Honda’s New Ridgeline Pause Follows Its Own 2015 Script

Honda confirmed Thursday that a new Ridgeline will roll off its Alabama assembly line by around 2028, but only after the current truck goes dark on that same line later this year. The stoppage traces back to a 3.5-liter V6 that can no longer clear California’s emissions rules. Lance Woelfer, vice president of auto sales at American Honda Motor, told CNBC the redesign will push toward greater ruggedness without confirming whether that means walking away from the truck’s car-based underpinnings.

Honda has run this play before. The Ridgeline vanished from production for a full model year back in 2015 under strikingly similar circumstances, a redesign-driven gap the industry has mostly forgotten about. It is happening again just as Honda’s CR-V crossover posts the best sales half in its history.

Honda Confirms a Third Act for Its Only Pickup

The automaker said the Alabama plant will pause Ridgeline assembly later this year, with production returning within about two years, likely in 2028. The future of the midsize pickup had been in flux for months amid reports that a stoppage was coming because the truck did not meet California emissions regulations.

Honda paired the confirmation with a teaser image of the next-generation truck. Woelfer framed the goal plainly.

The goal is to continue to serve those customers who’ve been loyal to the Ridgeline. But one of the things that we want to bring forward in the future is increased ruggedness of that vehicle, even more capability.

Woelfer, the vice president overseeing American Honda’s sales strategy, made those comments directly to CNBC alongside the teaser release.

The Same Move Honda Made in 2015

This is not the Ridgeline’s first disappearing act. The first-generation truck ended production in early 2015, with Honda pulling it from the line sooner than planned because of soft sales ahead of a planned overhaul. A one-year gap followed before the second generation arrived in mid-2016, sharing about 73% of its components with the third-generation Pilot.

Honda’s truck planners had to reassure the public during that first hiatus, issuing an open letter denying rumors that the Ridgeline would be scrapped entirely. The original truck had been cheap to build, developed for under $250 million, which kept it profitable even at modest volumes.

The parallel is close enough that Honda appears to be reaching for a strategy that already worked once. The open question is whether a second retool lands the same way twenty years later.

Why Can’t Honda’s V6 Meet the Rules?

Honda’s Ridgeline still runs an older, single-overhead-cam version of its 3.5-liter V6, while the Pilot and Passport, built on the same Alabama line, already moved to a newer dual-overhead-cam version of that engine. Honda is also one of a handful of automakers still bound to California’s tougher efficiency mandate even as federal rules moved in a different direction.

The full picture, though, still has real gaps.

• What we know: Honda will halt Ridgeline production at its Lincoln, Alabama plant later this year, with output resuming within about two years.
• What we know: The current V6 is the older single-cam design Honda has already replaced elsewhere in its own lineup.
• What we know: Woelfer says the next truck will emphasize ruggedness and declined to confirm a shift to body-on-frame construction.

• Unconfirmed: Honda has not officially named emissions rules as the reason for the pause. That detail comes from trade-press reporting, not from Honda’s own public statement.
• Unconfirmed: The length of the pause has shifted across reports, from an initial estimate of about 18 months to language suggesting the window may be wider.
• Unconfirmed: Whether the 2028 truck keeps the current unibody platform or moves to a traditional truck frame. Earlier reports assumed it would stay unibody; Honda’s own executive won’t rule out a change.

Alabama Keeps the Line Running, Just Not on Trucks

The Lincoln, Alabama plant does not go quiet during the gap. It keeps building the vehicles that already share the Ridgeline’s floor space.

• Odyssey minivan, with production expected to ramp up to help fill the gap and keep dealer lots stocked.
• Passport SUV, which shares the same assembly line and keeps volume steady during the pause.
• Pilot SUV, continuing alongside its usual production neighbors on the same floor.

Keeping those three moving is how Honda protects jobs at the plant without a truck on the line. It is also a reminder of how much the Ridgeline has always leaned on shared bones with Honda’s SUVs rather than standing apart as its own platform.

A Volume Problem Honda Can’t Redesign Away

Whatever else changes, the sales math is stark.

• 48,000-plus: Ridgeline units Honda sold in 2025, ahead of only the Prologue EV in the brand’s US lineup.
• 270,000-plus: Toyota Tacoma units sold in 2025, the segment leader by a wide margin.
• 3%: How far Ridgeline sales fell in the first half of this year, even before the pause was confirmed.

Honda has sold between roughly 41,000 and 52,000 Ridgelines annually since 2021, a narrow band that has never threatened the Tacoma’s grip on the midsize truck market. Expanding the Ridgeline’s ruggedness, Woelfer suggested, could widen the pool of buyers willing to consider it.

A Record Half Elsewhere in the Lineup

While the truck side struggles, Honda’s CR-V just had its best six months ever. The compact crossover posted 226,114 units sold through the first half of the year, an all-time high for the model and about 6% above its previous record. That was enough to push the CR-V past the Ford F-150’s estimated 209,311 units and the Toyota RAV4’s 153,955, largely because an aluminum supplier fire slowed F-150 output and a factory transition disrupted the redesigned RAV4.

Sales data tracked by an all-time high of 403,768 units last year shows the CR-V’s momentum building well before this year’s surge.

The CR-V’s rise landed in the same stretch Honda booked its first-ever annual net loss as a public company, a $2.7 billion hit tied largely to a retreat from electric vehicles it had bet heavily on. Honda’s own securities disclosure pointed to a swing to a full-year loss of up to ¥690 billion as it reworked its EV plans. Record motorcycle sales helped cushion the blow. Honda’s motorcycle division, which just brought back its four-cylinder CBR400R after a 26 year gap, is one of the few corners of the business currently pulling its weight.

Will the Next Ridgeline Ditch Its Car Bones?

Honda won’t say yet. The next Ridgeline will lean into ruggedness and capability, according to Woelfer, but whether that includes a genuine shift to body-on-frame construction, the way most American trucks are built, remains unanswered.