Honda The Honda Ridgeline is taking about a year-and-a-half off, as the second-generation pickup is slated to bow out of its lineup fairly soon due to tightening emissions regulations and an aging design. There's been no word from the Japanese automaker on what would come next... until now. Honda officially confirmed that a third-generation Ridgeline is coming within the next couple of years, and based on a single silhouette rendering we've been shown, it looks far boxier than before. Really, it's more of an outline. A Ridgeoutline, if you will. If I had to make an educated guess, the next Ridgeline is going to look a hell of a lot like the current Honda Passport with a truck bed grated onto the back, whereas the current one looks like a Pilot with a bed. Perhaps it'll pull from the new Pilot instead. Time will tell. Either way, it'll most likely make use of Honda's new hybrid V6 engine I got a chance to take a look at in Japan last year. Updated styling and a new motor are two things the second-gen Ridgeline, which has been on sale since 2017, desperately needed. That's not to say it's a bad truck (if you're my father-in-law who just bought one, I think it's a great truck); I just think it could use a bit of a freshening up, ya know! Soft truck in a hard world Honda The Ridgeline has never really been much of a sales success for Honda. In 2025, it moved just 48,448 trucks. That's not a terrible number, but it does pale in comparison to its closest competition like the Toyota Tacoma and Chevy Colorado, which sold 274,638 units and 107,074 units, respectively. That's a shame, too, because the Ridgeline would almost certainly meet the actual needs of most Tacoma and Colorado buyers better than those trucks do. The thing is, though, those trucks look tough, and the Ridgeline never really has. That's what this major design change, which'll be completed at the company's California studio, is clearly about. As we reported earlier this year, the automaker decided to pause Ridgeline production at its factory in Lincoln, Alabama, starting in the fourth quarter of this year because of tightening emissions standards around its 3.5-liter V6. While that's happening, Honda is apparently going to crank out other high-volume nameplates like the Odyssey and Passport — upping production of each nameplate by more than 10%. Honda hasn't officially confirmed the emissions reasoning as to why the Ridgeline needs to take a break, but it would be sort of odd to slam on the brakes for 18 months without a significant reason. In any case, look out for the third-generation Ridgeline sometime in 2028, and until then, the most I can offer you is the Ridgeoutline. I hope that can satiate you for the time being.