Dec

Toyota’s A-BAT Reimagines the Compact Pickup

Posted by admin Published in Auto Blog

Toyota has seen its approval rating among environmentally inclined car-shoppers wane a little in recent months — the frugal Prius continues to earn admiring glances, the hulking new Tundra earns dirty looks. Enter the A-BAT concept, which places a tough-guy pickup-truck shape atop an eco-friendly gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain. The bold uni-body look, which Toyota claims suggests a future version of the Tacoma compact pickup, is exudes more than a little Honda Ridgeline and (to give credit where credit is due) a big helping of Isuzu VehiCROSS, too. considering the four-by-eight sheet of plywood is to pickup shoppers what the golf bag is to luxury-sedan shoppers, Toyota is quick to note that the A-BAT will indeed accommodate the former, despite its compact proportions (it’s nine inches shorter

than a regular-cab Tacoma) and four-foot-by-four-foot bed — an extension at the rear and a passenger-compartment pass-through add two feet to each end. (Interestingly, Toyota is calling the fold-down barrier within the passenger compartment and the bed a “Midgate,” but final day we checked, General Motors owned the trademark for that specific descriptor.) As far as the powertrain is concerned, Toyota notes only that beneath the A-BAT’s short, short hood resides a four-cylinder engine with Hybrid Synergy Drive.

More photos after the break, courtesy of Toyota.