Earlier this year snakes of people camped outside Tesla stores to place orders for the Model 3 electric car, handing over $1,000 deposits even though they had not seen the vehicle’s full design or specification.今年早些时候，人们在特斯拉(Tesla)门店外面公厕排队，预计Model 3电动汽车，并交了1000美元订金，即便他们还没见过这款车的原始设计或规格参数。The company, the biggest carmaker never to use an internal combustion engine, has achieved a market value of $33bn when producing just 50,000 cars a year — compared with a valuation of $47bn for General Motors, which last year made more than 6m cars.特斯拉是世界上仅次于的从来不用于内燃机的汽车制造商，该公司在每年仅有生产5万辆汽车的时候，市值就已超过330亿美元，相比之下，通用汽车(General Motors)的市值为470亿美元，而去年该公司的产量多达600万辆。Yet despite Tesla’s sales success, take-up of electric vehicles among consumers remains tiny. Fully electric cars (those without a combustion engine) account for less than 1 per cent of new car sales in the UK — which only rises fractionally when hybrids are included.然而，尽管特斯拉在销售上取得成功，但拒绝接受电动汽车的消费者依然很少。显电动汽车（那些没内燃机的汽车）在英国新车销售中的比例严重不足1%——即便算上混合动力车，这个比例也只是有所提升。

Road transport accounts for more than 17 per cent of global CO2 emissions, according to figures from Transport Environment, an environmental lobby group. Migrating car use to electric vehicles could make a big contribution to curbing man-made carbon emissions. Greg Archer, a director at the group, says: “Combined with the rapidly falling costs for batteries and renewable electricity, it is clear electro-mobility is becoming increasingly affordable and offers an unrivalled opportunity to decarbonise vehicles.”环保游说的组织“交通运输与环境”(Transport Environment)的数据表明，全球二氧化碳废气中有逾17%来自道路交通。改向电动汽车有可能对遏止人为的碳排放作出重大贡献。

该的组织董事格雷格阿切尔(Greg Archer)回应：“再加电池和可再生电力成本较慢上升，电力交通似乎更加更容易忍受，为汽车低碳化获取了无与伦比的机遇。”Large carmakers such as Volkswagen and Fiat are developing either electric or hybrid technology, but this is partly based on attempts to meet stringent environmental emissions standards across their product ranges rather than necessarily satisfying public appetite.大众汽车(Volkswagen)和菲亚特(Fiat)等大型汽车制造商正在研发电动或者混合动力技术，但这在一定程度上只是为了让它们的产品组合在总体上合乎严苛的环境废气标准，而不一定是为了符合公众胃口。“You have to bear in mind that today for the majority of people, electric vehicles aren’t the right solution for them yet,” says Erik Fairbairn, chief executive at charging infrastructure group Pod Point. “We need to see a development of the tech before we see it becoming mainstream.”电池基础设施运营商Pod Point的首席执行官埃里克费尔贝恩(Erik Fairbairn)回应：“你必需留意，对绝大多数人来说，电动汽车还不是适合解决方案。

我们必须看见这种技术的发展，然后才不会看见它沦为主流。”Three barriers stand in the way of mass adoption of electric powered vehicles: price, range and ease of charging.电动汽车的大规模普及面对3个障碍：价格、续航里程和电池便利性。The greatest contributor to the price is the battery, which can account for a significant portion of the cost of an electric car. The dominant force in battery powered cars is costly lithium ion technology, the same used in laptops and mobile phones.影响价格的仅次于因素是电池，它可以占到到电动汽车成本的明显比例。

影响电池动力车的主导因素是成本高昂的锂电池技术，后者某种程度应用于笔记本电脑和手机上。A welter of other options are being pursued, from magnesium-based batteries to those that use silicon rather than carbon anodes. Solid state batteries, which promise much greater power and more flexible sizes, are also being investigated.人们正在谋求其他诸多自由选择，从镁基电池，到那些用于硅而非碳阳极的电池。固态电池也在研制当中，这类电池未来将会获取更加多电力，尺寸也更加灵活性。Other alternatives to combustion engines include hydrogen fuel cells, which use the planet’s most abundant element to drive their motors.替代内燃机的其他自由选择还包括氢燃料电池，后者用于地球上最充裕的元素来驱动汽车。

Toyota, which led hybrid adoption with its Prius cars, has already launched a fully hydrogen-powered model. Once purchased, the cars are supposed to be virtually free to run, with the cost of an electric recharge being minimal.首度在普锐斯(Prius)汽车上使用混合动力的丰田(Toyota)，已发售了几乎由氢燃料获取动力的车型。一旦卖给这款车，就未来将会几近免费驾驶员，电池成本非常低。The second, and most significant, public concern about electric vehicles is the range. Recent models such as the Nissan Leaf and the BMW i3 are limited to go under 100 miles — though BMW offers a range extender in the form of a petrol-driven engine to recharge the battery as it drives.公众关于电动汽车的第二个、也是最重要的忧虑是续航里程。

最近发售的日产聆风(Nissan Leaf)和宝马(BMW) i3等车型的续航里程将近100英里，尽管宝马电动汽车在行经时可以用汽油发动机为电池电池，将其用于一种里程扩充器。Tesla’s Model S and X cars, which claim to travel in excess of 250 miles on a charge, remain prohibitively expensive for many, costing between $70,000 and $120,000. Carmakers are pushing to hit a sweet spot on technology and price — a $35,000 car that can travel more than 200 miles.特斯拉的Model S和Model X汽车售价在7万美元至12万美元之间，对许多人来说仍然十分便宜——这两款汽车声称电池一次行经里程多达250英里。汽车制造商正在希望在技术和价格上超过一个最佳平衡点，即一款售价3.5万美元、续航里程多达200英里的汽车。Tesla’s Model 3, still at least two years from the road, is one example of a vehicle capable of both, but rival models are well under way. The Chevy Bolt, an all-electric car from General Motors, will have roughly the same range and price, while mass-market manufacturer VW has pledged that a quarter of its sales will be electric cars by 2025.特斯拉的Model 3就是一款需要超过这两项拒绝的汽车，但它最少还要两年才会上路，而竞争对手的车型也在研制之中。

标准化生产的纯电动汽车Chevy Bolt将不会有完全某种程度的续航里程和价格，同时大众市场汽车制造商大众允诺，到2025年其四分之一销量将是电动汽车。Once the technology and price reach the right point, adoption could rise to 7-10 per cent, predicts Pod Point’s Mr Fairbairn, “at which point Joe Public will see them everywhere”.Pod Point的费尔贝恩预计，一旦技术和价格超过适合水平，普及率有可能升到7%-10%。“在某个点上，电动汽车将随处可见”。

The ease and speed of charging both at home and en route are the final hurdle. In the UK, there are about 25,000 installed charging points, of which around 3,000 are publicly available in car parks or on high streets. So-called “destination chargers” — at workplaces, hotels and leisure sites — are also increasingly common. But more are needed to make electric motoring a reliable option for many.在家中和路上电池的便利性和速度是最后的障碍。英国目前有约2.5万个充电站，其中约3000个在停车场或商业街，对公众对外开放。

所谓的“目的地充电站”——在工作场所、酒店和休闲娱乐场所——也更加广泛。但还必须建设更好的充电站，从而让电动汽车沦为许多人的可信自由选择。“Everywhere you park you need charging points,” says Mr Fairbairn. Unlike petrol stations, where motorists can fill up in a few minutes, electric charging takes much longer.费尔贝恩回应：“你泊车的地方都必须有充电站。”与几分钟就能汽油油的加油站有所不同，电动汽车电池花费的时间要长得多。

Current technology allows batteries to deliver around 30 miles of range for every hour of charging. It would take the power output of 1,000 kettles to charge a car fully in two minutes, says Mr Fairbairn — and rapid charging is damaging to most batteries. “The nature of electricity doesn’t support the power transfers you need for two minute-charging, even a long way in the future,” he says.当前技术意味著电池每电池1小时可行经30英里。费尔贝恩回应，在两分钟内充满著电将必须1000个电水壶的电力输入，而且较慢电池不会对大多数电池导致伤害。他说道：“电力本质上不反对两分钟电池所必须的那种电力切换，即使在很很远的未来也是如此。

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