时代周刊:亚洲世纪之始(9)

Mayor William "Doug" Franklin of Warren, a city a short drive from the plant, understands the personal impact of Mahoning Valley's booms and busts¹.

距离该工厂只有很短车程的沃伦市市长威廉·道格·富兰克林深知马霍宁谷的繁荣与萧条对他个人的影响。

His father worked in a local steel mill and his mother at a local auto² supplier.

他的父亲在当地一家钢铁厂工作，母亲在当地一家汽车供应商工作。

Before becoming mayor, Franklin himself worked at GM for 25 years. He now describes himself as a "UAW retiree."

在成为市长之前，富兰克林本人在通用汽车工作了25年。现在他自称是“美国汽车工人联合会的退休人员”。

But Franklin doesn't want to talk about the Mahoning Valley's past.

但富兰克林不想谈论马霍宁谷的过去。

Instead of meeting at the historic mayor's office in Warren, he asked to meet a few blocks away at BRITE, a local nonprofit that supports energy-tech startups, which is trying to build an electricvehicle ecosystem³ in the area.

他没有在华伦市历史悠久的市长办公室会面，而是要求在几个街区之外的BRITE会面。BRITE是当地一家支持能源技术初创企业的非营利组织，正试图在该地区建立一个电动汽车生态系统。

Franklin wants to see a full-scale rebranding of the region, making the Mahoning Valley a center for electric-vehicle manufacturing that will bring job retraining, private investment and new technical jobs.

富兰克林希望看到对该地区进行全面的重塑，使马霍宁谷成为电动汽车的制造中心，将带来就业再培训、私人投资和新的技术岗位。

"We know how to take a punch and how to recover; that's just in our DNA," he says.

“我们知道如何承受打击，如何恢复，这是烙在我们的基因里的，”他说。

"This provides us a great opportunity to change our brand from the Steel Valley to the Voltage Valley."

“这为我们提供了一个很好的机会，能够将我们的品牌从钢铁谷转变为电压谷。”

The shift began in earnest in 2019, when Lordstown Motors formed a new firm to take over the GM facility and produce an electric truck.

这种转变在2019年正式开始，当时洛兹敦汽车公司成立了一家新公司接管通用汽车的工厂，生产一款电动卡车。

On Dec. 5, GM announced its own EV project just next door: a battery-cell-assembly plant called Ultium Cells, which is scheduled to open next year.

12月5日，通用汽车宣布自己的电动汽车项目就在隔壁：一家名为Ultium Cells的电池组装厂，计划于明年开业。

With those two anchors, small startups have flocked to the region, working in everything from energy storage to solar power, eager to benefit from the electric-vehicle hub that seems to be taking shape.

有了这两个支柱，小型初创企业纷纷涌入该地区，涉足从能源存储到太阳能等方方面面，渴望从似乎正在形成的电动汽车中心获益。

"There will be a couple thousand jobs that show up here in the next three to five years, based purely⁴ on the location," says Rick Stockburger, who runs BRITE.

BRITE的经营者里克·斯托克伯格说：“仅仅基于地理位置，在未来三到五年内，这里将会出现几千个工作岗位。”

More of these hubs could be on the way. Major automakers including GM, Ford⁵ and Stellantis are each spending tens of billions to prepare for an all-electric future.

可能还会有更多这样的枢纽出现。包括通用、福特和斯特兰提斯在内的主要汽车制造商都在花费数百亿美元为全电动汽车的未来做准备。

"This is transformational," says Gerald Johnson, GM's head of global manufacturing.

通用汽车全球制造主管杰拉德·约翰逊表示：“这是一场变革。

"It's the biggest technological⁶ change this industry has seen in over 100 years. This is going from buggies to engines."

这是该行业100多年来最大的技术变革。一场从马车到发动机的变革。”

1 busts   

半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕

参考例句：

• Dey bags swells up and busts. 那奶袋快胀破了。
• Marble busts all looked like a cemetery. 大理石的半身象，简直就象是坟山。

2 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

3 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

4 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

5 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

6 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。