“邊行駛邊充電”會是電動汽車的未來嗎

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，美國芯片製造商高通(Qualcomm)公佈了一項與其傳統核心業務——智能手機處理器和電腦——相去甚遠的技術：電動汽車無線充電器。

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米的測試道路上，該公司展示出，兩輛雷諾(Renault) Kangoo貨車能夠在路上行駛時直接從地面下的電纜獲取電量。這次展示標誌着一項有可能改變電動汽車經濟性的技術出現突破。

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.

隨着汽車製造商推出能夠依靠一組電池行駛更多里程的新車型，電動汽車銷量在上升。但充電基礎設施缺乏（再加上價格和電池續航里程因素）仍是阻礙電動汽車普及的重要障礙。

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.

分析師預測，一旦售價與傳統內燃機汽車拉平（可能要花費5到10年），由電池驅動的汽車的銷量將起飛。

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，該行業正將其注意力轉向這個問題：有一天路上行駛的電動汽車會多到超出傳統充電設備的承載能力，那時該怎麼辦？

“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.”

“未來某一時刻將出現巨大變化、（電動汽車）將普及，我們必須考慮新事物，”法國收費高速公路運營商Sanef的董事愛德華?菲捨爾(Edouard Fischer)表示，“我們必須爲10至15年後將發生的事情做好準備。”

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公里的收費道路網中，每隔80公里設置一個充電樁。費舍爾在英國《金融時報》“汽車的未來峯會”(Future of the Car Summit)上表示，過去一年，在該公司的道路上行駛的電動汽車數量增加了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.

但未來某一時刻，固定充電樁將再也應付不了道路上行駛的大量電動汽車。有了路面以下的充電設備，在高速路面下鋪設的電纜系統可以給汽車充入適量的電，以免汽車在行駛途中出現電量不足。

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.

汽車在這種高速公路上行駛或許數百公里後，剩餘電量將與駛入高速公路時一樣。這有可能改變電動汽車的續航里程，因爲它們目前必須在電量用完之前停下來充電，這延長了長途行車的行程時間。

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.

雷諾電動汽車主管吉勒?諾爾芒(Gilles Normand)表示，該領域的發展“非常、非常快”。寶馬(BMW)和梅賽德斯(Mercedes)的所有者戴姆勒(Daimler)已在開發用於插電式混合動力汽車的感應板，讓這些汽車可以無線充電。日產(Nissan)在2010年展示了其首個原型系統。汽車停在感應板上方，電能會通過無線方式傳輸給汽車。