電動(dòng)汽車 只是看上去很美嗎

The great Chinese road trip is about to begin. In thenext fortnight, tens of millions of motorists willshortly join at least 1bn others heading home forthat mother of all Chinese holidays: lunar newyear[15 feb].

一場(chǎng)宏大的公路旅行即將在中國(guó)上演。接下來(lái)的兩周，數(shù)千萬(wàn)駕車者將很快加入另外至少10億返鄉(xiāng)者的隊(duì)伍，趕回家過(guò)中國(guó)人最重要的節(jié)日——春節(jié)。

 

 

My bronchial passages congest at the mere notion of so many pollution producers taking tothe roads all at once. So I was delighted to learn that China’s State Grid had finished buildingquick-charging stations for electric cars along the 1,200km motorway from Shanghai to Beijing— and eager to give the vehicles a test drive. Xinhua, the state news agency, crowed proudlyabout the completion of 50 stations capable of charging eight cars each in 30 minutes flat.

一想到將有那么多輛制造污染的汽車同時(shí)上路，我的支氣管就有點(diǎn)發(fā)堵。因此，得知中國(guó)國(guó)家電網(wǎng)(StateGrid)已完成1200公里京滬高速沿線快速充電站的建設(shè)，我感到很欣慰，并且很想試駕一下電動(dòng)汽車。官方通訊社新華社自豪地宣稱，這50座已建成的充電站每座能同時(shí)為8輛汽車充電，每輛汽車的充電時(shí)間只要30分鐘。

And about time too: China is the world’s second-largest market for electric vehicles, andnouveau riche renminbi have poured into purchases of the Tesla model S, the coolest greenmotorcar on the block. For at least a decade, Beijing has been decanting subsidies into thecreation of a homegrown electric vehicle industry, hoping to leapfrog conventional enginesand go straight to world dominance of green car technology. And China’s air pollutionproblem is so big that it must, like the Great Wall, be visible from space. So selling electric carshere ought to be about as easy as selling protective face masks. But it’s not.

也確實(shí)應(yīng)該有公共充電站了：中國(guó)是世界第二大電動(dòng)車輛市場(chǎng)，許多土豪斥巨資購(gòu)買了市面上最酷的綠色能源汽車——特斯拉S型(Tesla model S)。至少10年來(lái)，北京方面一直在投入巨額補(bǔ)貼培育本土電動(dòng)汽車產(chǎn)業(yè)，希望借此跳過(guò)傳統(tǒng)汽車階段、一躍成為世界綠色能源汽車技術(shù)的主導(dǎo)者。中國(guó)的空氣污染問(wèn)題也如此嚴(yán)重，以至于從太空中肯定都可以看到中國(guó)的霧霾了，就像可以看到長(zhǎng)城一樣。因此，在中國(guó)賣電動(dòng)汽車?yán)響?yīng)像賣防護(hù)口罩一樣容易。然而事實(shí)卻并非如此。

Potential electric car buyers in China, like those everywhere else on Earth, worry a lot about howto charge their horseless chariots. Last month(Jan) Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, saidcharging angst had hit the company’s fourth-quarter sales in the country. Mr Musk toldBloomberg that Chinese buyers have nothing to worry about.

中國(guó)的潛在電動(dòng)汽車買家跟世界其他任何地方的潛在買家一樣，也非常擔(dān)心充電問(wèn)題。上月，特斯拉首席執(zhí)行官埃隆•馬斯克(Elon Musk)說(shuō)，購(gòu)車者對(duì)充電問(wèn)題的擔(dān)憂對(duì)該公司第四季度在華銷量造成了沖擊。他向彭博社(Bloomberg)表示，中國(guó)購(gòu)車者完全不需要擔(dān)心這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

But Tesla cars can’t use the State Grid’s new charging stations, and a glance at a map ofpurpose-built Tesla charging stations between Shanghai and Beijing shows that drivers not onlyhave to leave the motorway but often also drive for between 10km and 20km to find one. Smallwonder they have what is known in the automotive world as “range anxiety”.

但特斯拉汽車無(wú)法使用國(guó)家電網(wǎng)新建的充電站。大致看一下京滬之間擬建的特斯拉汽車充電站分布圖，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，開(kāi)特斯拉的人不僅得駛離高速公路，而且往往還得再開(kāi)上10至20公里，才能找到一個(gè)特斯拉充電站。難怪他們會(huì)有汽車界所說(shuō)的那種“續(xù)航里程焦慮”(range anxiety)。

So Tesla models can’t capitalise on the State Grid’s new voltage largesse but the rest of uscan, right? With all those new charging stations promising to put cars back on the road inabout the time it takes to wolf down some fermented “stinky tofu” or a bowl of noodles at themotorway canteen, what’s to be anxious about, I thought?

特斯拉汽車無(wú)法利用國(guó)家電網(wǎng)新建的充電站，但其他電動(dòng)汽車還是可以的，對(duì)吧?我想，既然有那么多新建的充電站承諾稱，在高速公路餐廳吃點(diǎn)“臭豆腐”或吃碗面條的工夫，我們的汽車就能充好電重新上路，那還有什么好擔(dān)心的?

Plenty: the stations aren’t open to the public yet. The State Grid hopes to make themoperational in time for the annual insanity known as the chunyun or lunar new year migration— but I’m not betting my holiday on it.

實(shí)際上，要擔(dān)心的事兒還真不少：那些新的充電站還沒(méi)有對(duì)公眾開(kāi)放。國(guó)家電網(wǎng)希望它們能在一年一度的瘋狂場(chǎng)面——即春運(yùn)——到來(lái)之前投入使用，但我不會(huì)把我的假期押寶在它們能按時(shí)開(kāi)放上。

No problem, I thought, I’ll do a bit of electric car tourism to somewhere not so far away , suchas the suburb of Jiading, Shanghai’s own version of the Motor City, which has its ownextensive network of charging stations. But quite apart from the fact that not even a Detroitnative like me would voluntarily choose this heavily industrialised area for tourism, the rentalcar company told me that I wouldn’t be allowed to charge on the Jiading network anyway.Charging anywhere other than their own rental locations is forbidden.

沒(méi)關(guān)系，我想，我就開(kāi)電動(dòng)汽車去不那么遠(yuǎn)的地方逛逛好了，比如去趟郊區(qū)嘉定(上海版的汽車城)，那里建有大范圍的電動(dòng)汽車充電站網(wǎng)絡(luò)。嘉定是個(gè)乏味的工業(yè)區(qū)，哪怕是像我這樣的底特律人也不會(huì)主動(dòng)選擇去這里旅游;拋開(kāi)這件事不說(shuō)，汽車租賃公司還告訴我，我壓根兒就不能在嘉定的充電站網(wǎng)絡(luò)充電。除了租賃公司自己的網(wǎng)點(diǎn)，在其他任何地方充電都是不允許的。

So I decided to just zip around my own small corner of Shanghai in a rented Roewe E50, the“pure” electric runabout designed by SAIC, the state-owned Shanghai carmaker. I set off forwhat I thought would be a blissful weekend of carrying groceries and kids and dogs aroundtown, without the usual hassle of public transport. With pollution about to hit the maximumreading on the air-quality metre that day, at many multiples of the global safety standard, Ifelt pretty good about my choice. Sure, the car could not manage 80km without being takenback in for a voltage fix. But I figured I could get my nails done while it drank the juice.

于是，我決定就開(kāi)著租來(lái)的榮威E50 (Roewe E50)在我住的那一片轉(zhuǎn)悠一下。這款車是國(guó)有的上海汽車制造商上汽(SAIC)設(shè)計(jì)的“純”電動(dòng)小汽車。開(kāi)著它，我出發(fā)了，憧憬著將要度過(guò)的美好周末：車?yán)镅b著采購(gòu)的生活補(bǔ)給，載著孩子們和狗，在城里兜風(fēng)，不用去面對(duì)公交出行常常遭遇的煩惱。那天上海的空氣污染指數(shù)幾乎爆表，超出國(guó)際安全標(biāo)準(zhǔn)好幾倍，我為自己的選擇感到慶幸。當(dāng)然了，那輛車開(kāi)不到80公里就得回站去充電。但我想，我可以利用它充電的時(shí)間做個(gè)指甲。

But after a few trips to Walmart and the school, my little car was telling me it felt rundown. So Iturned up at the rental company to request my free top-up, only to be told it would take fourhours. Fearful of being stranded in a little car full of kids and dogs and no power I returned thecar early, hopping on a bus, which I noted ruefully was an electric one. Now I’m as green as thenext guy (I commute by bus, give me a break) but I’ll be guzzling petrol on my holidays for agood while yet. Range anxiety is alive and well, and living in every sensible home in China.

然而，跑了幾趟沃爾瑪(Walmart)和學(xué)校之后，我的小車告訴我它快沒(méi)電了。于是我開(kāi)到租賃公司門店，要求免費(fèi)充電，結(jié)果被告知充電需要4個(gè)小時(shí)。因?yàn)楹ε逻@輛小車在我載著孩子們和狗開(kāi)在路上的時(shí)候忽然沒(méi)電了，我提前把它還給了租賃公司，跳上了一輛公交車回家(我恨恨地發(fā)現(xiàn)這居然是輛電動(dòng)公交車)。這下我跟別人一樣環(huán)保了(我都改公交出行了，你還想怎樣?)，不過(guò)在未來(lái)相當(dāng)長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間內(nèi)，我在假期都會(huì)開(kāi)汽油車出行。“續(xù)航里程焦慮”真實(shí)存在，縈繞在每一個(gè)理智的中國(guó)人心頭。