Honda Rugged Open Air Vehicle Concept

The Honda Rugged Open Air Vehicle concept, known as the ROAV, is a mashup of two existing Honda products that should never have worked on paper but absolutely does in person. Revealed at the 2018 SEMA show in Las Vegas, it takes the platform and powertrain of the Honda Ridgeline pickup truck, grafts on the off-road stance and aesthetic of the Honda Pioneer 1000 side-by-side, strips away the roof and doors, and produces something Top Gear named the winner of the entire SEMA show. Honda's US R&D team built it as an answer to a simple question: what would the ultimate open-air four-wheel Honda look like?

What Is the Honda ROAV Concept?

The ROAV is an open-air off-road concept built on the Ridgeline's unibody platform, with modified suspension and bodywork inspired by the Pioneer 1000 UTV. It has no roof, no doors, and no windscreen, placing the occupants entirely in the open. The seats are taken from the Honda Civic Type R but re-trimmed in waterproof material borrowed from the Pioneer, preparing the cockpit for exposure to mud, water, and whatever else the terrain throws at it. The dashboard is a stock Ridgeline unit, but the steering wheel is lifted from the Pioneer 1000 and adapted to fit the Ridgeline's steering column. Skid plates and protective cladding cover the underside and wheel arches. The whole vehicle is painted in red and black, giving it the visual aggression to match the mechanical intent.

Powertrain and Performance

Honda did not officially confirm the engine, but the Ridgeline donor platform points to the 3.5-litre V6 that produces 280 hp in the production truck, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. The suspension has been modified for off-road use, raising the ride height and fitting larger tyres to give the ROAV real clearance over rocks and ruts. As detailed by Carscoops, the combination of truck power with a buggy silhouette gives the ROAV an on-paper spec sheet that rivals dedicated off-road UTVs, while the Ridgeline platform brings the refinement and reliability of a production vehicle underneath it all.

A Concept That Will Never Be Produced, and Why That Matters

Honda has confirmed it has no plans to put the ROAV into production. The concept exists purely to demonstrate what the brand's engineering team could do if freed from the constraints of cost, regulation, and market research. That freedom produced something more visually compelling than most production off-roaders on sale today. The ROAV concept's value is as a signal: it shows where Honda's creative appetite is, even if the accounting department will not let it out of the garage. As Top Gear put it, the Honda ROAV concept simply won SEMA 2018.

Open-Air Off-Road Vehicles at TheArsenale

The Honda ROAV points toward a category of vehicle that puts the driver back in contact with terrain and atmosphere, prioritising experience over comfort. For those drawn to that ethos, TheArsenale carries the Reboot Buggy by Joey Ruiter, a minimalist open-air vehicle that takes the same philosophy to an extreme, and the Sherp ATV, one of the most capable all-terrain vehicles ever built for consumers. The broader range of performance and off-road vehicles is in the TheArsenale cars collection.