He has always worn his passions on this sleeve and now Neil Young is doing more than singing about a cause. He is fronting a new company to encourage folks to take their old cars and retrofit them to green energy fuel, electric cars renewed. To show it off he took his prize 1959 Lincoln Continental (one of the biggest and bloated cars of all time) and converted it to a hybrid of electric and natural gas power system. Now instead of a gas guzzler he is cruising down the highway in a giant American car getting 80 miles to the gallon instead of 5 or 6.
He is debuting it today the at Salesforce.com convention in SF. He has partnered with a fellow to start up a new company, LincVolt that will take your car and covert it to this new combo of energy sources which they say is more suited to the needs of older cars than a straight electric conversion.
Here is the Lincoln in the garage.
Add into that the fact that Neil and company have also announced they are entering the XPrize contest to try and make the first 100 MPG car.
read more:
LINC VOLT ENTERS X PRIZE RACE
The Automotive X Prize, a competition for 100 MPG vehicles has been announced and the Goodwin Young “Linc Volt” team has had its “letter of intent” to participate accepted. A qualifying race will be held in 2009 and the final race from California to Washington D.C. will take place in 2010.
Linc Volt is a 2.5 ton Lincoln Continental Mk IV convertible manufactured by Ford motors in 1959. At 19.5 feet long, it was the longest car of its era. A new series-hybrid system for powering the car is in the final stages of tuning and development. Testing is scheduled for March and April.
Not sure he needs the cash prize but the results would sure be good.