk to 70% to 80% as consumers have embraced electric vehicles from such Chinese companies as BYD. Honda's combined automobile sales in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia fell 20% on the year to the 110,000-vehicle range for the first eight months of 2026.
Pickup trucks require high load and towing capacities, so they have been slower to transition to electric versions than have passenger cars. This makes the segment relatively less competitive with Chinese rivals, and Honda wants to broaden its lineup while keeping development costs down with rebadged models.
The arrangement will also let Mitsubishi Motors improve factory utilization. A Mitsubishi Motors plant in Thailand with a capacity in the 386,000-unit range built only a little more than 170,000 vehicles in 2025.
Honda and Mitsubishi Motors "are able to offset each other's weaknesses," said Takaki Nakanishi of the Nakanishi Research Institute.
Mitsubishi Motors has focused resources on the development of off-road vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Honda, which does not manufacture plug-in hybrids in Japan, will consider sourcing this type of vehicle from Mitsubishi Motors as well.
The partnership talks between Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors had stalled, but the rise of Chinese competition has prompted the Japanese automakers to speed up the discussions. Honda and Nissan reached a deal this August to join forces in technology for software-defined vehicles.