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Last week in Paris, the US chipmaking company Qualcomm unveiled technology far removed from its traditional heartland of smartphone processing and computers — a wireless charger for an electric car.
最近在巴黎，美国芯片制造商高通(Qualcomm)公布了一项与其传统核心业务——智能手机处理器和电脑——相去甚远的技术：电动汽车无线充电器。
On a 100m test track, the company showed that two Renault Kangoo vans were able to take charge directly from cables under the road while driving along. The demonstration marks a breakthrough for a technology that has the potential to change the economics of electric vehicles.
在100米的测试道路上，该公司展示出，两辆雷诺(Renault) Kangoo货车能够在路上行驶时直接从地面下的电缆获取电量。这次展示标志着一项有可能改变电动汽车经济性的技术出现突破。
Sales are rising, as carmakers push newer models that can drive further on a single battery. But lack of charging infrastructure, along with price and battery range, remains an important obstacle to mass adoption.
随着汽车制造商推出能够依靠一组电池行驶更多里程的新车型，电动汽车销量在上升。但充电基础设施缺乏（再加上价格和电池续航里程因素）仍是阻碍电动汽车普及的重要障碍。
Analysts expect sales of battery-driven vehicles to take off once the price of ownership draws level with a traditional internal combustion engine car, possibly within five to 10 years.
分析师预测，一旦售价与传统内燃机汽车拉平（可能要花费5到10年），由电池驱动的汽车的销量将起飞。
As a result, the industry is turning its attention to a time when there will be too many electric cars on the road for conventional top-up chargers.
因此，该行业正将其注意力转向这个问题：有一天路上行驶的电动汽车会多到超出传统充电设备的承载能力，那时该怎么办？
“At some point, there will be a big shift and mass adoption and we must think about new things,” says Edouard Fischer, a director at Sanef, the company that operates France’s toll motorways. “We must prepare for what will happen in 10-15 years.”
“未来某一时刻将出现巨大变化、（电动汽车）将普及，我们必须考虑新事物，”法国收费高速公路运营商Sanef的董事爱德华?菲舍尔(Edouard Fischer)表示，“我们必须为10至15年后将发生的事情做好准备。”
After installing charging points at every 80km along its 2,000km toll road network, Sanef has in the past year witnessed a 250 per cent increase in the number of electric cars driving on them, Mr Fischer told the FT’s Future of the Car Summit.
Sanef在其2000公里的收费道路网中，每隔80公里设置一个充电桩。费舍尔在英国《金融时报》“汽车的未来峰会”(Future of the Car Summit)上表示，过去一年，在该公司的道路上行驶的电动汽车数量增加了250%。
But there will come a time when fixed point charging can no longer cope with the number of electric vehicles on the road. With under-road charging, a system of cables laid under motorway lanes could put just enough charge into a car to keep its battery from being run down during the journey.
但未来某一时刻，固定充电桩将再也应付不了道路上行驶的大量电动汽车。有了路面以下的充电设备，在高速路面下铺设的电缆系统可以给汽车充入适量的电，以免汽车在行驶途中出现电量不足。
The car would drive off the motorway with the same amount of charge as when it joined the road, possibly many hundreds of kilometres earlier. This has the potential to transform the range of electric vehicles, since they currently must stop to top up before they run out, thus lengthening journey times for any long distance trip.
汽车在这种高速公路上行驶或许数百公里后，剩余电量将与驶入高速公路时一样。这有可能改变电动汽车的续航里程，因为它们目前必须在电量用完之前停下来充电，这延长了长途行车的行程时间。
Developments are also moving “very, very fast” in the field, says Gilles Normand, head of electric cars at Renault. BMW and Daimler, the owner of Mercedes, are already developing induction pads for their plug-in hybrid cars that allow them to charge without the use of a cable. Nissan demonstrated its first prototype system in 2010. The car is parked over the induction pad and the energy transfers wirelessly into vehicle.
雷诺电动汽车主管吉勒?诺尔芒(Gilles Normand)表示，该领域的发展“非常、非常快”。宝马(BMW)和梅赛德斯(Mercedes)的所有者戴姆勒(Daimler)已在开发用于插电式混合动力汽车的感应板，让这些汽车可以无线充电。日产(Nissan)在2010年展示了其首个原型系统。汽车停在感应板上方，电能会通过无线方式传输给汽车。
