2022年经济学人 电动车换电技术解决续航问题（1）（在线收听）

Science & technology

科技版块

Electric vehicles

电动汽车

Horses for courses

物尽其用

Battery-swapping make sense for commercial but not private vehicles

更换电池适用于商业车辆，但不适用于私家车

One of the most successful battery-swapping schemes for electric vehicles (evs) is run by Gogoro, a Taiwanese firm.

最成功的电动汽车电池更换计划之一是由中国台湾公司Gogoro运营的。

It has some 500,000 subscribers who, in return for a monthly fee, can quickly exchange depleted batteries from their electric mopeds and scooters for fully charged ones at a network of kiosks around the country.

该公司有50万名用户，每月交一笔费用就可以全国范围内的网点，将他们的电动轻便摩托车和滑板车耗尽的电池更换为充满电的电池。

What makes Gogoro’s scheme so popular is that it uses a standardised battery which fits into machines produced by different manufacturers.

Gogoro的方案之所以如此受欢迎，是因为它使用的是标准化电池，可以安装在不同制造商生产的机器上。

Japan’s giant automakers are now looking at doing something similar with delivery vans and light trucks.

日本的大型汽车制造商现在正考虑对送货车和轻型卡车采取类似的做法。

A consortium of Daihatsu, Isuzu, Hino, Suzuki and Toyota is exploring the use of easily detached “cartridge” batteries to power such vehicles.

由大发、五十铃、日野、铃木和丰田组成的一个联盟正在探索使用易于拆卸的“盒式”电池为这类车辆提供动力。

These cartridges would be smaller than the fixed batteries of typical evs (though several could be bundled to provide more range) and would be standardised to fit any vehicle adapted to the system.

这些电池盒将比典型电动汽车的固定电池更小(尽管可以捆绑几个以提供更大的续航里程)，并将进行标准化，以适应任何适应该系统的车辆。

When empty, they could be removed and replaced quickly with fully charged ones at automated drive-in swap stations.

当电量耗尽时，它们可以被移除，并在自动免下车交换站快速更换为充满电的电池盒。

Yamato Transport, a big Japanese delivery service, is working with the consortium on ways to set up a network of such stations.

大和运输，一家日本的大型快递服务公司，正在与该联盟合作建立一个这样的站点网络。

Swapping batteries like this would be a useful way of powering commercial evs that are constantly on the road and therefore require frequent recharging.

像这样交换电池将是一种为商业电动汽车提供动力的有效方式，因为它们经常在路上行驶，因此需要频繁充电。

Conventional fast charging, of the sort a private motorist might employ at a service station, is intended only for occasional use because doing it repeatedly strains a battery, shortening its working life.

传统的快速充电，就像私人司机在服务站所使用的那样，只用于偶尔的使用，因为这样反复充电会使电池疲劳，缩短电池的使用寿命。

Swapped-out battery cassettes, by contrast, can be recharged slowly and efficiently, but without keeping a vehicle off the road.

相比之下，换下来的电池盒可以缓慢而有效地充电，而且车辆还可以继续在道路上行驶。

The consortium thinks battery swapping might help cut peak electricity demand at businesses as well, by eliminating end-of-shift surges when lots of vehicles return to base and plug in simultaneously.

该联盟认为，更换电池可能还有助于降低企业的峰值电力需求，因为它消除了轮班结束时的用电高峰，也就是避免了大量车辆返回基地并同时充电。

The consortium will also have to decide whether to sell cartridge batteries outright and let transport companies do their own swapping, or lease them and rely on third-party swap-stations.

该财团还必须决定是直接出售盒式电池，让运输公司自己交换，还是租赁电池盒并依赖第三方更换站。