2022年12月26日 VOA慢速英語(yǔ)：更多美國(guó)人將老爺車變成電動(dòng)汽車

 

A growing number of Americans are turning gas-powered vehicles into electric ones by using a process called an electric powertrain conversion.
越來(lái)越多的美國(guó)人正在通過(guò)一種稱為電動(dòng)動(dòng)力總成轉(zhuǎn)換的過(guò)程將汽油動(dòng)力汽車轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)殡妱?dòng)汽車。
 
Such conversions are becoming more popular as battery technology gets better and the world turns toward cleaner energy sources.
隨著電池技術(shù)的進(jìn)步和世界轉(zhuǎn)向更清潔的能源，這種轉(zhuǎn)換正變得越來(lái)越流行。
 
EVs and classic cars
電動(dòng)汽車和老爺車
 
Kevin Erickson owns a 1972 Plymouth Satellite that he renamed "Electrollite" after conversion. Now, the car can go from a still position to 97 kilometers per hour in about three seconds. Its top speed is almost 250 kilometers per hour.
凱文·埃里克森 (Kevin Erickson) 擁有一顆 1972 年的普利茅斯衛(wèi)星，改裝后他將其更名為“Electrollite”。現(xiàn)在，汽車可以在大約三秒內(nèi)從靜止位置加速到每小時(shí) 97 公里。它的最高時(shí)速接近 250 公里。
 
At the end of 2019, Erickson bought the car for $6,500. He then began a year-and-a-half-long project to convert the car to electric. He used battery packs, a motor and parts from a Tesla Model S that had been in a crash.
2019 年底，埃里克森以 6,500 美元的價(jià)格買下了這輛車。然后，他開(kāi)始了一個(gè)為期一年半的項(xiàng)目，將汽車轉(zhuǎn)換為電動(dòng)汽車。他使用了出事故的特斯拉 Model S 的電池組、電機(jī)和零件。
 
"This was my way of taking the car that I like — my favorite body — and then taking the modern technology and performance, and mixing them together," said Erickson, who has put about $60,000 into the project.
“這是我采用我喜歡的汽車——我最喜歡的車身——然后采用現(xiàn)代技術(shù)和性能，并將它們混合在一起的方式，”埃里克森說(shuō)，他已經(jīng)為這個(gè)項(xiàng)目投入了大約 60,000 美元。
 
Jonathan Klinger is vice president of car culture for Hagerty Insurance. He said converting classic cars into EVs is "definitely a trend," although research on the activity is limited.
Jonathan Klinger 是 Hagerty Insurance 的汽車文化副總裁。他說(shuō)，將老爺車改裝成電動(dòng)汽車“絕對(duì)是一種趨勢(shì)”，盡管對(duì)這項(xiàng)活動(dòng)的研究有限。
 
In May, the Michigan-based company did a web-based study of about 25,000 automobile lovers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
今年 5 月，這家總部位于密歇根州的公司對(duì)美國(guó)、加拿大和英國(guó)的約 25,000 名汽車愛(ài)好者進(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)基于網(wǎng)絡(luò)的研究。
 
About one percent had at least partly converted an older model car to run on some form of electric power.
約有 1% 的人至少部分改裝了舊款汽車以使用某種形式的電力運(yùn)行。
 
The top three reasons for converting the vehicles were for better performance, for a fun project, and because of environmental concerns. About 25 percent of respondents said they approve of older automobiles being partly or fully converted to electric vehicles.
改裝車輛的前三大原因是為了更好的性能、有趣的項(xiàng)目以及環(huán)境問(wèn)題。大約 25% 的受訪者表示，他們贊成將舊車部分或全部改裝為電動(dòng)汽車。
 
Klinger, who owns several vintage vehicles, said he does not think electric motors will replace all gas engines — especially when considering historically important vehicles.
擁有多輛老式汽車的克林格表示，他認(rèn)為電動(dòng)機(jī)不會(huì)取代所有燃?xì)獍l(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)——尤其是考慮到歷史上重要的車輛時(shí)。
 
"There's something satisfying about having a vintage car that has a carburetor," he said, because it's the same as when the car was new. Some car lovers want to keep the sound of older cars' original engines.
“擁有一輛帶有化油器的老爺車讓人感到很滿足，”他說(shuō)，因?yàn)檫@和新車時(shí)一樣。一些汽車愛(ài)好者希望保留舊車原裝發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)的聲音。
 
Difficulties and the future
困難與未來(lái)
 
Electric conversions require special knowledge to complete. They also involve safety concerns and parts that are sometimes hard to find.
電動(dòng)轉(zhuǎn)換需要特殊知識(shí)才能完成。它們還涉及安全問(wèn)題和有時(shí)很難找到的零件。
 
And then there is the price.
然后是價(jià)格。
 
Sean Moudry, who co-owns Inspire EV, a small conversion business near Denver, recently worked on a 1965 Ford Mustang. The year-and-a-half-long project cost more than $100,000 and involved many difficulties.
肖恩·穆德里 (Sean Moudry) 是丹佛附近一家小型改裝公司 Inspire EV 的共同所有人，他最近在 1965 年福特野馬上工作。這個(gè)為期一年半的項(xiàng)目耗資超過(guò) 10 萬(wàn)美元，困難重重。
 
Moudry and his partners replaced the gas engine with a motor from a crashed Tesla Model S. They also added 16 Tesla battery packs weighing a total of about 363 kilograms.
Moudry 和他的合作伙伴用墜毀的 Tesla Model S 上的電機(jī)替換了燃?xì)獍l(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)。他們還添加了 16 個(gè) Tesla 電池組，總重約 363 公斤。
 
Most older cars, including the Mustang, were not designed to have that much weight or the increased performance of a powerful electric motor. So, the team had to make changes to other parts of the car, including the suspension system.
大多數(shù)老式汽車，包括野馬，都沒(méi)有設(shè)計(jì)成具有那么大的重量或強(qiáng)大的電動(dòng)機(jī)的更高性能。因此，團(tuán)隊(duì)不得不對(duì)汽車的其他部分進(jìn)行更改，包括懸架系統(tǒng)。
 
Moudry says many people do not have the resources necessary to carry out this kind of project. As a result, he says, it will take a while for electric conversions to become common.
Moudry 說(shuō)許多人沒(méi)有開(kāi)展此類項(xiàng)目所需的資源。因此，他說(shuō)，電動(dòng)轉(zhuǎn)換變得普遍還需要一段時(shí)間。
 
"I think it's going to be 20 years," he said. "It's going to be a 20-year run before you go to a car show and 50 to 60 percent of the cars are running some variant of an electric motor in it."
“我認(rèn)為這將是 20 年，”他說(shuō)。“在你去參加車展之前，這將是一個(gè) 20 年的運(yùn)行，50% 到 60% 的汽車都在運(yùn)行某種電動(dòng)馬達(dá)的變體。”
 
But that reality could be coming sooner than expected, says Mike Spagnola, president and CEO of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), a trade group.
但貿(mào)易組織專業(yè)設(shè)備市場(chǎng)協(xié)會(huì) (SEMA) 的總裁兼首席執(zhí)行官 Mike Spagnola 表示，現(xiàn)實(shí)可能會(huì)比預(yù)期來(lái)得更快。
 
He said that electric vehicle products took about 1950 square meters of marketing space at SEMA's yearly show in Las Vegas this fall. That was up from only 232 square meters at the 2021 show.
他說(shuō)，今年秋天在拉斯維加斯舉行的 SEMA 年度展會(huì)上，電動(dòng)汽車產(chǎn)品占據(jù)了約 1950 平方米的營(yíng)銷空間。這高于 2021 年展會(huì)上的 232 平方米。