Keep on drivin’ in the free world!
My Clean Break column today is an overview of the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition and an unlikely entrants among the more than 60 teams that have registered. Neil Young, the Canadian rocker who gave us classics such as “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” has teamed up with ride-pimpin’ mechanic Johnathan Goodwin and a team of engineers who have converted Young’s beloved 1959 Lincoln Continental into an electric car. Called team Linc Volt, they plan to prove that you can be efficient and good to the environment without sacrificing size and comfort. In the case of this Lincoln, it’s a 19-foot giant, which will no doubt stand out in the crowd as it races more futuristic cars for the $10-million X-Prize.
The main column is here. I also have a small sidebar detailing Young’s interest in a superefficient generator developed by Thane Heins, who I wrote about here. You’ll recall that Heins believes he has violated the law of energy conservation with his invention, which Young believes could have application to his electric Lincoln.
NOTE: For the best story written so far on the Linc Volt venture, the Wichita Eagle has a great feature published on June 1. Apparently the reporter just showed up at the shop where Young and Goodwin were working on the car. They were reluctant to be interviewed, but eventully invited the reporter in. Part of the reluctance, I think (beyong the fact that Young generally stays clear of the media) is that he’s also filming his own documentary of the Linc Volt conversion and its participation in the X-Prize, so presumably he doesn’t want to steal his own thunder.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I’m a little confused by how this thing works. It’s a zero-emission electric car that doesn’t need to be plugged in? Does it have a hydrogen fuel cell plus a battery/supercap to capture energy from regenerative braking?
Stephen