Former Giz guest-editor and currentLifehacker AU editor Angus is currently in San Fransisco for the SalesForce.com launch. While that’s not really Giz material, he sends word that during the launch, aging rocker Neil young came out on stage to show off the Lincvolt, his project to refit ageing muscle cars with environmentally friendly engines.
Gus was a bit sparse on the car’s details, but a quick look online shows that there’s a lot of high technology inside, including a PC that shows off the car’s emissions, speed, energy consumption and power in real time and a 150KW electric motor from UQM which gets its power from on-board batteries.
The car cruises at about 80mph (130kph) and has a top speed of about 160mph (260kph). The electric motor will get about 80-100 miles (130-160km), but if the batteries run out, there’s an onboard rotary engine that runs off compressed natural gas (CNG). The generator then charges the batteries at the same time as powering the car.
There’s a heap of potential here – not only in the car, but also the community aspect of the Lincvolt website which will let people with ideas for car conversion voice their ideas to Neil and his Lincvolt team.
[Lincvolt]