Hydrogen Cars Arrive in Showrooms
氫燃料電池車開進展示間
By Kenneth Chang

LOS ANGELES – A decade ago, President George W. Bush espoused the promise of cars running on hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element.
10年前，布希總統看好氫燃料汽車的大好前程，氫是宇宙最豐富的元素。

That changed under Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was President Obama’s first Secretary of Energy. “We asked ourselves, ‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen-car economy?’” Dr. Chu said then. “The answer, we felt, was ‘no.’ ”
在歐巴馬總統第一任能源部長、諾貝爾物理獎得主朱棣文的管轄下，情勢改變了。當時朱博士說：「我們自問，『在未來10年、15年或20年，我們有可能轉換為氫氣車經濟嗎？』我們感覺，答案是『不會』。」

Attention shifted to battery electric vehicles, particularly those made by Tesla Motors.
注意力轉向電池電動車，特別是特斯拉汽車公司製造的汽車。

The hydrogen car, it appeared, had died. Except automakers, including General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Daimler and Hyundai, persisted. After many years and billions of dollars of research, hydrogen cars have arrived.
氫氣車似乎再見了。只不過有一些車廠仍然堅決不放棄，包括通用、本田、豐田、戴姆勒和現代。在歷經多年歲月，投入數以十億美元計的研究經費之後，氫氣車終於來到了我們面前。

Hyundai has been leasing the hydrogen-powered Tucson sport utility since June, for a $2,999 down payment, and $499 a month. Toyota is introducing a sedan called Mirai, which means “future” in Japanese, in California for about $57,500, cheaper than the Tesla Model S.
現代汽車自去年6月起出租Tucson氫氣動力運動休旅車，頭期款2,999美元，每月再繳499美元。豐田將推出一款稱為Mirai的轎車，日文是「未來」的意思，加州售價約5萬7000美元，比特斯拉的Model S電池電動車便宜。

California is spending millions of dollars to build hydrogen fueling stations, aiming to increase the network from nine today to 50 by the end of next year. Japan and Germany are building a similar number of stations.
加州正投注數以百萬美元計的經費建造氫燃料供應站，目標是在2015年底之前，從現今的9座增至50座。日本和德國也正在建造差不多數目的加氫站。

Battery electric cars and fuel cell cars are, at their cores, both electric cars with the inherent advantages of electric motors – fast acceleration, near silence and zero tailpipe emissions.
電池電動車和氫燃料電池車，本質上都是具有電動機優勢的電動車：加速快、幾近無聲和排氣管零排放。

The difference is where the electricity comes from. Instead of storing their charge in batteries, the fuel cells in hydrogen cars are miniature power plants, generating a flow of electricity in the chemical reaction of combining hydrogen and oxygen into water. The oxygen comes from the air; the hydrogen, which is compressed, is stored in tanks.
差別在於電力來源。氫氣車的燃料電池並非把電力儲存在電池內，而是迷你版的發電廠，在氫和氧結合為水的化學變化中產生電流。氧氣來自空氣；壓縮的氫氣儲存在氫槽裡。

Toyota officials talk of selling a “portfolio” of vehicles that includes hybrids and battery electric cars. But hydrogen fuel cells are front and center.
豐田公司人員談到銷售汽車的「組合」，包括油電複合動力車和電池電動車。但氫燃料車才是第一線的主力產品。

Not surprisingly, the strategy has its critics, particularly from competing Tesla. Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla, mocks fuel cells as “fool cells” that will lose in the marketplace to battery electric cars like his. Battery electrics are more efficient than fuel cells and are cheaper to operate. And there are currently many more places to plug in than places to top off a tank of hydrogen.
可想而知，這項策略必有批評者，特別是來自於競爭對手特斯拉的批評。特斯拉的超級巨富執行長伊隆．馬斯克嘲笑燃料電池（fuel cells ）是「傻瓜電池」（fool cells），將在市場上輸給電池電動車，像是他的車。電池電動車效能比氫燃料電池車高，使用成本更低，而且可以插電充電的地方，比可以把氫槽加滿氫氣的地方多得多。

But battery electric cars have major technological shortcomings, too. They take time to recharge, they do not go as far as hydrogen cars between refueling, and the batteries required for larger vehicles make building them impractical, because the current lithium-ion batteries simply cannot hold enough energy to take larger vehicles over longer distances.
不過，電池電動車也有重大科技缺點。需要花相當時間充電，兩次充電之間行走的距離比不上燃料電池車，而且較大型車需要的電池，使製造大型車並不實際，因為目前的鋰電池根本不能儲存足夠的能源，供大車跑較遠的距離。

After a point, adding more batteries has diminishing returns; the additional power just goes to lugging the additional weight.
超過一定規模之後，增加更多電池的報酬便會遞減；增加的電力剛好用於拉動增加的重量。

That is why most battery electric cars have been small, like the Nissan Leaf, aimed at commuters.
正因如此，大部分電池電動車都是小車，像是日產的Leaf，銷售對象鎖定通勤族。

Fuel cells are more efficient than internal combustion engines, so fuel-cell cars like the Mirai have a 480-kilometer range, comparable to present-day gasoline cars. Filling up at a hydrogen pump takes about the same few minutes as filling a tank of gas, instead of hours plugged in to an outlet. Even Tesla’s superchargers need 20 minutes to give a Model S half a charge.
氫燃料電池效率比內燃式引擎高，因此像Mirai這種燃料電池車可以跑480公里，與現今汽油車相當。在加氫站加滿氫槽的時間與加滿油箱差不多，電動車插電充電卻需要好幾小時。即便是特斯拉的超強充電器，也需要20分鐘才能供給一輛Model S特斯拉車一半的電。

“It’s the technology that lets people act the way they normally drive without making any compromises,” said Craig Scott of Toyota.
豐田的克雷格．史考特說：「這種科技讓人們像往常一樣開車，不需要妥協。」

Building a fuel cell small enough to fit in a car, operate for years and not cost a million dollars posed challenges that the carmakers say they have conquered. The cost has come down, too, by reducing the amount of expensive platinum required. The platinum is used as a catalyst to bring the oxygen and hydrogen together. Also, most hydrogen today comes from stripping hydrogen atoms off natural gas molecules. That produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct and undercuts the goal of reducing greenhouse gases.
打造小到可以裝入汽車的燃料電池，能用很多年，而且並非價格高到百萬美元，樣樣都是挑戰，汽車製造商說他們已一一克服。藉由減少昂貴白金的用量，成本也降了。白金是讓氧與氫結合的觸媒。而且，今天大部分的氫來自於從天然氣分子取得的氫原子。這產生副產品二氧化碳，削弱了減少溫室氣體的目標。

Toyota likely will lose money on each Mirai it sells. But the automaker hopes that fuel cell cars will follow the trajectory of the Prius, which evolved from a money-losing oddball to a profitable mainstream offering.
豐田銷售的每一輛Mirai可能都會賠錢。但汽車製造商希望氫燃料電池車將追隨Prius的軌跡，從賠錢的特異產品演進為主流產品。

Nihar Patel, a Toyota executive, said, “If that’s an example of a test, we want to repeat that test going forward.”
豐田高層主管尼哈．巴特爾說：「如果這是測試的例子，我們要重複向前邁進的測試。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/science/earth/hydrogen-cars-join-electric-models-in-showrooms.html

2015-01-20聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報七版左