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].一场宏伟的公路旅行将要在中国首演。接下来的两周，数千万驾车者将迅速重新加入另外最少10亿回乡者的队伍，赶往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.一想起将有那么多辆生产污染的汽车同时上路，我的支气管就有点发堵。
因此，获知中国国家电网(State Grid)已完成1200公里京沪高速沿线较慢充电站的建设，我深感很难过，并且很想要试驾一下电动汽车。官方通讯社新华社自豪地声称，这50座已竣工的充电站每座能同时为8辆汽车电池，每辆汽车的电池时间只要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.也显然应当有公共充电站了：中国是世界第二大电动车辆市场，许多土豪斥巨资出售了市面上最酷的绿色能源汽车——特斯拉S型(Tesla model S)。
最少10年来，北京方面仍然在投放巨额补贴培育本土电动汽车产业，期望借以跳过传统汽车阶段、一跃沦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相当严重，以至于从太空中认同都可以看见中国的雾霾了，就像可以看见长城一样。因此，在中国买电动汽车理所当然像买防水口罩一样更容易。
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，也十分担忧电池问题。
上月，特斯拉首席执行官埃隆马斯克(Elon Musk)说道，购车者对电池问题的忧虑对该公司第四季度在华销量造成了冲击。他向彭博社(Bloomberg)回应，中国购车者几乎不必须担忧这个问题。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”.但特斯拉汽车无法用于国家电网新建的充电站。
大体看一下京沪之间中环线的特斯拉汽车充电站分布图，你不会找到，进特斯拉的人不仅得驶向高速公路，而且往往还得再行开到10至20公里，才能寻找一个特斯拉充电站。不该他们不会有汽车界所说的那种“续航里程情绪”(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？我想要，既然有那么多新建的充电站允诺称之为，在高速公路餐厅不吃点“臭豆腐”或不吃碗面条的工夫，我们的汽车就能充好电新的上路，那还有什么好担忧的？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.实质上，要担忧的事儿还真不少：那些新的充电站还没对公众对外开放。
国家电网期望它们能在一年一度的可怕场面——即春运——来临之前投入使用，但我会把我的假期押宝在它们能如期对外开放上。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，我想要，我就进电动汽车去不那么近的地方逛逛好了，比如去趟郊区嘉定（上海版的汽车城），那里设有大范围的电动汽车充电站网络。嘉定是个无趣的工业区，哪怕是像我这样的底特律人也会主动自由选择去这里旅游；充满著这件事不说，汽车出租公司还告诉他我，我压根儿就无法在嘉定的充电站网络电池。
除了出租公司自己的网点，在其他任何地方电池都是不容许的。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，我要求就进着租来的荣威E50 (Roewe E50)在我寄居的那一片转悠一下。
这款车是国有的上海汽车制造商上汽(SAIC)设计的“显”电动小汽车。进着它，我抵达了，向往着即将童年的幸福周末：车里装有着订购的生活给养，载有着孩子们和狗，在城里兜风，不必去面临公交上下班经常遭遇的苦恼。那天上海的空气污染指数完全爆表，远超过国际安全性标准好几倍，我为自己的自由选择深感难过。
当然了，那辆车进将近80公里就得返车站去电池。但我想要，我可以利用它电池的时间做到个指甲。
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，跑完了几趟沃尔玛(Walmart)和学校之后，我的小车告诉他我它慢没电了。于是我直奔出租公司门店，拒绝免费电池，结果被告诉电池必须4个小时。因为惧怕这辆小车在我载有着孩子们和狗进在路上的时候突然没电了，我提早把它送给了出租公司，跳上了一辆公交车回家（我恨恨地找到这竟然是辆电动公交车）。
这下我跟别人一样环保了（我都改为公交上下班了，你还想要怎样？），不过在未来非常宽一段时间内，我在假期都会进汽油车上下班。“续航里程情绪”现实不存在，萦绕在每一个理智的中国人心头。
本文来源：新利体育官网-www.tyresquaremis.com
