VOA慢速英语2021 本田汽车决定未来自行生产电动汽车

Japanese automaker Honda plans to design and manufacture its own electric vehicles (EVs) in the coming years.

日本汽车制造商本田计划在未来几年内自行设计和制造电动汽车。

Company officials say they will begin building their own electric vehicles after two EVs made by American automaker General Motors (GM) go on sale in 2024.

公司官员表示，在美国汽车制造商通用汽车生产的两款电动汽车2024年上市之后，他们将开始自行制造电动汽车。

"It's absolutely our intention to produce in our factories," said Honda of America Executive Vice¹ President Dave Gardner. He added that Honda has developed battery manufacturing technology from building gas-electric hybrid² vehicles.

美国本田公司执行副总裁戴夫·加德纳表示：“毫无疑问，我们打算在自己的工厂里生产（电动汽车）。”他还表示，本田已经通过制造氢燃料电池混合动力汽车开发出电池制造技术。

Honda and GM have been partners in making hydrogen and electric powered vehicles. Earlier this year, the companies announced that GM would build two sport utility vehicles (SUVs): one Honda sport SUV and one Acura SUV. Both would use GM's electric vehicle design and battery system. The company said the Honda SUV would be named the Prologue³. Both SUVs will have bodies, interiors and driving elements designed by Honda.

本田和通用汽车一直是制造氢燃料和电动汽车的合作伙伴。今年早些时候，两家公司宣布通用汽车将生产两款运动型多功能车（简称SUV）：一款本田SUV和一款讴歌SUV。两款车都将使用通用汽车的电动汽车设计和电池系统。该公司表示，这款本田SUV将被命名为“序幕。”两款SUV都将采用本田设计的车身、内饰和传动件。

Honda then plans to manufacture most of its own electric vehicles. The company has not decided⁴ if it will use GM parts.

本田随后计划自行生产其大部分电动汽车。该公司尚未决定是否将采用通用汽车零部件。

Gardner said Honda expects to sell between 40,000 and 150,000 Prologue EVs a year. But he did not predict when those numbers would be reached.

加德纳表示，本田预计每年将销售4万到15万辆“序幕”电动汽车。但是他没有预测何时会达到这种销量。

In April, the company said it plans to stop producing gasoline-powered vehicles in North America by 2040. Honda wants 40 percent of the vehicles it sells in North America to be powered by batteries or fuel-cells by 2030. The company also wants 80 percent of all the vehicles it sells to run on batteries or hydrogen by 2035.

今年4月，该公司表示计划于2040年在北美停止生产汽油动力汽车。本田希望在2030年前，其在北美销售的汽车中有40%采用电池或燃料电池驱动。该公司还希望在2035年前，其销售的所有汽车的80%将采用电池或氢能驱动。

Earlier, Honda had planned to meet stronger government fuel economy and pollution requirements by adding hybrid vehicles. But government actions across the world meant to fight climate change have moved the company more toward fully⁵ electric vehicles, Gardner said.

早些时候，本田计划通过增加混合动力汽车来满足政府更严格的燃油经济性和燃料要求。但是加德纳表示，世界各地旨在应对气候变化的政府行为已经使得该公司更多地转向全电动汽车。

Electric vehicles made up less than two percent of new vehicle sales in the U.S. last year. But experts predict huge growth as automakers develop new models. Car industry advisor⁶ LMC Automotive expects 359,000 to be sold this year. They also expect sales to reach 1 million in 2023 and 4 million in 2030. That is about 25 percent of yearly new vehicle sales.

电动汽车去年占美国新车销量不足2%。但是专家预测，随着汽车制造商开发新车型，电动汽车销量将会出现大幅增长。汽车行业咨询公司 LMC Automotive 预计今年将会售出35.9万辆电动汽车。他们还预计到2023年，电动汽车销量将达到100万辆，2030年将达到400万辆。这大约占到每年新车销量的25%。

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

3 prologue   

n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕

参考例句：

• A poor wedding is a prologue to misery.不幸的婚姻是痛苦的开始。
• The prologue to the novel is written in the form of a newspaper account.这本小说的序言是以报纸报道的形式写的。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。