双语｜电单车正在成为人们出行的新选择

背景先容：

当前，环球各国正全力阻挡新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的蔓延。
随着疫情逐渐得到掌握，人们的生活逐渐规复往常。

私家车和自行车便成为了人们出行的首选。
但随着大量私家车涌入街头，交通堵塞问题又令人苦恼。
于是，各国政府开始鼓励人们选择包括单车和电单车在内的绿色的出行办法，由此推动了电单车行业的发展。

The pandemic is giving e-bikes a boost

新冠疫情正在推动电动自行车的发展。

Two wheels good. Two wheels plus a motor better

两个轮子好，但两个轮子加一个马达更好

Vanmoof, a dutch bicycle-maker, is known for sleek designs and clever advertising. In a television spot for its newest model, images of the evils of car culture—accidents, gridlock and pollution—are projected onto the skin of a luxury car, which melts, turning into one of the company’s elegant e-bikes.

荷兰自行车制造商 Vanmoof 以其时尚的设计和富有创意的广告而有名。
在其最新车型的电视广告中，交通事件、堵塞和污染等各类与汽车文化干系的恶行景象被投射至一辆豪华汽车的外壳上，随后车身融化，并化身为该公司一款优雅的电动自行车。

Electrically assisted bicycles are not about to replace cars. But they are booming, especially in Europe, where sales rose by 23% in 2019, to 3m units. E-bikes are unlocking even saturated bicycle markets like the Netherlands, where the average person already owns 1.3 pushbikes. Last year Deloitte, a consultancy, estimated the number of e-bikes worldwide at 200m, and expected it to hit 300m by 2023.

电动自行车并不会取代汽车。
但它们正在发达发展，尤其是在欧洲，电动自行车的销量在2019年增长了23%，达300万辆。
纵然在荷兰这样自行车已达饱和的市场（荷兰人均拥有自行车1.3辆），电动自行车也在推动着市场的发展。
去年，咨询公司德勤估计环球电动自行车数量已达2亿辆，估量到2023年将达到3亿辆。

That may prove to be an underestimate now that coronavirus-wary commuters are shunning public transport and cities are expanding cycle lanes. Sales, which braked in March and April owing to supply-chain wobbles and shuttered stores, shifted into high gear when lockdowns lifted. In June revenue at Accell, Europe’s biggest bicycle manufacturer, was 53% higher than a year ago, largely thanks to e-bikes.

对新冠病毒持谨慎态度的通勤者正在避免利用公共交通，许多城市正在扩建自行车道，有鉴于此，上述数据或许被低估了。
由于供应链不稳定且门店被迫关闭，3月和4月的销量一度陷入结束，直到封锁方法解除后，销量开始迅速回升。
欧洲最大的自行车制造商 Accell 今年6月的营收同比增长了53%，这在很大程度上要归功于电动自行车。

Big firms such as Accell and Giant of Taiwan compete with sporty brands such as America’s Cannondale and affordable city rides from QWIC. Brompton, a British maker of fancy folding bikes, has been making 10% of its 42.5m ($56m) in annual sales from the electric sort, and hopes eventually to raise that figure to 40%.

像 Accell 和台湾捷安特这样的大公司正在与美国 Cannondale 这样的运动品牌以及 QWIC 这样的平价城市自行车品牌相互竞争。
英国高档折叠自行车制造商 Brompton 的年发卖额为4250万英镑（约合5600万美元），个中10%来自电动自行车，这一比例未来有望提高至40%。

VanMoof, which raised $13.5m from investors in May, bills itself as the Tesla of e-bikes. Like the electric-car maker it designs its own parts, motors and software rather than relying on off-the-shelf bits and bobs. The result is a more seamless product, boasts Taco Carlier, a Dutch engineer who co-founded VanMoof with his brother in 2009.

今年5月，VanMoof 从投资者那里筹集了资金1350万美元，并将自己标榜为电动自行车领域的特斯拉。
犹如电动汽车制造商一样，该公司自行设计零部件、马达和软件，而非利用现成通用零件。
2009年，荷兰工程师塔可卡利尔与兄弟共同创立了 VanMoof，他夸口称，我们终极将打造一辆更加完美的电动自行车。

Demand is growing faster than manufacturers can keep up, leading to long backlogs and premium prices, which start at around $1,000. Giant says that its gross margin on e-bikes is around 25%, above its average of 21%. VanMoof’s machines go for $2,000 a pop.

需求的增速超过了制造商的承受能力，由此导致订单的长期积压和产品的溢价，致使电动自行车起价普遍在1000美元旁边。
捷安特公司表示，其电动自行车的毛利率约为25%，高于公司全部业务21%的均匀水平。
VanMoof 每辆电动自行车的售价高达2000美元。

Mr Carlier may, however, have to rethink his firm’s marketing strategy. Though its polemic against traffic jams evokes French nouvelle vague cinema, the ad was banned in June by French authorities, for trying to “discredit the automobile sector”.

然而，卡利尔可能不得不重新考虑公司的营销策略。
只管其鞭笞交通堵塞的广告让人想起了法国新浪潮电影，但法国当局还是在6月禁止了该广告，情由是其试图“败坏汽车行业的荣誉”。

重难点词汇：

gridlock [rdlk] n. 交通堵塞

saturate [stret] vt. 浸透；使饱和

wobble [wbl] vi. 扭捏；摇摆；游移不定

seamless [simls] adj. 无缝的；无伤痕的

backlog [bkl] n. 积压的事情；未结订单

polemic [plemk] n. 辩论；辩论 adj. 争辩的；辩论的

discredit [dskredt] vt. 不信；使……丢脸 n. 疑惑；名声败坏

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