插电式普锐斯跑赢Volt
雪佛兰Volt（左图）在全新的插电式普锐斯（Prius）前甘拜下风.。
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这款车就是普锐斯（Prius）插电汽车。这款丰田新车已经开始规模化试车，从现在开始不到一年，它就将在展厅中闪亮登场。比起Volt来，它更高效，更便宜。而且，丰田汽车公司可以指望靠它赢利——通用汽车公司（General Motors）承认靠Volt目前还做不到这一点。 受底特律发动的讨人喜欢的宣传攻势迷惑，普锐斯的插电汽车迄今为止一直都未得到电动汽车追捧者的重视。由于面对全球复杂多变格局所表现出来的矫揉造作，如今的底特律无异于一间装满镜子的房间，它投向外部世界的视线到达“八英里大道”后（Eight Mile Road，位于底特律，是用以测量美国西北路的基线道路——译注）就止步不前了。 每当有人祝贺Volt获得年度多用途车大奖时，通用汽车的人就应该提醒自己，同是这些评委，早在2001年就因为对克莱斯勒的“漫步者”（PT Cruiser）青睐有加而对初出茅庐的普锐斯混合动力车视而不见。丰田汽车公司自那以后已经销出了200万台普锐斯，堪称75年来最具革命性的车型；而“漫步者”呢，这款新锐车型在技术上乏善可陈的，早已宣告停产了。 同样受制于这种狭隘眼光的最新例证是《纽约时报》（New York Times）。这家大报新开设的“星期天评论”（Sunday Review）就是用对Volt的一篇溢美之辞来开篇的，此外，它还不忘对通用汽车公司极尽殷勤吹嘘之能事。 可是甚至就连Volt的热捧者之一，通用汽车公司前任副总裁鲍勃•鲁兹也承认，丰田汽车公司很可能已在普锐斯上实现盈利，而通用则卖出一台Volt都要亏本，并且，通用为该车所投入的估计高达10亿美元的研发成本也很可能将血本无归。 6款汽油动力的经济型好车 追捧Volt的人津津乐道的一个事实是：Volt能用电行驶35英里后，平顺地切换到汽油机模式，由此能节省燃油，减少温室气体排放。这确实是一大技术改进，但也早已过时了。 理由如下： 插电式普锐斯单用电池能行驶约13英里。电池电力耗尽后，汽车切换为丰田公司已经实践检验的混合动力系统。在一台标准普锐斯上，这一系统在市区道路上每加仑燃油可行驶51英里，在高速公路上这一成绩是48英里。 Volt在纯电动模式下可行驶约35英里，而在这之后它就会切换到纯汽油驱动模式——不再有电池助力。《流行机械》杂志（Popular Mechanics）发现，在只有汽油机开动的情况下，Volt在市区每加仑燃油只能行驶32英里，在高速公路上这一成绩是36英里。 因此，在13英里或更短的车程中，普锐斯插电汽车和Volt依靠纯电动每加仑燃油行驶的里程相同：都是零。在13英里到35英里之间，Volt胜过普锐斯。而一过35英里，普锐斯就干脆利索地把Volt甩在身后了。 另外，普锐斯用常规的家用电流在三小时内就可以充满电。Volt要充满则需要10小时，除非花上约2,000美元另购一台特制的240伏充电站。因此，充电时间相等的情况下，这两款车在电动模式下的行驶里程相当。 最后，还有个定价问题。2011款Volt的标价是41,000美元；省去一些标准配置的2012款售价为39,995美元。 普锐斯的平均成交价是26,000美元。插电式普锐斯的售价还未公布。而额外另配的锂电池售价估计为3,500美元到5,000美元。因此总价在30,000美元左右——比Volt便宜10,000美元。 可以确定地说，二者相比还有其他因素需要考虑。Volt感觉上和驾驶起来都更像传统汽车，而普锐斯还带着杰森一家（Jetsons，美国著名科幻动画片，描写未来的科技世界——译注）里的太空舱一般的感觉。此外，Volt是美国制造，而普锐斯来自日本。 不过，直接就性价比进行比较的话，很难理解Volt何以会被吹捧之词包围。自从推出以来，通用汽车公司只卖出了2,184辆Volt，而丰田汽车公司光是5月份就卖出了7,000辆普锐斯。通用汽车公司和底特律能从经济衰退中恢复过来，每个人都应该为此感到高兴。但是，名不副实的溢美之词对任何人都不会有什么好处。 译者：清远 |
It is the Prius Plug-in, it is already in test fleets, and it will be arriving in showrooms in less than a year from now. It will be more efficient and less expensive than the Volt, and Toyota (TM) actually stands the possibility of making a profit on it -- something General Motors concedes it can't do with the Volt. To date, the Prius Plug-in has been ignored by EV enthusiasts who are being revved up by the flood of favorable publicity coming out of Detroit, which for all its pretensions to global sophistication, remains a house of mirrors whose view of the outside world stops at Eight Mile Road. Whenever somebody congratulates Volt for winning multiple car of the year awards, they should remind themselves that those same award-giving bodies passed over the original Prius hybrid in 2001 in favor of the PT Cruiser. Toyota has gone on to sell two million Priuses, the most revolutionary car of the last 75 years; the Cruiser, a novelty car with no technological pretensions, has since gone out of production. The latest to fall victim to this tunnel vision is the New York Times, which kicked off its new Sunday Review section with a favorable review of the Volt and a big pat on the back for GM (GM, Fortune 500). Even a Volt enthusiast like former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz admits that Toyota is probably making a profit on Prius, while GM loses money on every Volt and is unlikely ever to recover a penny of its estimated $1 billion development cost. 6 cheap cars that go easy on the gas Volt enthusiasts like to recite the fact that the Volt can go 35 miles on battery-power and then shift seamlessly into gasoline-engine mode, saving on gas and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. It is an impressive technological improvement but one that is already obsolete. Here's why: The Prius Plug-in can go about 13 miles on battery-power alone. But when the battery-only power expires, it switches over to Toyota's proven hybrid system. That system delivers 51 miles per gallon in the city and 48 mpg on the highway in the standard Prius. The Volt can go about 35 miles in EV mode, but after that it switches over to pure gasoline power - no more battery assist. With only its gas engine running, Popular Mechanics magazine discovered the Volt gets just 32 mpg in the city and 36 mpg highway. So on trips of 13 miles or less, the Prius plug-in and Volt deliver the same all-electric mpg: zero. On trips between 13 miles and 35 miles in length, the Volt beats the Prius. But after 35 miles, the Prius handily outscores the Volt. Moreover, the Prius can be recharged in three hours on regular household current. The Volt requires ten hours for a full recharge, unless you buy a special 240-volt recharging station that costs about $2,000. So an equal duration of charging creates the same distance of EV travel in both cars. Finally, there is the question of price. The Volt carries a sticker price of $41,000 for 2011; a 2012 model with less standard equipment will be available for $39,995. The average transaction price for a Prius is $26,000. The price of a Prius Plug-In hasn't been announced. But the additional lithium-ion batteries for the plug-in feature will add an estimated $3,500-$5,000. So figure on around $30,000 -- a $10,000 difference from the Volt. To be sure, there are other factors to consider. The Volt feels and drives more like a conventional car, while the Prius still has that Jetsons space capsule air about it. And the Volt is made in America while the Prius comes from Japan. But on a straight-up comparison of functionality versus price, it is hard to understand the adulation surrounding the Volt. GM has only managed to sell 2,184 since introduction, while Toyota moved nearly 7,000 Priuses in May alone. Everybody should be glad that General Motors and the rest of Detroit have recovered from the recession. But an excess of praise in the wrong places doesn't help anyone. |
