Honda sold 119,952 vehicles in the U.S. in October. That is up eight percent from a year ago and the company’s strongest October since 2020.
Look closer at that number and the story is not really about cars. It is about crossovers, and more and more about the battery packs inside them.
Light trucks, which in Honda’s accounting cover SUVs, crossovers, minivans and pickups, hit 83,559 units. That is up 9.6 percent and an October record. Passenger cars rose 4.5 percent to 36,393.
Put another way, roughly seven of every ten Hondas sold last month were not cars in the traditional sense.
The CR-V carried the load again. It posted 34,815 deliveries, up 9.8 percent and another October record. On its own, the compact SUV outsold every passenger car in the Honda lineup combined.
More than half of those CR-Vs were hybrids. The 18,534 hybrid units made up 53 percent of the model’s mix and set a monthly record of their own.
Across the brand, Honda moved 32,519 hybrids, its best October ever for electrified sales. Hybrid growth of 5.1 percent actually trailed the company’s overall gain. Hybrids are becoming the baseline rather than the surge.
The rest of the truck side kept pace. The HR-V hit an October record of 12,353, up 11 percent, and the Passport set a record at 5,419, up 14.9 percent.
The Odyssey, a minivan in a market that supposedly forgot minivans, jumped 32.2 percent to 7,202. Even the Ridgeline, an aging truck waiting on a replacement expected later this decade, climbed 7.9 percent to 4,410.
The sedans did not collapse. They simply did not lead.
The Accord had its best October since 2020, with sales up 10.6 percent and hybrids making up 45 percent of its mix. The Civic delivered 17,960 units, with the hybrid taking 36 percent.
The Prelude cleared 400 deliveries for the second straight month. For a sports coupe, that is a respectable trickle. Next to the CR-V, it is a rounding error.
Acura told a different story. The luxury division sold 10,790 vehicles, down 2.5 percent, even as the Honda brand rose 9.1 percent to 109,162.
The dip came despite a strong month for the flagship. The MDX surged 54.3 percent to 5,232 units, and its sales this year have already passed its entire 2025 total. The entry-level ADX and Integra added 4,604 between them, with the Integra up 11.5 percent.
Do the subtraction. Those three models account for 9,836 of Acura’s 10,790 sales, leaving fewer than 1,000 units for everything else wearing the badge. Acura is still up 3.7 percent for the year at 114,458, but the brand is leaning hard on a short list of nameplates.
Combined, Honda and Acura have sold 1,269,213 vehicles through ten months of 2026, up five percent.
The one segment where Honda keeps hedging is the pickup. A body-on-frame truck is coming in 2028, but it is a rebadged Mitsubishi Triton built in Thailand and aimed at Southeast Asia.
American buyers should not hold their breath. A Thai-built import would run straight into tariffs, including the 25 percent Chicken Tax. That leaves the next Ridgeline, still years away, as Honda’s only pickup plan for the market that buys the most of them.
For now, the CR-V keeps signing the checks. Two months remain on the 2026 calendar.
Share this Story