Neil Young Keeps Us "Rockin' In the Free World" Electrically

Rocker Neil Young, one part of the seriously drug addled 1960’s rock quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, has announced that he is working with an auto mechanic in Wichita, Kansas to convert his gas guzzling 1959 Lincoln Continental to electric power.

News of the transplant surgery on Mr. Young’s Continental came as quite a surprise to many in the auto industry, especially as the aging rocker claims that, "we're going to change the world, we're going to create a car that will allow us to stop giving our wealth to other countries for petroleum.” So does this mean this car is going to help keep Americans on the road and, in the words of one of Neil Young’s greatest hits, “rockin’ in the free world?”

Sounds like a good theory, but will it be as successfully put into practice as the failed 1960s concepts of “flower power” and “free love?” In all honesty, now in this era of bio-fuel it wouldn’t really be “flower power” so much as “corn power.”

But back to the topic. When Neil and his mechanic friend, one Jonathan Goodwin, finish construction of the whale-sized Lincoln Continental electric vehicle, they plan to drive it cross country in order to bring legislative attention to it in Washington D.C. Taking into account the range that most all electric vehicles have currently, and the fact that this sedan weighs more than your average blinged-out Cadillac Escalade (with rap stars, hommes, their "dates", and jewelry), there is no way they could travel over 150 miles in a day.

Our view of this seemingly made up scenario? Good for Neil Young for being an early adopter of electric car technology. Still, to our eyes it can be seen as nothing but a bad idea putting it all in an overweight 1959 Lincoln Continental. Young’s place in Rock n’ Roll history is assured; his place in automotive history may turn out to be more of a footnote. While we applaud his attempts to bring fossil fuel free motoring to the masses, hasn’t he considered the economic and environmental impact of the increased electricity production that will be necessary for widespread use of the technology? Is he ready to be in favor of something along the lines of building more nuclear power plants? Currently this appears to be one of the only feasible ways to harvest the amount of electricity needed if all of us were powered solely by electric motors in our cars and trucks.

via Kansas City Star