LincVolt launches new website, more details about the conversion process emerge

Some new details have emerged about LincVolt, Neil Young's latest foray into green auto, and we're more than happy to pass 'em along to you. According to our friends at Autoblog, the LincVolt shares more than just a name with GM's Volt, using a CNG engine to power the electric drive system so that the wheels are driven by the batteries alone. The car currently gets 50 MPG, but the LincVolt team are aiming at 100 MPG and a system that will achieve "over-unity" (generating more energy than is put in). The company has also launched a new website which will provide live data from Shakey's very own vehicle (voltage, battery charge, speed, etc.) as well as the typical blogs and forums. If that isn't enough, we've even included a video Neil driving his car, just in case you've never seen anybody drive a car before. Check it out after the break.

[Flashpoint @ Nov 10th 2008 9:11PM]

If Lincoln could produce an electric vehicle based on the MKS or the MKX, they'd be off to a great start.

[Konstantin @ Nov 10th 2008 9:30PM]

Yeah, totally. Not to mention getting a more exciting video...

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Nov 10th 2008 9:12PM]

Why not just go straight to zero point energy?

What a joke. Johnathan Goodwin is a scammer. From a long line of car (electric or otherwise) scammers.

[bill cant fart @ Nov 10th 2008 9:13PM]

Don't you have to be a senior citizen to drive one of those things?

Dang.

[heffeque @ Nov 10th 2008 9:15PM]

"(generating more energy than is put in)"

Homer Simpson once said:
"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

o_O

[Bill Jobs @ Nov 10th 2008 9:15PM]

Wouldn't producing more energy than is put in break the Law of Conservation of Energy?

[lowdef @ Nov 10th 2008 9:46PM]

my thoughts exactly.

[jack @ Nov 10th 2008 10:50PM]

Not necessarily, If the energy is coming from somewhere else then no, but if they are saying they are creating energy out of nothing then thats bull and we should all laughing at them.

But yeah "over-unity" can be had by using new energy sources that we can't account for yet, and I am the first to say we haven't discovered every thing yet :)

J

[Spencer @ Nov 10th 2008 10:42PM]

Look, normally Engadget is as sceptical as the next guy when it comes to infinite-energy machines, but this is *Neil Young* we're talking about here; and he's built it into a '59 Lincoln.

How could there be any doubt?

[gt-racer @ Nov 10th 2008 11:05PM]

I love you guys on Engadget. Just as I read that I was about to jam the brake on Neil Young's new scientific breakthrough but it seems I wasn't alone.

[JR @ Nov 10th 2008 9:15PM]

Over-unity. Hahahahahahaha.

[iEye @ Nov 10th 2008 9:17PM]

Kinda pointless... as most people with an old/muscle car really use it once/twice per week during the summer months and only if it is not going to rain... the rest of the time it just sits in the garage or driveway for iCandy..., like my iPhone.. I use a piece of crap nokia or motorola when I do not want my baby in danger...

And if I go cruising I want to make a big noise with a nice big block... not some battery driven 1959 cadillac...

[Shinigami @ Nov 10th 2008 9:26PM]

So you bought an iPhone just to look at it and not use it? Kinda pointless...

[Backlin @ Nov 10th 2008 9:29PM]

The funny thing is, the iPhone depreciates in value while classic cars appreciate in value.

[iEye @ Nov 10th 2008 9:38PM]

I'm talking about the 1st gen iphone... not the shite plastic 3G...

Just like the shite muscle cars of today.. mustang/challenger/charger/camaro... plastic all around....

[swmarc @ Nov 11th 2008 1:40PM]

Im SORRY

[silverblackvoid @ Nov 11th 2008 5:19AM]

iEye, ur retardness amazes me!

[dvsbstrd @ Nov 11th 2008 8:48AM]

If I had a classic car, I'd drive it all the time. Takes the fun out of owning it if it just sits in the garage.

[Zane @ Nov 10th 2008 9:20PM]

Just FYI this is the first website built using salesforce.com Sites platform that isn't for Salesforce.com

[Shinigami @ Nov 10th 2008 9:25PM]

I won't be as skeptic as you about over-unity thingie. I'll just wait and see if they can do it :)
If they can, would be great. If not, well... they won't be first to make that claim.

[Satou-san @ Nov 10th 2008 9:38PM]

i would like to see this technology developed even more, but the design can go to hell. but it looks wicked slow going uphill, so it looks like there still needs work to be done o_o

hmm...over-unity? it's funny how they casually mention that they're just going to add in some technology that technically shouldn't be possible...though if they added solar-panels and some sort of turbine thing on the wheels, giving the car much more energy then it will use, then i guess it would technically achieve "over-unity", but not really. kinda like hooking up an exercise machine to a solar panel o_o

[Zombie Flanders @ Nov 10th 2008 9:40PM]

A) CNG? There's no national infrastructure to fill CNG vehicles en masse. Why not use gasoline or diesel? You can guarantee to fill an empty tank 24/7 across the country, and it can still be an efficient engine.

B) 'Over-Unity' sounds highly dubious

[Reader @ Nov 10th 2008 9:46PM]

"but the LincVolt team are aiming at 100 MPG and a system that will achieve "over-unity""

Was going to bash you guys for bringing light to these scammers, but that's only because I thought it was Autoblog. Engadget has the full right to post complete and utter bullshit.

Were you struggling to make a posting quota Flatley? I'll make sure to read your posts more carefully from now on, who knows how often you slip bullshit in.

[Smileypanda @ Nov 10th 2008 10:08PM]

Perhaps they should try using a light car that is at least slightly aerodynamic, instead of a gigantic Lincoln.

[bill cant fart @ Nov 10th 2008 10:42PM]

Hey man these things have style!!

[duffman @ Nov 11th 2008 12:15AM]

Are you saying Porsche, Lotus, and Tesla (err, also Lotus) don't have any style?

[bill cant fart @ Nov 11th 2008 7:41AM]

@duffman

Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. Buick/Cadillac/Lincoln etc. are where it's at!

[reubert @ Nov 10th 2008 10:24PM]

The physics of Over-unity are obviously the same physics adhered to by the energy tapped into by Tesla.

[Reader @ Nov 11th 2008 1:55AM]

That's not over-unity, that's picking up stray EM waves. Over-unity implies a closed system, by using an antenna or anything else (solar panel) you are now making quite more than the car the system (now the system is the car, and the enormous surroundings which have energy to capture, not create).

[Kent @ Nov 11th 2008 9:42AM]

I suspect they simply mean that the LNG engine puts out more power than the battery can absorb - which it would have to in the real world. Hardly a feature. A little like saying it uses oxygen to burn fuel.
I'm guessing the car costs an outlandish amount, and you'll have to buy an LNG port for your garage to fuel it from your home gas lines - Not something I want in an enclosed area under my bedroom. Any gas appliances that have a port that is routinely connected and disconnected (such as a grill) are kept outside for a reason.

The video proves three things:
1 - Neal Young can still drive after all these years of stoner behavior.
2- The car can be driven for over five minutes. Pointlessly. To crappy beach music.
3 - The batteries work in California. Not sure how it will work in Neal Young's native Canada in Winter, but...

[Ick of the East @ Nov 11th 2008 9:55AM]

Man, talk about global warming. Imagine a whole world full of machines that put out more energy than you put into them.
Maybe they haven't thought this all the way through.