Toyota A-BAT Hybrid Pickup
by: William Ford
Posted on: Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 3:37 pm by: William Ford
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It’s not a Honda Ridgline, it’s not a Subaru Baha, but it is half a pick-up truck and half a family sedan.
Over the past couple years Toyota has received increasing criticism from environmentalists about the ever growing size and decadence of their trucks. As a response they released the new A-BAT Hybrid pickup that is 9 inches shorter than a regular cab and a whole 27 inches shorter than their extended cab. It has a similar uni-body design as the Ridgeline but is the first of its kind to have a mid-gate that allows items larger than its four-foot bed to extend into the cab. You can haul all the 4×8 sheets of plywood you want to the construction site on Friday then take the kids on a family picnic to the lake Saturday.
Inspiration for its design ranges from a NATO all-terrain military truck, to a mountain bike frame, to a Prius. Toyota touts roominess, versatility, and advanced architectural style in their compact pickup all the while being environmentally friendly.
The friendly aspect of the A-BAT is born out of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive paired with a four-cylinder engine and translucent solar panels mounted to the top of the instrument panel. Nothing new on that end, it’s the interior that boasts exciting new features.
The bed is lined with hidden storage cabinets, AC power outlets and tailgate lights illuminating secret spots where they hide the flashlight and first-aid kit. If those bells and whistles aren’t loud enough for you there is a retractable seven-inch widescreen, a navigation system equipped with Wi-Fi, a port for your portable music player and a hard drive to store digital music. The driver and passenger have multi-information display screens on the IP to keep an eye on the volume, among other things. Did I mention that this truck is all bells and whistles?
Toyota, what are you doing to us?
Forever you’ve made to most reliable, simple, long-lasting truck on the market. And it even used to look good, not sexy good, but standard truck good. I’m sorry to say that I wouldn’t be caught dead driving this compact pickup with a four-foot bed within a hundred miles of a real construction site.. Just make the Tacoma or Tundra with the Hybrid Synergy Drive, and don’t waste your money and my time with a military-truck/Prius/mountain bike.
Thanks for letting me vent.
