考研英语水平的进步,不仅要记单词,还需要阅读外语文献等资料。接下来,小编为2024考研者们,整理出——2024考研英语同源外刊5月:全球电动汽车竞赛,日本落败,供考生参考。
2024考研英语同源外刊5月:全球电动汽车竞赛,日本落败
For decades, JATCO, like the rest of Japan’s vaunted auto industry, has perfected carmaking. Japan has been at the forefront of the industry, pioneering just-in-time manufacturing and leading the development of hybrid cars. But the next big evolution—the shift to electric vehicles (EVs)—has become a source of angst. “The EV shift will be a big transformation, there’s no denying that,” says Sato Tomoyoshi, JATCO’s CEO. “Our company will have to change drastically.”
几十年来,作为日本引以为傲的汽车工业的一分子,加特可和其他制造商一道,让汽车制造技术精益求精。日本一直处于汽车工业的前沿,它开创了“准时制”生产方式,并引领了混合动力汽车的发展。但接下来这一次向电动汽车的重大演变给日本带来了焦虑。“不可否认,向电动汽车转变将是一次重大转型,”加特可的社长佐藤朋由表示,“我们必须做出彻底改变。”
So far, Japan and its carmakers are lagging in the race towards EVs, the industry’s fastest-growing product area. Battery-powered electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) accounted for around 13% of all cars sold globally in 2022. up from 2.6% in 2019. In some markets, including China, the share is some 20%. But in Japan, it was just 2%. The firms pulling ahead in the EV race include newcomers, such as Tesla and China’s BYD, and established giants such as Germany’s Volkswagen.
电动汽车现在是汽车行业增长较快的产品领域,而到目前为止,日本及其汽车制造商在这个赛道上落于人后。2022年,纯电动汽车和插电式混合动力汽车占全球汽车销量的比例从2019年的2.6%上升到13%左右。这一比例在包括中国在内的一些市场中约为20%,而在日本仅为2%。在电动车竞赛中领先的既包括特斯拉和中国的比亚迪等新入局者,也包括德国的大众等老牌巨头。
Critics worry that this early stalling on EVs could cause the wheels to fall off the Japanese auto industry as a whole. Some see parallels with semiconductors and consumer electronics, industries where Japanese firms were initially dominant, then missed important trends abroad and ended up losing out to nimbler competitors. A similar decline in the auto industry, which accounts for nearly 20% of Japan’s exports and some 8% of Japanese jobs, would have massive economic and social implications.
批评人士担心,在电动汽车方面的这种初期停滞可能会导致日本汽车行业出现整体下滑。一些人认为这与半导体和消费电子行业有相似之处,日本公司起初在这些行业占据主导地位,然后错过了国外重要的发展趋势,后来输给了更机智的竞争对手。
Japan’s slow start on EVs stems in part from its earlier successes—or as Mr Sato of JATCO puts it, it is a classic case of the innovator’s dilemma. Industry leaders hesitated to embrace a new technology that might undermine areas where Japan leads, such as standard hybrid vehicles, which combine an internal combustion engine (ICE) and an electric motor powered by batteries that capture energy from regenerative braking. Engineers at Japanese firms that fine-tuned complex hybrids were also unimpressed by eVs, which are simpler mechanically.
日本在电动汽车行业起步缓慢,部分原因在于其早前取得的成功——或者正如JATCO的佐藤先生所说,这是创新者困境的一个经典案例。在一项新的技术可能会破坏日本领先的领域时,行业领袖们会犹豫是否要接受这样的新技术,比如标准混合动力汽车,它将内燃机和由电池驱动的电动机结合起来,从再生制动中捕获能量。曾对复杂的混合动力车进行过微调的日本公司的工程师对机械结构更简单的电动汽车也不感兴趣。
Japan also made an early wrong turn with hydrogen, another emergent auto technology with the potential to be carbon-free. Toyota, Japan’s biggest and most influential carmaker, bet that hydrogen fuel-cells would become the leading method to electrify cars. While hydrogen may come to play a big role in decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors, such as steel production, or fuelling long-haul trucks, it has so far turned out to make little sense as a technology to electrify light consumer vehicles.
日本另一个错误的做法是选择了氢能,氢能是另一种新兴的有可能发展成无碳的汽车技术。日本较大、较具影响力的汽车制造商丰田曾押注氢燃料电池将成为电动汽车的主要供能方式。尽管氢可能会为钢铁生产、为长途卡车货运提供能源等难以实现电气化的行业在脱碳方面发挥重要作用,但迄今为止,作为一种为轻型消费汽车提供电气化的技术,它似乎没有什么意义。
词汇:
1.vaunt
英/ vɔːnt /
vi.自夸;吹嘘
vt.自夸;吹嘘
n.自吹自擂
2.nimble
英/ ˈnɪmb(ə)l /美/ ˈnɪmb(ə)l /
adj.(行动)灵活的;(头脑)聪敏的
3.decarbonise
英/ ˌdiːˈkɑːbənaɪz /美/ ˌdiːˈkɑːrbənaɪz /
v.脱碳,使碳减排
综上是“2024考研英语同源外刊5月:全球电动汽车竞赛,日本落败”,希望对备战2024考研考生们有所帮助!让我们乘风破浪,终抵彼岸,考研加油!
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