A-BAT out of cell

Green Car Centre

Biodiesel Cars & Hybrid Cars

It's a bold manufacturer who decides to launch a clean, green pick-up truck in the US motor manufacturing heartland of Detroit. But that's just what Toyota has done with its A-BAT concept at the North American International Auto Show right here in Detroit.

The A-BAT is what Americans call a mid-size truck, which is about the same in overall size as a Land Rover Discovery. This 'smaller' size helps the A-BAT be more economical and produce less emissions than a typical SUV rival in the USA.

Using a unitary construction that does away with the separate chassis often seen on American pick-ups, the A-BAT uses hybrid petrol-electric power similar to the Toyota Prius. There are also translucent panels on the top of the dash top to capture the sun's rays and convert them into energy to work the dashboard.

The Detroit show car has a four-door body, with the rear doors hinged at their rear edges, and a five-seat cabin, though Toyota says this could be varied in a production model. There are no firm plans to put the A-BAT into production, but Toyota says all of the technology already exists and it would not take much more to make the A-BAT ready to go on sale on the USA.

Alisdair Suttie