通用汽车在沪推出微型电动车EN-V
General Motors Co. introduced a pod-like electric vehicle in Shanghai this week, a vision for a car of the future to help solve urban-transportation problems such as congestion and pollution.
The two-seater EN-V, or 'Electric Networked-Vehicle,' is a third the length of a regular car at 1.5 meters. It will be equipped with wireless communication and GPS-based navigation that will help it avoid accidents and pick the fastest routes based on real-time traffic conditions, GM says.
The EN-V likely won't actually hit the roads for a long while yet - if ever.
GM has put forward a 20-year timeframe for the EN-V to catch on, and it may turn out to be more of a curiosity object like the Segway, GM's collaborator on the project. But if it works anywhere, it will likely work in China, which has no shortage of packed urban environments and swaths of consumers who have little or no history with traditional cars and may be more open to trying new concepts.
GM expects the EN-V, if put into production, to cost less than a small car but more than a moped.
For now, with its future still unclear, the EN-V at least represents an important P.R. move for GM, which has been criticized for not thinking ahead.
通用汽车公司(General Motors Co.)本周在上海推出了一款豆荚状电动汽车，人们从中可以一窥未来能帮助缓解堵车和污染等城市交通问题的汽车会是什么样子。
这款名为EN-V的两座“电动联网概念车”只有1.5米长，仅为普通轿车长度的三分之一。通用汽车说，EN-V将配备无线通讯装置和GPS卫星导航系统，这些装置将帮助它避免交通事故，并根据实时交通状况选择行驶速度最快的交通线路。
但EN-V真的上路行驶可能还要很长时间才能实现，如果会有这么一天的话。
通用汽车准备给EN-V 20年的时间来逐步被市场接受，而这款车最终有可能像通用的另一款微型车Segway一样，更多只是一种新奇的玩意儿。但如果EN-V真有用武之地的话，这个地方有可能是中国。中国不仅城市的停车位紧张，而且许多消费者都不曾或很少有过驾
驶传统型轿车的经历，他们可能更乐于尝试新的概念车。
通用汽车预计，EN-V如果投产，其价格会在小型轿车和摩托车之间。
目前看来，虽然EN-V的市场前景仍不明朗，但推出这款车至少是通用汽车一个重要的公关举措，该公司一直被批评为缺乏前瞻性思维。
上海电动汽车价格