Tesla’s big electric truck faces an even bigger infrastructure challenge
Tesla’s big electric truck faces an even bigger infrastructure challenge
特斯拉的大型电动卡车面临着更大的基础设施挑战
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted investors think of his electric automaker as a robotics and autonomous vehicle company now. He’s targeted a $20 trillion valuation—nearly four times the value of market leader Nvidia—on that premise. But his Tesla team was in Sparks, Nevada, on Thursday to focus on, well, an electric vehicle: the long-awaited Tesla Semi. 特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克一直坚持要求投资者将他的这家电动汽车制造商视为一家机器人和自动驾驶公司。基于这一前提，他设定了20万亿美元的估值目标——几乎是市场领头羊英伟达市值的四倍。然而，周四特斯拉团队出现在内华达州的斯帕克斯，关注的焦点却是一款电动汽车：期待已久的特斯拉 Semi 卡车。
The Semi concept first rolled onto a Tesla event stage in late 2017. Nearly a decade later, Tesla officially launched high-volume production at a livestreamed but invite-only event at the company’s factory. It targeted a niche audience: the cost-conscious people who manage large trucking fleets. A handful of them, all men, trooped across the stage to be thanked for their orders to a pulsing techno beat. Semi 的概念车最早于2017年底亮相特斯拉发布会舞台。近十年后，特斯拉在公司工厂举办了一场仅限受邀者参加并进行直播的活动，正式启动了该车型的大规模生产。其目标受众非常明确：那些精打细算的大型车队管理者。在动感的电子音乐节奏中，几位男性管理者走上舞台，接受了特斯拉对其订单的感谢。
“It’s going to be, really, a driver’s truck. It’s like a sports car in truck form.” Musk said in a pre-taped video played during the evening event. (Musk, for years the ringmaster at Tesla’s circus-like events, skipped his second vehicle debut in a row; he was attending a White House China State Dinner featuring President Xi Jinping.) “这真的会是一款属于司机的卡车。它就像是卡车形态的跑车。”马斯克在当晚活动播放的预录视频中说道。（多年来一直是特斯拉马戏团式发布会“主持人”的马斯克，连续缺席了两次新车发布会；他当时正在参加白宫为习近平主席举办的国宴。）
The long-range version of the Semi will travel an estimated 500 miles per charge, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of Vehicle Engineering, confirmed at the event—around the average number of miles traveled by US long-haul truckers each day. The standard version will get an estimated 325 miles per charge. Competitor EVs advertise ranges of 155 to 430 miles. 特斯拉车辆工程副总裁拉尔斯·莫拉维（Lars Moravy）在活动中确认，长续航版 Semi 单次充电预计可行驶500英里——这大约是美国长途卡车司机每天的平均行驶里程。标准版单次充电预计可行驶325英里。而竞争对手的电动卡车续航里程宣传在155到430英里之间。
Electric dreams
电动梦想
The Tesla Semi has its work cut out for it. While electrics account for nearly 30 percent of heavy-duty truck sales in China, according to state media, they’ve had a slow start in the US, as manufacturers struggle to make the vehicles competitive with their traditional diesel-burning counterparts. Electric semis can cost two to three times more upfront. 特斯拉 Semi 前路漫漫。据官方媒体报道，虽然电动汽车占中国重型卡车销量的近30%，但在美国却起步缓慢，因为制造商难以让这些车辆与传统的柴油动力卡车竞争。电动卡车的初期购买成本可能是柴油车的两到三倍。
Right now, they’re not easy to charge because they require a countrywide network of specialized megawatt chargers that can fill large batteries in hours. Tesla’s website shows two such public chargers operating in the LA area. However, Dan Priestley, who leads Tesla’s Semi program, says the company plans to open 30 by the end of the year. 目前，它们充电并不容易，因为需要一个覆盖全国的专业兆瓦级充电网络，才能在几小时内充满大型电池。特斯拉官网显示，目前在洛杉矶地区有两个此类公共充电站正在运营。不过，负责特斯拉 Semi 项目的丹·普里斯特利（Dan Priestley）表示，公司计划在今年年底前开设30个充电站。
Plus, the Trump administration and the GOP—the same group Musk spent millions to get into the White House—cut billions in federal support for electric vehicles last year. The administration is also working to lower fuel economy standards for truck engines, which would have required manufacturers to hit aggressive climate goals. Heavy trucks alone account for some 7 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. 此外，特朗普政府和共和党——正是马斯克斥资数百万美元助其入主白宫的群体——去年削减了数十亿美元的联邦电动汽车补贴。政府还致力于降低卡车发动机的燃油经济性标准，而这些标准原本要求制造商实现激进的气候目标。仅重型卡车就占美国温室气体排放量的约7%。
And yet, it’s not a bad time to be an EV-maker. US diesel prices hit record highs this month as the Iran War continues to disrupt oil production and shipping in the Middle East; prices are up nearly double from this time last year. The truck “is going to make a ton of sense economically because the cost of electricity is much less than the cost of diesel, especially in these crazy times,” Musk said in his pre-taped address, nodding to the conflict launched by the administration he once worked for. 然而，现在对电动汽车制造商来说并非坏时机。随着伊朗战争持续扰乱中东的石油生产和运输，美国柴油价格本月创下历史新高；价格比去年同期上涨了近一倍。马斯克在预录的演讲中提到他曾效力的政府所引发的冲突时表示，这款卡车“在经济上非常有意义，因为电费远低于柴油成本，尤其是在这个疯狂的时代。”
This week, an alliance of shippers including Microsoft and PepsiCo placed a record-setting order for 2,500 Tesla Semis, to be delivered starting this year and through the next 18 months. If those trucks reach customers, they would nearly double the number of heavy-duty electric trucks on US roads today. 本周，包括微软和百事可乐在内的一个托运人联盟下达了创纪录的2500辆特斯拉 Semi 订单，将于今年开始并在未来18个月内交付。如果这些卡车顺利交付，将使美国道路上的重型电动卡车数量增加近一倍。
The group selected Tesla trucks over competitors’ after “assessing price, performance, production capability, and service support,” Meena Bibra, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Smart Freight Centre, which was involved in the deal, told WIRED. If the carriers are accustomed to another truckmaker’s vehicles, or if other electric trucks better meet their needs, they may also choose to purchase electric trucks from Kenworth, Ride, and Volvo. Pooling demand among many carriers allowed the electric automakers to bring down the prices of the new trucks, the group said. 参与此次交易的非营利组织“智慧货运中心”（Smart Freight Centre）发言人米娜·比布拉（Meena Bibra）告诉《连线》杂志，该联盟在“评估了价格、性能、生产能力和服务支持”后选择了特斯拉。如果承运商习惯了其他卡车制造商的车辆，或者其他电动卡车更能满足他们的需求，他们也可能选择购买肯沃斯（Kenworth）、Ride 和沃尔沃的电动卡车。该组织表示，汇集多家承运商的需求使电动汽车制造商能够降低新卡车的价格。
Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Tesla’s driver assistance feature, will not yet be available on the Semi, though Musk said in his address that it would debut in “the very near future.” The feature’s predecessor technology, Enhanced Autopilot, was promised during the initial 2017 rollout. 特斯拉的驾驶辅助功能“全自动驾驶（监督版）”尚未在 Semi 上提供，尽管马斯克在演讲中表示它将在“不久的将来”首次亮相。该功能的前身技术“增强版自动辅助驾驶”早在2017年首次发布时就曾被承诺过。