Electric shock of the new—How to be the next Tesla

A traffic jam of upstarts is vying to follow in Elon Musk’s tyre tracks. Does any stand a chance??

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Novel?intellectual property is a?"good visiting card"?for?investors,?says Pedro Pacheco of?Gartner,?a?consultancy. But it?is not?enough to stick?big touch?screens onto a standard electric power train,?as many of the Chinese Tesla copycats are doing.?The over-the-air software?updates, proprietary charging networks and online direct sales pioneered by the American firm are?now seen as table stakes.

Novel?：這里做形容詞，表示新奇的? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??Gartner：n. 高德納公司（美國咨詢公司）

over-the-air：無線

So the newcomers are trying to stamp their own technological mark on the industry.?Lucid's techies have?extracted range of?up to 517 miles (82km) from its batteries. Nio offers a three-minute battery-swap service,?to reassure Chinese buyers without access to home charging. Xpeng claims that its voice-activation system is the best?in the business.?Fisker and Canoo offer subscriptions that give motorists access to car?use rather than ownership.

Ultimately, buyers will decide which of these are desirable features and which are gimmicks.?But not before the new models are produced and sold.?Making a few thousand cars a year?is hard enough (though losing money doing so is easy).?Actually selling hundreds of thousands at a profitis another matter entirely."?Production hell?"nearly sent Tesla?under.?A?lead on flashy?software must be backed up with giant presses, paint shops and assembly lines.?As such, manufacturing an EV?is in many ways not much different to making a petrol car, according to Bernstein,?a broker—and no less expensive.?A new purpose-built car factory that?can churn out?100,000?or?So vehicles a?year costs at?least?$1bn.

Gimmick ?n. /?ɡ?m?k/（為引人注意或誘人購買而搞的）花招，把戲，噱頭?? a promotional/publicity/sales gimmick 以推銷╱宣傳╱銷售為目的的花招

Flashy ?adj. /?fl??i/ 1.?(物品) ?俗艷的；（因昂貴、巨大等）顯眼的?a flashy hotel 奢華的旅館；2.(人) 穿著奢華的；3. 炫耀技藝的?He specializes in flashy technique, without much depth. 他就會些沒有深度的花招。

churn out?快速大量生產(chǎn) ? He began to churn out literary compositions in English. 他開始用英文很快地創(chuàng)作出大量的文學作品。

To get around this problem some of the challengers are instead repurposing existing factories,?as Tesla did by acquiring?a disused one in Fremont, California,?for?a song. Rivian has moved into an old Mitsubishi factory?in Illinois. Other newcomers are?teaming?up with?the old guard, with experience of maintaining long and complex supply chains.?Baidu has entered into a partnership with Geely and Huawei with its domestic rivals, BAIC,?Changan and GAC. Fisker?and Nio are taking?an asset-light route by using contract manufacturers of the sort used by big carmakers to make small runs of cars or those with?finicky?features such as folding roofs.

for?a song：非常便宜地；廉價地? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???team?up with：與···合作

Mitsubishi：三菱（日企）? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?the old guard：保守者

Finicky??adj. /?f?n?ki/1. （對衣食等）過分講究的，過分挑剔的?a finicky eater 過分挑食者；2.需認真仔細對待的；需要注意細節(jié)的??It's a very finicky job. 這是個很細致的工作。

BAIC： 北京汽車工業(yè)控股公司（Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation）

GAC：廣汽集團

Arrival's approach may be the most innovative. Where Tesla and others are going?"giga", the British firm says?"micro". Commercial vehicles do not require the styling or customisation?of passenger cars,?so it is?eschewing?production lines for?"cell?assembly of?composite panels. This can be done in small industrial units that cost?just?$4om-5om to buy and retool. These can produce 10，000 vehicles a year?close to markets,?adding scale with less risk.

Customisation： ["k?st?ma?ze???n]定制化服務(wù)

Eschew??v./?s?t?u?/（有意地）避開，回避，避免?

Retool：v. /?ri??tu?l/ 1.更換，重新裝配（機器設(shè)備）；2.重新安排；重組

譯文

Novel?intellectual property is a?"good visiting card"?for?investors,?says Pedro Pacheco of?Gartner,?a?consultancy. But it?is not?enough to stick?big touch?screens onto a standard electric power train,?as many of the Chinese Tesla copycats are doing.?The over-the-air software?updates, proprietary charging networks and online direct sales pioneered by the American firm are?now seen as table stakes.

高德納咨詢公司顧問 Pedro Pacheco表示新奇的知識產(chǎn)權(quán)是扣響投資者大門的“優(yōu)質(zhì)名片”。但像許多中國特斯拉模仿者正在做的那樣，僅僅在普通的電力驅(qū)動車上安裝大屏幕觸摸屏是遠遠不夠的。特斯拉首創(chuàng)的無線軟件更新、專有充電網(wǎng)絡(luò)和在線直銷現(xiàn)在被認為是競爭的籌碼。

So the newcomers are trying to stamp their own technological mark on the industry.?Lucid's techies have?extracted range of?up to 517 miles (82km) from its batteries. Nio offers a three-minute battery-swap service,?to reassure Chinese buyers without access to home charging. Xpeng claims that its voice-activation system is the best?in the business.?Fisker and Canoo offer subscriptions that give motorists access to car?use rather than ownership.

因此，新來者試圖在該行業(yè)打上自己的技術(shù)印記。Lucid的技術(shù)人員從其電池中提取的續(xù)航里程可達517英里(82公里)。蔚來汽車提供3分鐘換電池服務(wù)，讓無法在家中充電的中國消費者放心。小鵬汽車聲稱其語音激活系統(tǒng)是業(yè)內(nèi)最好的。Fisker和Canoo提供訂閱服務(wù)，讓駕車者可以使用汽車，而不是擁有汽車。

Ultimately, buyers will decide which of these are desirable features and which are gimmicks.?But not before the new models are produced and sold.?Making a few thousand cars a year?is hard enough (though losing money doing so is easy).?Actually selling hundreds of thousands at a profitis another matter entirely."?Production hell?"nearly sent Tesla?under.?A?lead on flashy?software must be backed up with giant presses, paint shops and assembly lines.?As such, manufacturing an EV?is in many ways not much different to making a petrol car, according to Bernstein,?a broker—and no less expensive.?A new purpose-built car factory that?can churn out?100,000?or?So vehicles a?year costs at?least?$1bn.

最終，買家將決定哪些是理想的功能，哪些是噱頭。但這都是在新車型生產(chǎn)和銷售之后的后話。一年生產(chǎn)幾千輛汽車已經(jīng)夠難的了(盡管這樣賠錢是很容易的)。而實際上賣出數(shù)十萬輛汽車并且盈利則完全是另一回事?！吧a(chǎn)地獄”差點讓特斯拉完蛋。一個炫酷軟件背后必須有大型的擠壓機器、油漆車間和裝配線作為后盾來引領(lǐng)。因此，根據(jù)經(jīng)紀公司伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)的說法，在許多方面，制造電動汽車與制造汽油汽車沒有太大區(qū)別，而且價格也不低。一家每年能生產(chǎn)大約100萬輛汽車的新工廠，成本至少是10億美元。

To get around this problem some of the challengers are instead repurposing existing factories,?as Tesla did by acquiring?a disused one in Fremont, California,?for?a song. Rivian has moved into an old Mitsubishi factory?in Illinois. Other newcomers are?teaming?up with?the old guard, with experience of maintaining long and complex supply chains.?Baidu has entered into a partnership with Geely and Huawei with its domestic rivals, BAIC,?Changan and GAC. Fisker?and Nio are taking?an asset-light route by using contract manufacturers of the sort used by big carmakers to make small runs of cars or those with?finicky?features such as folding roofs.

為了解決這個問題，一些新起之秀轉(zhuǎn)而對現(xiàn)有工廠進行改造，比如特斯拉以極低的價格收購了位于加州弗里蒙特(Fremont)的一家廢棄工廠。Rivian搬進了位于伊利諾斯州的一家三菱老工廠。其他和傳統(tǒng)汽車勢力達成合作，這些傳統(tǒng)汽車制造商有維護長而復(fù)雜供應(yīng)鏈的經(jīng)驗。百度與吉利聯(lián)盟，華為和吉利國內(nèi)的對手—北汽集團，長安和廣汽集團合作。菲斯克和蔚來汽車采取了輕資產(chǎn)路線，利用大型汽車制造商進行外包合同制造，從而實現(xiàn)小型汽車或者有講究功能的汽車制造，比如可折疊車頂。

Arrival's approach may be the most innovative. Where Tesla and others are going?"giga", the British firm says?"micro". Commercial vehicles do not require the styling or customisation?of passenger cars,?so it is?eschewing?production lines for?"cell?assembly of?composite panels. This can be done in small industrial units that cost?just?$4om-5om to buy and retool. These can produce 10，000 vehicles a year?close to markets,?adding scale with less risk.

Arrival的方法可能是最具創(chuàng)新性的。特斯拉和其他公司要去的地方是“千兆”，而這家英國公司稱之為“微”。商用車不需要對乘用車進行造型或定制，因此它避開了“復(fù)合材料面板單元組裝”的生產(chǎn)線。這可以在小型工業(yè)單位中完成，購買和重組只需4 -5萬美元。這些公司可以在接近市場的情況下每年生產(chǎn)10萬輛汽車，以更小的風險擴大規(guī)模。