特斯拉在沙漠中建立超級工廠 動力電池成本或下降

It's Tesla Motors' biggest bet yet: a massive, $5 billion factory in the Nevada desert that could nearly double the world's production of lithium-ion batteries.

這可能是特斯拉汽車公司下過最大的賭注：一個耗資50億美元的大工廠將在內華達州的沙漠中建成，幾乎可以使世界鋰電池的產量翻番。

Tesla officially opened its Gigafactory last Tuesday, a little more than two years after construction began. The factory is about 14 percent complete but when it's finished, it will be about 10 million square feet, or about the size of 262 NFL football fields. That will make it one of the largest buildings in the world.

在建廠兩年多之後，特斯拉於上週二正式公開了這一超級工廠。該工廠現在只建好了14％左右，但當全部完工時，將佔地約1000萬平方英尺，差不多是262個國家橄欖球聯盟球場的大小。這將使其成爲世界上最大的建築物之一。

The factory is key to the future of Palo Alto, California-based Tesla. The 13-year-old electric car company, which has never made a full-year profit. It also runs Tesla Powerwall, a solar energy storage business for homes and businesses.

該工廠對總部位於加州帕洛阿爾託的特斯拉的未來來說非常關鍵。這家成立13年的電動汽車公司從未獲得過全年盈利。此外，該公司也經營“特斯拉Powerwall”電池，這是一種供家用或者商用的太陽能存儲業務。

The company says making its own lithium-ion batteries at the scale the Gigafactory will allow will reduce its battery costs by more than a third.

該公司表示，將以超級工廠的規模生產自有鋰電池，這樣可以使電池成本降低超過三分之一。

Tesla unveiled the Model 3 at the end of March. Within a week, more than 325,000 people had put down a $1,000 deposit to reserve the car. After seeing that level of demand, Tesla moved its production plans forward. The company now says it will make 500,000 vehicles per year by 2018.

特斯拉在今年三月底推出了Model 3。一週之內已經有超過32.5萬人交了1000美元的訂金來預訂該車。看到如此級別的需求後，特斯拉加快了其生產計劃。該公司表示，到2018年，每年將生產50萬輛車。

To meet that goal, Gigafactory construction is proceeding at a furious pace. Inside the factory, Tesla's partner, Panasonic Corp., is installing machines in sealed, humidity-controlled rooms that will start making battery cells before the end of this year.

爲了達到這一目標，超級工廠繼續以驚人的速度進行着建設工作。在工廠內部，特斯拉的合作伙伴松下公司正在控制溼度的密封房間裏安裝機器，這些機器將在今年年底前開始生產電池。

Tesla says the factory will be producing 35 gigawatt hours of batteries by 2018. That's the equivalent to the entire world's production in 2014. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the factory has the capacity to produce 150 gigawatt hours if it needs to.

特斯拉方面表示，到2018年，工廠將能夠生產35千兆瓦時的電池，這相當於整個世界在2014年的總產量。特斯拉首席執行官伊隆·馬斯克表示，如有需要，工廠產能可以達到150千兆瓦時。

Analysts say bringing battery production in-house, instead of buying batteries like General Motors Co. and other major automakers do, can help bring down costs, but also leaves Tesla exposed. If the Model 3 is delayed, for example, Tesla will have extra batteries on its hands and no way to recoup its costs.

分析人士表示，自產電池（而不是像通用汽車公司和其他主要汽車製造商那樣購買電池）可以幫助降低成本，但也會讓特斯拉過於暴露。比如，如果Model 3車型延遲上市，特斯拉手中將會積壓很多電池，並且沒有辦法收回成本。

"They could be left with a lot of excess capacity in the near term," said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst with Navigant Research. Abuelsamid says there's also the possibility that advances in battery technology in the longer term could force Tesla to make expensive new investments.

Navigant研究所的分析師山姆·阿伯薩米德表示：“他們可能會在短期內留下很多過剩產能。” 阿伯薩米德認爲，電池技術的長期進步可能會迫使特斯拉投資昂貴的新項目。