Is There a Prius Pickup in the Works?

We’ve all become used to the wedge shape of Toyota’s Prius hybrid. The car has been driving on our streets since the late 1990s. Now comes word that there may be a Prius Pickup in our future. A concept of the vehicle was shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. This occurred in the wake of announcements by Toyota that it is expanding the Prius line to include a Prius plug-in hybrid and a new larger Prius V.

It’s not the first time that the pickup -- referred to as the A-BAT -- was shown at the Detroit show. It debuted at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. The vehicle includes a hybrid powertrain, unibody construction, a cab forward passenger compartment to allow for more rear cargo space and a small size for better handling and weight savings. There was some talk that the Japanese auto maker would manufacture a production version of the concept in 2009, but Toyota finally decided against it. Robert Carter, group vice president and general manager of Toyota Division at Toyota Motor Sales USA, said that if there is a Prius pickup, it will not replace the Tacoma but would be slotted below it in the pecking order of the line.