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IN REJECTING ELECTRIC BIKES, the municipalities cited such concerns as the threat of pollution from spent lead-acid batteries, interference with automobiles resulting in accidents or slowed traffic, and the impact on the viability of public transit systems. Advocates for green transportation say these arguments amount to thinly veiled attempts to protect the electric-bicycle industry's competitors. "The real reason is competition from interest groups," says He Zuoxiu, a renowned theoretical physicist and academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.8 G$ k* Y- v! p8 H, Q# w- Qbbs.toenergy.org
地方官员常用的这样的借口来拒绝电动自行车：铅酸电池会污染环境；电动车会干扰机动车辆行驶，阻塞交通；特别是对公交系统造成巨大冲击。积极为绿色交通奔走呼吁的请愿人士说，这些借口苍白无力，不过是试图去保护电动车的竞争者而已。中国科学院著名理论物理学家，院士何祚庥一针见血地指出：“真正的原因就是来自利益集团的竞争。”
An outspoken figure in public debates around environmental and energy policy, He says none of the arguments against electric bikes has merit. Lead-acid batteries, he points out, are used in cars, too. "The real pollution source is not the electric bikes, it's the automobiles," he adds. And he says transit operators and manufacturers should be forced to compete with the electric bikes by offering more efficient services and cheaper, cleaner vehicles. The problem, he explains, is that electric-bike manufacturers are insignificant next to the other interest groups, particularly the car makers that are attracting billions of dollars of foreign investment. The automotive industry is identified as a "pillar industry" in China's official five-year plans.
何院士在有关环境和能源政策的公共辩论中一向直言。他说反对电动车的理由没有一条真正站得住脚：汽车上用的也是铅酸电池，他特别补充：“真正的污染源不是电动车，而是汽车。”如果现有的交通运营者们和制造商们想与电动车竞争，就要为大众提供效率更高，价格更便宜，更清洁的交通工具。但问题是，与其它竞争者相比，电动车厂商微不足道，特别是汽车产业，吸引了数十亿美元的外国投资。在中国官方制定的五年计划中，汽车生产已经被列为“支柱产业”。& k, a) m f0 Abbs.toenergy.org
back, with surpri Although the odds against them are daunting, electric-bike manufacturers are pushing sing success. The mastermind of one of the most high-profile battles is Ni Jie, president of Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co., a privately owned manufacturer that has a pragmatic approach to the market, a sizable R&D effort, and an ambitious vision for Chinese EV technology.5 f( D: e1
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尽管面临着严酷的生存挑战，但电动自行车厂商们并没有退却，而是知难而进，并取得了惊人成功。绿源电动车公司的董事长倪捷是代表电动车产业界的灵魂人物，他从一家小企业开始艰苦创业，以务实的态度开拓市场，并取得成规模的研究开发成果，对中国电动车的技术发展有独到的见解。
Luyuan EV was a government venture-capital spinoff. Building from a prototype put together nine years ago by Luyuan's general manager, Hu Ji Hong, Ni's wife, Luyuan went private after Ni, Hu, and other principals bought out the initial investors. They have built a dynamic company that sold 120 000 electric bikes and scooters last year and expects to sell 300 000 this year [see photo, "Coming Off the Line"].
绿源电动公司一开始是从政府风险投资中分离出来的。九年前，绿源现任总经理胡继红(倪捷的妻子)制造出第一台样机，绿源公司成立了，随后在倪捷和胡继红的领导下，公司改为私营，并且从最初的投资者手里买下了所有产权。公司成长迅猛，去年业绩傲人，电动自行车和踏板电动车销量达到了12万辆，今年的销售目标是30万辆。9 X. G) }' `/ o% M9 b* obbs.toenergy.org
To find Luyuan EV, you must head off the beaten track to Jinhua, an industrial metropolis of 1 million people that is tucked into the unbroken sprawl south of Shanghai that is Zhejiang province. In the chairman's spacious corner office (one of the few heated rooms at Luyuan on a cold February day), Ni chain-smokes, sipping from a seemingly bottomless jar of well-steeped green tea. He says traffic is the top concern in many Chinese cities, and the electric bicycle fills a void by offering an affordable alternative to sitting in a stationary car or bus. "If governments don't have the solution, the people will behave in their own ways," says Ni. "There's no way to stop that."! Q2 N A7 D) u6 M. ]$ h: i' }/ W; Fbbs.toenergy.org
去寻找绿源，要从上海市一路南下，来到金华。这是浙江省的一座城市，人口百万，工业重镇。顺着金华市工业园的公路就可以找到绿源公司的总部。倪捷的办公室坐落在办公楼的一角，宽敞舒适，是公司里为数不多的带暖气的房间之一，寒冷的二月里，这一点显得尤为突出。倪捷烟不离手，喝着泡着浓浓的绿茶的广口杯，侃侃道来创业的艰辛与收获。他说，在中国的大多数城市里，交通是个首要问题，电动车是昂贵的轿车和拥挤的公交车的首选替代品和补充品。“如果政府没有明确的解决方案，人民就可以按自己的办法去行动，没有理由去阻止人们这样做。”
Ni took people power to surprising limits in 2003 when officials in Fuzhou, the capital of neighboring Fujian province, decided to ban electric bicycles—shutting off what until then had been one of Luyuan's best markets. The city not only ceased issuing licenses for electric bicycles but also seized 20 electric bikes from a bicycle shop in the summer of 2003. Ni gathered a coalition of 126 electric-bike manufacturers and filed suit against the city in its own municipal court. The coalition scored a partial win against the city government, forcing it to return the seized bikes.
倪捷非常看中人民的力量，这一点在福州事件中得到了充分印证。2003年夏天，当时，绿源最大市场之一是毗邻的福建省省会福州市，但是该市的政府却要明令封杀电动车，不但不给电动车执照，而且禁止销售，他们没收了绿源专卖店里的20辆电动自行车。倪捷就联合了126家电动车厂家，将市政府(工商局)告上了法庭。此次，厂商联手，迫使市政府无条件发还了无理没收的电动车。这次联手取得了局部的成功。
Far more valuable, says Ni, was the sympathetic coverage they received from national media and the warning that attention sent to other municipalities. "What we told other governments is that if they do the same as Fuzhou, there will be some trouble," he says.4 S8 Z' `# I5 E5 J) K+ j" W( ubbs.toenergy.org
倪捷认为此次福州事件更深远的意义在于赢得了全国媒体的广泛关注和支持，并且也给其它(反对电动车的)地方政府有一点警示作用。“我们向其他地方政府传达的信息是，如果他们学习福州市政府的做法来反对电动车，他们就会有一些麻烦。”5 b2 x, t) j, zbbs.toenergy.org
Conflict over electric bikes isn't limited to the municipalities and the manufacturers. Even the China Bicycle Association has been clashing with some companies, including Luyuan, over what types of electric two-wheelers should be on the road [see photo, "The Basic Bike"]. The bike group enforces a national standard for electric bicycles, and whichever parameter you choose—weight (no more than 40 kilograms), width (220 millimeters for the pedal shaft), speed (20 km/h, maximum)—many of the latest electric scooters either flunk or thwart the standard.
Lots of electric scooters, for example, are outfitted with nonfunctioning pedals and with speed-limiting devices designed for easy removal after purchase. Luyuan's latest machine doesn't just skirt the electric-bike standard; it rumbles right over it. Luyuan calls its new product the LEV, short for light electric vehicle, and Ni openly admits that it's more than a bicycle. Luyuan's Web site calls it an electric motorcycle, and that seems fitting: the LEV weighs in at 95 kg; its 48-V, 20-AH battery packs double the energy of the standard bike; and its 500-watt CPU-controlled motor propels it to 35 km/h. $
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围绕电动车引发的冲突并不只局限于地方政府和生产厂家，中国自行车协会也和一些厂商(包括绿源)在产品细节上发生分歧，诸如何种两轮车才可以上路等。自行车协会强调的是电动自行车的国家标准，如重量不能超过40公斤，脚踏之间的宽度不能超过220毫米，最高时速小于20公里等等，许多最新的电动自行车和踏板电动车都不符合这些指标。7 w- i& C( U5 i$ zbbs.toenergy.org
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例如，很多踏板电动车配置了骑行功能不好的脚踏，并有限制速度的附加装置。有些人买回去就可以自己把限速装置拆掉。绿源公司的一款最新产品已经不再被现有的电动自行车标准所限制，绿源把这种新车型被称做LEV，轻型电动车的缩写。倪捷公开承认它已经不仅仅是“自行车”了。在绿源的网站上它被称为“电动摩托车”：车重95公斤，配备48伏20安时的电池，电机的输出功率高了一倍，达到500瓦，用CPU控制的电机可以将时速提高到35公里。" t
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The LEV has no official status in China. Nevertheless, on what should be a slow sales day at a Luyuan retail outlet in downtown Jinhua, the LEVs are flying out the door. In the space of an hour, one is snapped up by a 25-year-old man, and a working mother rolls out with another. Why did she choose an LEV? She drives her rather big-boned son to school and prefers an LEV to a gas-powered scooter, pointing to the endemic air pollution hanging over the city.; {. C$ ^4 ~+ ^$ ubbs.toenergy.org
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Ni is betting that governments will sanction the LEV if it proves popular. He says he believes that Luyuan has addressed the one concern municipalities could level against the LEV that might have stuck: reduced safety due to the cycle's greater weight. The LEV employs an electric drum brake that, Ni claims, stops it faster than the cantilever brakes used on garden-variety electric bikes could. A is also in the works that would boost braking power by using the in-hub motor as a generator to pull energy out of the wheels, extending the vehicle's range by simultaneously charging the battery./ ~) S1 H/ W+ I5 _! D" }* A+ Nbbs.toenergy.org
虽然目前国家还没有出台LEV统一标准，不过在金华，即使是销售淡季，顾客还是首选LEV。在不到一个小时内，一位25岁的年轻人和一位上班族母亲相继开走了两辆。在被问及选中这辆车的理由时，她指着城市上空的空气污染解释道她必须送块头大的儿子去上学，但是为了降低本地城市的空气污染，她宁可选择电动车，而不要燃油的踏板摩托车。
倪捷乐观地相信，政府在看到LEV的普遍使用之后，会给予正式许可的。现在不少人对该车重量增加是否会降低安全系数持怀疑态度。倪捷解释道：LEV装有电鼓闸，它的刹车效果比各种各样电动车常用的悬臂闸要好得多。新的能量回收型制动系统也已开始使用，这种新系统在刹车时将把主动的电动机变成被动的发电机，一方面有利于迅速制动，另一方面也可以把刹车要消耗的能量提取出来对电池充电，从而扩大了车辆的行车里程。: }: B* }1 G Ibbs.toenergy.org
Ever the entrepreneur, Ni sees the success of the LEV as a step toward bigger and better things. He already has his eye on the market for small delivery vehicles, and he even imagines Luyuan making electric cars and challenging the major automakers. "They are investing money, saying we are going to change the gasoline system to electric," he points out. "But will the big companies really be willing to destroy their own factories to build the new ones?" In Ni's view, small, aggressive Chinese companies like Luyuan are more likely to drive the EV revolution, because they have nothing to lose.
作为一名企业家，倪捷把在电动自行车和LEV上的成功看成是走向“更大和更好”的电动化交通工具的关键一步。他已经开始关注小型电动运输车辆的市场，甚至梦想有一天，绿源能够生产出自己的小型电动汽车，与大公司竞争。“他们总是在说，‘我们正在投入大量资金，我们将有计划地把燃油系统改成电动系统。’”倪捷指出，“但是，这些大公司他们真的愿意毁掉现有的工厂去建设新的工厂吗？”依倪捷看来，一批富有进取心的小企业，就像绿源这样的，更有可能推动电动车革命，因为这样做他们一无所失。6
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THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE facing electric-bike makers may not be municipal bans, conservative standards, or even technology. It may be the roads. China is following the development path of Western countries like a map, rapidly redesigning its cities around the automobile. Across China, cities are rejecting a mixed-use model and redeveloping along a strict zoning model, razing residential buildings in center
cities to make way for shiny office towers and paving farmland on the periphery to create large industrial parks. Displaced from the urban centers, houses and other residential buildings are springing up in sprawling suburbs, just as they did in the West decades ago. The automobile is king in this model, because in the absence of extensive public transit, cars are the only way to get from distant suburbs to offices and industry parks.- `
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电动车厂家所面临的最大挑战，还不是部分地方政府的禁行令，保守的标准，甚至连技术也不是主要问题，最大困扰来自道路状况。中国正遵循着西方发达国家的发展模式，围绕着汽车来彻底重新规划城市。中国的每一个城市都在摒弃机动车非机动车混合行使模式，实现严格的分道行使模式，农田改造成了工业园。住房从城市中心也逐渐向郊区迁徙以便让位给亮丽的写字楼，几十年前西方国家就是这么干的。汽车成了这个模式中的国王。由于公共交通网很不健全，轿车成了从远郊区居住地到办公室或工业园的唯一工具。
To make way for more cars, China's cities are widening their main roads and building highways. The result has been a rapid increase in automobile use that, just as it does everywhere else in the world, almost instantly absorbs the extra roadways. The resulting gridlock has been especially acute in China's capital. Beijing had 1 million cars in 1997 and was once expected to reach 2 million in 2008. Instead, it hit 2 million last year and now expects 3.5 million to be in use in 2008. "All over the country, they believe that wider roads are more efficient for traffic. They're wrong," says Yu Kon gjian, an urban planning expert at Beijing University.
为了给更多的汽车让路，中国的许多城市都将主路拓宽，并修建了高速公路。就像在世界其他地方发生的一样，其后果只能是导致了汽车数量迅猛增长，新增的轿车马上占据了新修的马路。这种恶性循环在首都北京表现得十分明显。1997年，北京只有1百万辆轿车，有人曾经预计到2008年才达到2百万辆。但事实是，去年已经突破了2百万辆，新的预测是2008年将达到350万辆。北京大学城市规划专家俞孔坚尖锐地指出：“举国上下，大家都认为马路越宽交通状况就越好，但是他们是错的。”' z9 T* O: n, Z! E; ybbs.toenergy.org
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Car culture is a disaster for the bicycle. Road widening often comes at the expense of bike lanes, while highways are off-limits to bikes and nearly impossible to cross. On the smaller roadways, rush-hour traffic blocks the bike lanes and intersections, prompting outbursts of road rage from frustrated cyclists. Yu used to cycle 20 to 30 minutes between work and home, but he now drives—a 10- to 60-minute trip, depending on the traffic. "It's too dangerous to bike, so people give up. I gave up," he says.5 b3 B!
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汽车文明的兴起对自行车是一个灾难，马路拓宽的代价是占用自行车道，高速公路不许自行车上道，而且几乎不可穿越。窄一点的马路上，高峰时间的车流阻断了自行车道和交叉路口，引起骑车人的强烈不满。俞教授以前骑自行车从家到学校只需要20到30分钟，但他现在开车，依据交通状况，花费10到60分钟不等。“骑自行车太危险了，所以许多人不骑车了，我也不骑了。” J7 U. Z- X3 C# w& K- bbbs.toenergy.org
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Yu is confident that, in the long run, it is the gas guzzlers that will be forced to give way. One reason is gridlock. Another is China's endemic urban pollution [see photo, "Pea Soup"]. On all but the best days in Jinhua, for example, the city skyline disappears behind a dense haze of smog and particulates; more and more of that atmospheric soup is pouring out of tailpipes.
不过俞教授相信从长远来看，燃油的车辆终将会被迫给电动车让路。一方面的原因是交通堵塞，另一方面的原因是中国的城市污染。在金华，即使污染不那么严重的日子，城市的天际线也都消失在烟尘之中，越来越多的大气污染物是从机动车排气管中排出的。
It's the strategic cost of petroleum that inspires professor He's confidence in the electric bike. China's oil imports are on the same exponential growth path as its car fleet. China has eclipsed Japan as the second-biggest importer of oil, bringing it into direct competition with the world's leading consumer of petroleum: the United States. With import dependence and environmental burdens in mind, China has promulgated fuel-efficiency standards that are stricter in principle than those currently in force in the United States, and it is considering imposition of a 20 to 50 percent national tax on retail gasoline and diesel.
何院士之所以对电动车充满信心，主要因为中国为石油所付出的战略代价太高。中国石油进口增加速度和它的汽车数量增加速度并驾齐驱。中国已经超过了日本成为世界第二大原油进口国，开始与美国竞争世界上最大的石油消费国。为减少对进口原油的依赖，也为减轻沉重的环保负担着想，中国已经制定了比美国更严格的燃料效能标准，同时正在考虑对零售汽油和柴油加征20%到50%的燃油附加税。
IF CHINA CAN FIND A WAY to make relatively efficient electric bikes a significant part of its transportation system, it could have major repercussions elsewhere in the developing—and developed—world. That includes the United States, which has the world's most car-dependent culture. Unlike Japan and Europe, where bicycles, trains, and other forms of transportation still thrive, the United States is one of the few places where people move almost exclusively by car. As WaveCrest's Benjamin puts it, "We live in a bubble."
如果中国能找到一种解决办法，能使得相对高效的电动车在交通系统中发挥更显著的作用，这将为世界上其它发展中国家乃至发达国家树立一个的典范。这也包括了全世界中最依赖汽车的国家——美国。在日本和欧洲，自行车、火车和其它形式的公共交通工具还在积极地运转，而美国是极少数绝大部分交通完全依赖汽车的国家之一，引用WaveCrest公司本杰明先生的话：“我们住在大泡沫里。” |
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