电动汽车

　　All charged up for sharing

　　全力以赴

　　Vincent Bolloré 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 Bolloré

　　再見汽油，欢迎充电汽车

　　FIFTEEN years ago Vincent Bolloré, 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 Bolloré for many years. Fortunately, he says, Mr Bolloré 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 Bolloré’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 Delan?e, 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 Bolloré 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