Toyota A-BAT Redefines the Idea of a "Pickup"

While Toyota sits atop the hybrid heap with the wildly successful gasoline-electric Prius, the company is not sitting on its green laurels. Engineers are working on incorporating clean-burning diesel power plants in key models and there are also ethanol-based projects underway. Additionally, the company designers are rethinking automotive form factors in particular the big, fuel-guzzling pickups like the Tundra that have garnered so much criticism for Toyota and that now seem poised to go the way of the dinosaur in the face of gasoline prices in the United States hovering near $4 a gallon.

At the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, Toyota showed off a hybrid pickup concept called the A-BAT, an attempt to marry the pickup and the hybrid in a unibody look reminiscent of the Honda Ridgeline and the Isuzu VehiCROSS. Although a one-time pioneer of compact pickups, Toyota has done little with the genre in the past ten years. At first glance the molded, futuristic body of the A-BAT seems to offer little in the way of hauling capacity, the feature at the heart of pickup popularity. While the bed of the A-BAT measures only four feet, a mid-gate opens into the cab adding two feet of space. Put down the tailgate and that extends to eight, making it more than possible to fit the gold standard of pickup usefulness, the 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, in the back.

In a bid to innovation, there's also a sliding drawer under the tailgate to serve as storage or carrying room for small items. These kinds of touches will likely begin to appear more often as designers struggle to incorporate as much versatility as possible into more compact, fuel efficient vehicles. Additionally, the A-BAT's four doors open opposite one another to provide maximum access to the cabin. Interior features include folding rear seats and dual information screens placed in front of both the driver and the passenger. Solar panels on the dash send power to the instrument panel and other accessories and a removable power pack between the seats can provide juice to cell phones, laptops, and similar devices. Not unlike the Prius, the concept is powered by a four-cylinder engine mated to Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive.

At first glance, vehicles like the A-BAT, with its short bed, pug nose, and swept-back styling, appearing strange and futuristic to the eye. Nothing about the A-BAT says "pickup" as the driving public has come to think of that word. The concept, which has a high probability of coming to production, is, however, a bid to new realities in the automotive world in the face of growing environmental concerns and rising energy costs. It's not a surprising development from a company like Toyota that has proven, since the introduction of the Prius, to be at the forefront of innovative ideas in personal transportation.

Even in this era of environmentalism and high fuel costs, some of us aren't ready to compromise on power. Meet the uncompromising Ford Mustang cars.

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