Detroit Auto Show :Toyota Reveals New Honda Ridgeline, Calls it the A-BAT Concept Hybrid Truck

This is it -- whatever "it" is. Actually "it" is Toyota's newest concept they'll be bringing to the Detroit Auto Show in two weeks, the A-BAT Concept Pickup Truck. And A-BAT is more than just a winged rat, it's an acronym for "Advanced Breakthrough Aero Truck." That's a name that has us kinda scratching our heads. How did Toyota name a concept vehicle a "breakthrough" when it looks like the love child of some sort of menage-a-truck involving the Honda Ridgeline, the Chevy Avalanche and the Toyota Prius. Yeah, you heard us -- the Toyota Prius -- you know, for that tint of green.

But despite what appears to our eyes as the obvious Ridgeline-esque styling, Toyota claims the look of this unibody-platformed concept truck is unique -- based on "the 'trapezoid' silhouette from the side profile of the Toyota Prius." But don't think for a moment this concept is all car and no truck. The A-BAT's able to shed the five-person crew-cab-like set-up with a tiny four-foot bed and transform itself into a two-seat "El Camino" configuration with a full eight-foot bed. The transformation's accomplished by dropping both the liftgate and the "midgate" ( that sound you hear is Chevrolet's legal team opening up their briefcases in unison) on either end of the mini-bed.

But wait, there's more -- as we alluded to earlier, this concept's got some green going on under the hood by way of a hybrid synergy drive. So if Toyota ever builds this new-fangled El Cam, you can head to Home Depot to buy lumber for the deck of your cookie-cutter McMansion and make a statement about saving the environment all at once. But we do give Toyota some credit for aggressively going after a market they've targeted.

© Source: jalopnik