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The great Chinese road trip is about to begin. In the next fortnight, tens of millions of motorists will shortly join at least 1bn others heading home for that mother of all Chinese holidays: lunar new year[15 feb].
一场宏大的公路旅行即将在中国上演。接下来的两周，数千万驾车者将很快加入另外至少10亿返乡者的队伍，赶回家过中国人最重要的节日——春节。
My bronchial passages congest at the mere notion of so many pollution producers taking to the roads all at once. So I was delighted to learn that China’s State Grid had finished building quick-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 proudly about the completion of 50 stations capable of charging eight cars each in 30 minutes flat.
一想到将有那么多辆制造污染的汽车同时上路，我的支气管就有点发堵。因此，得知中国国家电网(State Grid)已完成1200公里京沪高速沿线快速充电站的建设，我感到很欣慰，并且很想试驾一下电动汽车。官方通讯社新华社自豪地宣称，这50座已建成的充电站每座能同时为8辆汽车充电，每辆汽车的充电时间只要30分钟。
And about time too: China is the world’s second-largest market for electric vehicles, and nouveau riche renminbi have poured into purchases of the Tesla model S, the coolest green motorcar on the block. For at least a decade, Beijing has been decanting subsidies into the creation of a homegrown electric vehicle industry, hoping to leapfrog conventional engines and go straight to world dominance of green car technology. And China’s air pollution problem is so big that it must, like the Great Wall, be visible from space. So selling electric cars here ought to be about as easy as selling protective face masks. But it’s not.
也确实应该有公共充电站了：中国是世界第二大电动车辆市场，许多土豪斥巨资购买了市面上最酷的绿色能源汽车——特斯拉S型(Tesla model S)。至少10年来，北京方面一直在投入巨额补贴培育本土电动汽车产业，希望借此跳过传统汽车阶段、一跃成为世界绿色能源汽车技术的主导者。中国的空气污染问题也如此严重，以至于从太空中肯定都可以看到中国的雾霾了，就像可以看到长城一样。因此，在中国卖电动汽车理应像卖防护口罩一样容易。然而事实却并非如此。
Potential electric car buyers in China, like those everywhere else on Earth, worry a lot about how to charge their horseless chariots. Last month(Jan) Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, said charging angst had hit the company’s fourth-quarter sales in the country. Mr Musk told Bloomberg that Chinese buyers have nothing to worry about.
中国的潜在电动汽车买家跟世界其他任何地方的潜在买家一样，也非常担心充电问题。上月，特斯拉首席执行官埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)说，购车者对充电问题的担忧对该公司第四季度在华销量造成了冲击。他向彭博社(Bloomberg)表示，中国购车者完全不需要担心这个问题。
But Tesla cars can’t use the State Grid’s new charging stations, and a glance at a map of purpose-built Tesla charging stations between Shanghai and Beijing shows that drivers not only have to leave the motorway but often also drive for between 10km and 20km to find one. Small wonder they have what is known in the automotive world as “range anxiety”.
但特斯拉汽车无法使用国家电网新建的充电站。大致看一下京沪之间拟建的特斯拉汽车充电站分布图，你会发现，开特斯拉的人不仅得驶离高速公路，而且往往还得再开上10至20公里，才能找到一个特斯拉充电站。难怪他们会有汽车界所说的那种“续航里程焦虑”(range anxiety)。
So Tesla models can’t capitalise on the State Grid’s new voltage largesse but the rest of us can, right? With all those new charging stations promising to put cars back on the road in about the time it takes to wolf down some fermented “stinky tofu” or a bowl of noodles at the motorway canteen, what’s to be anxious about, I thought?
特斯拉汽车无法利用国家电网新建的充电站，但其他电动汽车还是可以的，对吧？我想，既然有那么多新建的充电站承诺称，在高速公路餐厅吃点“臭豆腐”或吃碗面条的工夫，我们的汽车就能充好电重新上路，那还有什么好担心的？
Plenty: the stations aren’t open to the public yet. The State Grid hopes to make them operational in time for the annual insanity known as the chunyun or lunar new year migration — but I’m not betting my holiday on it.
实际上，要担心的事儿还真不少：那些新的充电站还没有对公众开放。国家电网希望它们能在一年一度的疯狂场面——即春运——到来之前投入使用，但我不会把我的假期押宝在它们能按时开放上。
No problem, I thought, I’ll do a bit of electric car tourism to somewhere not so far away , such as the suburb of Jiading, Shanghai’s own version of the Motor City, which has its own extensive network of charging stations. But quite apart from the fact that not even a Detroit native like me would voluntarily choose this heavily industrialised area for tourism, the rental car 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.
没关系，我想，我就开电动汽车去不那么远的地方逛逛好了，比如去趟郊区嘉定（上海版的汽车城），那里建有大范围的电动汽车充电站网络。嘉定是个乏味的工业区，哪怕是像我这样的底特律人也不会主动选择去这里旅游；抛开这件事不说，汽车租赁公司还告诉我，我压根儿就不能在嘉定的充电站网络充电。除了租赁公司自己的网点，在其他任何地方充电都是不允许的。
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 for what I thought would be a blissful weekend of carrying groceries and kids and dogs around town, without the usual hassle of public transport. With pollution about to hit the maximum reading on the air-quality metre that day, at many multiples of the global safety standard, I felt pretty good about my choice. Sure, the car could not manage 80km without being taken back in for a voltage fix. But I figured I could get my nails done while it drank the juice.
于是，我决定就开着租来的荣威E50 (Roewe E50)在我住的那一片转悠一下。这款车是国有的上海汽车制造商上汽(SAIC)设计的“纯”电动小汽车。开着它，我出发了，憧憬着将要度过的美好周末：车里装着采购的生活补给，载着孩子们和狗，在城里兜风，不用去面对公交出行常常遭遇的烦恼。那天上海的空气污染指数几乎爆表，超出国际安全标准好几倍，我为自己的选择感到庆幸。当然了，那辆车开不到80公里就得回站去充电。但我想，我可以利用它充电的时间做个指甲。
But after a few trips to Walmart and the school, my little car was telling me it felt rundown. So I turned up at the rental company to request my free top-up, only to be told it would take four hours. Fearful of being stranded in a little car full of kids and dogs and no power I returned the car early, hopping on a bus, which I noted ruefully was an electric one. Now I’m as green as the next guy (I commute by bus, give me a break) but I’ll be guzzling petrol on my holidays for a good while yet. Range anxiety is alive and well, and living in every sensible home in China.
然而，跑了几趟沃尔玛(Walmart)和学校之后，我的小车告诉我它快没电了。于是我开到租赁公司门店，要求免费充电，结果被告知充电需要4个小时。因为害怕这辆小车在我载着孩子们和狗开在路上的时候忽然没电了，我提前把它还给了租赁公司，跳上了一辆公交车回家（我恨恨地发现这居然是辆电动公交车）。这下我跟别人一样环保了（我都改公交出行了，你还想怎样？），不过在未来相当长一段时间内，我在假期都会开汽油车出行。“续航里程焦虑”真实存在，萦绕在每一个理智的中国人心头。
