Neil Young plans to rebuild LinkVolt car in the wake of blaze

Neil Young's prized "LinkVolt," a 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible that he and a team rebuilt into what they described as a "micro-turbine powered bio-electro-cruiser," was severely damaged last week in a warehouse fire, but Young vows that the car will be back on the road.

The Nov. 9 fire was the result of a faulty charging system at the San Carlos, CA, warehouse, and not related to problems with LinkVolt, Young said, in a statement.

"The car was plugged in to charge and left unattended," Young added. "The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car."

According to Young, plans are already underway to rebuild LinkVolt, which got 80 miles per gallon and could travel 50 miles on electric power only.

"Cleaning LV continues in preparation for bead blasting her down to bare metal," Young said. "Once that is done we will be ready to begin the build. LV will be built using parts from two other Lincoln Continentals."

Young said that the car doesn't appear to have sustained any damage under the hood, but that testing is needed to determine if there are any problems.

"The reason we started this project has not changed," Young said. "As a nation, we are still excessively burning fossil fuels, doing damage to our planet that will hurt our children's lives and future generations as well. Our project is to demonstrate alternative energies for transportation that are clean. We're still in a race against time. On a project like this, setbacks happen for a reason and we can see that very well from here."

Less than a week before the fire, Young delivered the keynote address and demonstrated LinkVolt at the automotive trade show SEMA. Footage from the keynote is embedded below.