经济学人下载:电动汽车全力以赴

Electric cars
电动汽车

All charged up for sharing
全力以赴

Vincent Bollore makes a risky bet on electric-car technology 
文森特.布洛尔大胆下注电动汽车产业

Sep 10th 2011 | PARIS | from the print edition

Adieu petrol, welcome Bollore
再见汽油，欢迎充电汽车

FIFTEEN years ago Vincent Bollore, a French industrialist, decided to get into the business of electricity storage. He started a project to produce rechargeable batteries in two small rooms of his family mansion in Brittany. “I asked him, ‘what are you doing?’ and I told him to stop, that it wouldn’t go anywhere,” says Alain Minc, a business consultant in Paris who has advised Mr Bollore for many years. Fortunately, he says, Mr Bollore continued.

法国企业家文森特.布洛尔十五年前决定进军充电电池行业，在布列塔尼家族企业的大厦里的两间小屋中，他开始了充电电池的研制。‘我问他“你在做什么”,并告诉他趁早停手，这个项目没有前途’在巴黎的商业顾问阿兰.明克曾多次这样建议。幸运的是，布洛尔先生坚持了下来。

Mr Bollore’s technology is about to hit the road. In 2010 his group won a contract to run Autolib, a car-sharing scheme designed by Bertrand Delanöe, the mayor of Paris, which will put 3,000 electric vehicles on the city’s streets along with 1,120 stations for parking and recharging. Construction of the stations started in the summer, and Mr Bollore will begin testing the service on October 1st before opening it to the public in December. Rechargeable batteries are now an important technology for the global car industry as it starts to make ever more electric and hybrid vehicles. Renault, a French manufacturer, is alone investing