As television ads from Audi unabashedly proclaim, the German carmaker, like its compatriots, did not invent the electric car, but is finally embracing it. Now that the European auto industry is belatedly weaning itself off the internal combustion engine, the EU’s so-called Battery Initiative, which it fleshed out this week, is to be commended. It aims to address a crucial issue for European automakers: the batteries needed to power the electric vehicles they are developing are mostly made in China. The risk, however, is that Europe is coming very late to the party.
正如奧迪(Audi)毫不難爲情地在電視廣告中宣稱的那樣，這家德國汽車製造商和其他德國車企一樣，雖然沒有發明電動車，但最終還是加入了這股潮流。儘管歐洲汽車行業在擺脫對內燃機的依賴方面動作遲緩，但歐盟的「電池計劃」仍值得稱讚——歐盟在本週公佈了該計劃的細節。該計劃旨在解決歐洲汽車製造商面臨的一個關鍵問題：他們正在開發的電動車需要用到的電池大多是在中國製造的。然而風險在於，歐洲在加入這場盛宴時姍姍來遲。