The surprisingly long history of electric cars - Daniel Sperling and Gil Tal

翻译人员: Zizhuo Liang 校对人员: Helen Chang

If you were buying a car in 1899,

如果你要在1899年买一辆车，

you would’ve had three major options to choose from.

你会面临三个主要的选择。

You could buy a steam-powered car.

你可以买一辆蒸汽动力汽车，

Typically relying on gas-powered boilers, these could drive as far as you wanted—

通常靠锅炉推动， 想要去多远都到得了，

provided you also wanted to lug around extra water to refuel

前提是你不介意携带 额外的备用补充水，

and didn’t mind waiting 30 minutes for your engine to heat up.

也不介意等30分钟烧水暖机。

Alternatively, you could buy a car powered by gasoline.

你也可以买一辆汽油驱动的汽车，

However, the internal combustion engines in these models

然而这些车型的内燃机

required dangerous hand-cranking to start

需要危险的手摇启动，

and emitted loud noises and foul-smelling exhaust while driving.

行驶中还发出 巨大的噪音和难闻的废气。

So your best bet was probably option number three:

所以你最好的选择 可能是第三个选项：

a battery-powered electric vehicle.

由电池驱动的电动汽车。

These cars were quick to start, clean and quiet to run,

这些车启动快、环保，且运行安静，

and if you lived somewhere with access to electricity,

如果你住在供电的地方，

easy to refuel overnight.

很容易在夜间充电。

If this seems like an easy choice, you're not alone.

如果看似选择简单， 并不只有你这么想。

By the end of the 19th century, nearly 40% of American cars were electric.

到19世纪末， 近40%的美国汽车是电动的。

In cities with early electric systems,

在一些有早期电力系统的城市，

battery-powered cars were a popular and reliable alternative

电动汽车是一种受欢迎 且可靠的替代品，

to their occasionally explosive competitors.

与它们偶尔会爆炸的 竞争对手相比。

But electric vehicles had one major problem—

但电动汽车有一个主要问题——

batteries.

电池。

Early car batteries were expensive and inefficient.

早期的汽车电池既昂贵又低效。

Many inventors, including Thomas Edison,

许多发明家， 包括托马斯·爱迪生，

tried to build batteries that stored more electricity.

试图制造能储存更多电能的电池。

Others even built exchange stations in urban areas to swap out dead batteries

其他人甚至在城市地区 建造电池交换站

来更换没电了的电池。

for charged ones.

But these measures weren’t enough to allow electric vehicles to make long trips.

但这些措施还不足以 让电动汽车长途旅行，

And at over twice the price of a gas-powered car,

而且售价是汽油车的两倍多，

many couldn’t afford these luxury items.

许多人买不起这些奢侈品。

At the same time, oil discoveries lowered the price of gasoline,

与此同时，石油的发现 降低了汽油的价格，

and new advances made internal combustion engines more appealing.

新的技术进步 使内燃机更具吸引力。

Electric starters removed the need for hand-cranking,

电子启动替代了手摇点火，

mufflers made engines quieter and rubber engine mounts reduced vibration.

消音器使发动机更安静， 橡胶支座使发动机减少振动。

In 1908, Ford released the Model T;

1908年，福特发布了T型车，

a cheap, high-quality gas-powered car that captured the public imagination.

这款廉价、高品质的汽油动力汽车 攫取了公众的兴趣。

By 1915, the percentage of electric cars on the road had plummeted.

到了1915年，公路上行驶的 电动汽车的比例急剧下降。

For the next 55 years, internal combustion engines ruled the roads.

在接下来的55年里， 内燃机主宰了道路。

Aside from some special-purpose vehicles, electric cars were nowhere to be found.

除了一些特殊用途的汽车， 电动汽车几乎绝迹。

However, in the 1970s, the tide began to turn.

然而，在20世纪70年代， 潮流开始转向。

US concerns about oil availability renewed interest in alternative energy sources.

美国对石油供应的担忧 重新激发了人们对新能源的兴趣。

And studies in the 1980s linking car emissions with smog

20世纪80年代洛杉矶等城市的 汽车排放与雾霾有关的研究

in cities like Los Angeles

encouraged governments and environmental organizations

鼓励政府和环境保护组织

to reconsider electric vehicles.

重新考虑电动汽车。

At this point, car companies had spent decades

至此，汽车公司已经花了几十年 投资于内燃机，

investing in internal combustion engines without devoting any resources

却没有投入任何资源

to solving the century-old battery problem.

来解决长达一个世纪的电池问题。

But other companies were developing increasingly efficient batteries

但其他公司正在开发 越来越高效的电池

to power a new wave of portable electronics.

为新蜂拥而至的 便携式电子产品供电。

By the 1990s, energy dense nickel metal hydride batteries were on the market,

到了20世纪90年代，市场上 出现了高能量密度的镍氢电池，

soon followed by lithium-ion batteries.

很快，锂离子电池也问世了。

Alongside regulatory mandates by California to reduce smog,

与加利福尼亚州 减少雾霾的监管规定一起，

these innovations sparked a small wave of new electric vehicles,

这些创新引发了一波 新的电动汽车的浪潮，

including hybrid cars.

这也包括混合动力汽车。

Hybrids aren’t true electric vehicles;

混合动力车 并不是真正的电动汽车；

their nickel metal hydride batteries

他们的镍氢电池

are only used to optimize the efficiency of gas-burning engines.

仅用于优化 燃汽油发动机的效率。

But in 2008, Tesla Motors went further,

但在2008年， 特斯拉汽车公司进一步创新，

grabbing the attention of consumers, automakers, and regulators

其锂离子动力跑车 吸引了消费者、汽车制造商

with its lithium-ion-powered Roadster.

和监管机构的注意力。

This purely electric vehicle could travel more than 320 kilometers

这种纯电动汽车 一次充电可以行驶320多公里

on a single charge,

almost doubling the previous record.

这几乎是以前记录的两倍。

Since then, electric vehicles have vastly improved in cost, performance,

从那以后，电动汽车 在成本、性能和成本方面

efficiency, and availability.

都大大提高了。

They can accelerate much faster than gas-powered sports cars,

它们的提速比 汽油动力跑车快得多，

and while some models still have a high upfront cost,

尽管有些车型的 前期费用仍然很高，

they reliably save their drivers money in the long run.

从长远来看， 它们确实为车主省了钱。

As governments around the world focus on slowing climate change,

随着世界各国政府 对减缓气候变化的关注，

electric vehicles are now expected to replace gas-powered ones altogether.

电动汽车有望 完全取代汽油驱动车。

In Norway, 75% of car sales in 2020 were plug-in electric vehicles.

在挪威，2020年75%的汽车销售 是插入式电动汽车。

And policies such as California’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate

加利福尼亚州等的零排放汽车法令

and Europe’s aggressive CO2 emission standards

和欧洲积极减排等政策

have dramatically slowed investments in gas-powered vehicles worldwide.

极大地减缓了全球 对汽油动力车的投资。

Soon, electric cars will reclaim their place on the road,

电动汽车很快将重新占据 它们在道路上的位置，

putting gasoline in our rearview.

超车汽油车，将其抛在后面。