VOA常速英语2016-非洲第一辆太阳能公交车诞生（在线收听）

非洲第一辆太阳能公交车诞生

Kayoolais the brand name for the new bus, which is powered by solar panels on its roof. Itseats 35 passengers and its maker hopes the Kayoola will become the first public bus in Africato be powered by the sun. The engines of these electrically-powered buses are completelysilent, says the chief engineer of the project. This bus, there’s actually no engine. What isdriving the bus is a motor, a traction motor, which is being run by a battery and the batterybanks are the ones that are linked to the solar system that’s on the roof. So we have thebattery that is driving the motor and that gives us a full range of 80 kilometers on full charge.And then the solar panels come to supplement the extra mileage so it adds an extra kilometerto the total. The Kayoola bus can be recharged using solar power or connected to an electricpower source. Best of all, it does not emit harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Thesystems are fully run on green energy so things to do with polluting the environment whichultimately will affect us and that’s the reason why you would work on such a productsbecause in the future we’re looking at sustainable and green energy. This solar-powered busalso helps save money on petrol by relying 100% on abundant, renewable sunlight. Thedifference between this Kayoola bus, the solar bus and these other buses is that they are theones that are using fuel. This one is using batteries. But as you are driving when you areaccelerating, you can tell that it’s powerful like these other buses. Ugandan authorities say theKayoola bus can help solve Kampala's traffic jams. The more options we have, we believe that itwill help a lot in the issue of congestion. The price of the prototype bus is estimated at morethan $140,000. If this model can be mass produced, the price will drop and it will sell for around$55,000 each. However, before the Kayoola bus is out on Ugandan roads customers have to bepatient. There hasn’t been an official date set for its release.

Kayoola就是这辆新车的名字，它是靠车顶部的太阳能板来获得动能的。Kayoola的车载量为35位乘客，Kayoola的设计者希望它能成为非洲第一个由太阳能驱动的公共汽车。该工程负责人表示，Kayoola的发动机完全无噪音。Kayoola其实是没有发动机的。它的驱动力是马达，是牵引马达。而牵引马达是由一块电池驱动的。而电池组是与车顶的太阳能板相连的。所以，其实初期就是由电池在驱动马达，续航可达80公里。接下来，电池电量耗光后，会由太阳能板来补充额外的里程数。不过，Kayoola既可以利用太阳能，也能通过电源充电来获得电能。最好的一点是，Kayoola不会向大气释放有危害的二氧化碳。

这辆车的各个系统完全依靠绿色能源来支持，所以不会污染环境，也不会影响人类生活。这也是现在可以研究这样产品的原因，因为我们今后要看向可持续绿色能源。由于Kayoola100%依靠源源不断的太阳能，因此它还能节省油费。他们之间的唯一区别就是，其他汽车依靠消耗能源来驱动。而Kayoola使用的是电池。但（这并不会影响什么，因为）一旦你开起车来并加速，你会感觉到Kayoola的发动力可与其他汽车并驾齐驱。乌干达当局表示，Kayoola可以帮助解决坎帕拉的交通拥堵问题。我们坚信，手上的选择越多，就越有利于解决交通拥堵问题。这两原型车估价在14多万美元。如果可以得到大批量生产，那么价格就会降低到大约每辆5.5万美元。不过，在Kayoola正式获批上路之前，乌干达的市民可能需要耐心等待一番。目前，官方尚未公布Kayoola的发行日期。