????笑料般的電池，遲遲不登場的電池，以及埃隆?穆斯克。

????周三，豐田汽車公司（Toyota Motor Co. ）發布了最新款汽車，希望在綠色汽車開發的下一個階段,與特斯拉汽車公司的電池驅動汽車展開競爭。

????在東京舉行的網絡直播發布會上，豐田汽車研發部總裁兼董事會成員加藤光久表示，公司的氫燃料電池汽車將于明年四月份在日本上市，并于2015年夏登陸美國和歐洲市場。

????這款汽車的預售價為700萬日元（約合69,000美元），續航里程為400公里，與特斯拉（Tesla）的Model S不相上下。豐田這款汽車的成本比它之前的估算降低了30%——加藤光久認為，這主要得益于豐田為普銳斯（Prius）開發的混合動力技術所帶來的交叉改進。

????雖然最初發展較為緩慢，但現在，混合動力汽車已經占到豐田汽車全球銷量的10%。

????氫燃料電池汽車通過氫氧化學反應發電，排出的燃燒產物只有水蒸氣。特斯拉董事長埃隆?穆斯克因為對這項技術的評價出了名的粗魯。他說氫燃料電池技術是“狗屎”，而體面一點的評價也不過是“一堆垃圾”。

????豐田汽車借助日本政府的補助計劃，降低最終售價，使它適合在大眾市場銷售。日本國內沒有石油儲備，因此一直以來，這個國家都有巨大的動力來開發替代性的汽車燃料。日本希望，到2025年能燃料電池汽車的零售價降低到200萬日元。

????但這項新技術最大的挑戰在于，必須投入巨資興建專用的基礎設施。與插電式電池動力汽車不同，燃料電池需要像傳統油箱一樣加氣，而這需要一個全新的氫氣站網絡。不過，燃料電池也存在有利的一面。加藤光久表示，燃料電池汽車只需要三分鐘就可以完成燃料補給。

????豐田汽車發言人在英國承認，基礎設施問題將是初始階段的一個棘手問題。

????他說：“這其實是雞與蛋的問題。你必須在你認為會有人使用這種汽車的地方興建基礎設施，”他還說?！叭剂想姵仄嚨膶嵱眯詫l揮巨大的影響力?！边@一點也會推進基礎設施項目的建設。

????他表示，與其他國家一樣，英國也在召集汽車制造商、燃氣公司和零售商，共同研究興建這類基礎設施的國家戰略。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Fool cells, schmool cells, Elon Musk.

????Toyota Motor Co. TM Wednesday unveiled the car that it expects to go toe-to-toe with Tesla Motors Inc.’s TSLA 1.89% battery-powered ones in the next stage of green vehicle development.

????At a presentation webcast from Tokyo, head of R&D and board member Mitsuhisa Kato said the company aims to launch the car, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, in the Japanese market in by April next year, and in the U.S. and Europe by the summer of 2015.

????The initial price will be a chunky 7 million yen ($69,000) and will have a cruising range of 400 kilometers, more or less in line with Tesla’s Model S. It’s about 30% below what Toyota had previously estimated it would cost–something that Kato put down, in part, to cross-fertilisation from the hybrid-motor technology developed by Toyota for its Prius models.

????Slow to take off initially, hybrid cars now account for over 10% of Toyota’s global sales.

????Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity from the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, creating water vapor as their only exhaust product. Tesla chairman Elon Musk has been notoriously rude about the technology, calling it “bull****” and, more decently, “a load of rubbish”.

????Toyota is relying on a Japanese government subsidy scheme to bring the final price down to a level where it can sell in the mass market. Japan, with no oil reserves of its own, has traditionally had a huge incentive to develop alternative motor fuels and is aiming to bring the retail price for fuel cell vehicles down to 2 million yen by 2025.

????Arguably the biggest challenge for the new technology will be the need to invest massive sums in dedicated infrastructure. Unlike plug-in battery-powered cars, the fuel cells will need to be topped up like a traditional gas tank, only from a whole new network of hydrogen stations. On the plus side, Kato said the FCV could refuel in only three minutes.

????A spokesman for Toyota in the U.K. acknowledged that the infrastructure question makes the start-up phase a particularly thorny problem.

????“It’s a sort of chicken-and-egg situation. You have to put the infrastructure where you think the cars are going to be used,” he said. “But the availability of the car will make a big difference” in generating momentum for the project.

????The U.K., like other countries, has brought together carmakers, gas companies and retailers together to work on a national strategy for rolling out such infrastructure, he said.