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Now the automaker has made it clear it will compete on EVs, it deserves a fresh look现在$丰田汽车(TM)$ 这家汽车制造商已经明确表示将在电动汽车领域竞争，它值得重新关注

This week, Toyota shares continued their cruise towards an all-time high, building on a rise of almost 30 per cent since the start of the year and blown by a following wind, according to Refinitiv data, of 17 “buy” recommendations from analysts.  据Refinitiv的数据显示，本周丰田股票继续保持上涨势头，自年初以来已经上涨了近30%，并受到17位分析师的“买入”推荐的推动。

Improbable stuff, perhaps, for a century-old leviathan whose 2022 sales of pure battery electric vehicles were just 1.8 per cent those of Tesla and whose almighty global bestseller — the Corolla — was outsold by Elon Musk’s Model Y in the first quarter of 2023.  对于一个有百年历史的巨无霸来说，这些或许是不可思议的事情。2022年，该公司纯电动汽车的销量仅为特斯拉的1.8%，而其全球最畅销车型——卡罗拉，在2023年第一季度被埃隆·马斯克的Model Y超越。

The Japanese company has been accused of entering the global EV race grudgingly and at half-throttle. Its flagship EV offering — the bZ4X — was burdened with a door-entry code of a name and recalled shortly after its launch over actual concerns that the wheels could fall off.  这家日本公司被指责以不情愿和半力的方式参与全球电动汽车竞争。其旗舰电动车型bZ4X被赋予了一个复杂的名称，并在推出后不久因真实担忧而召回，担心车轮可能脱落。

The factor that helps explain the share price-versus-setback paradox are the words “solid state” — the elusive, game-changing technology that could in theory allow for much lighter, quicker-charging and more powerful batteries and in which Toyota said last month it had made a breakthrough.  解释股价与挫折之间的悖论的因素是“固态”这个词——这是一种难以捉摸的、具有改变游戏规则的技术，理论上可以实现更轻、充电更快、更强大的电池。丰田上个月宣布已经取得了突破。

With various caveats, earlier durability issues had been solved, Toyota said, and, while acknowledging the stiff challenge, the company should be able to mass produce, commercialise and mount a solid-state battery in a vehicle as early as 2027. Success is not guaranteed, though. Toyota, whose chief technology officer said the company did not see solid-state batteries as the ultimate solution, sounds far from psychologically committed to the technology.  丰田表示，尽管存在各种限制条件，但早期的耐久性问题已得到解决。尽管承认面临巨大挑战，但该公司应该能够在2027年或更早的时间内大规模生产、商业化并将固态电池应用于汽车。然而，并不能保证一定会成功。丰田的首席技术官表示，公司并不认为固态电池是最终解决方案，因此对这项技术并没有过多的心理承诺。

But markets often ignore those details: for many investors, the possibility that Toyota might have pulled ahead of rivals in one of the great tech races of the era raises some awkward questions for those who had written off Japan’s powers of reinvention in general, and Toyota’s in particular. Who, after all, would want to miss out on the possibility that Japan’s most valuable company is in sight of a battery able to propel a car 1,200km on a 10 minute charge? 但市场往往忽视这些细节：对于许多投资者来说，丰田有可能在这个时代伟大的科技竞赛中超越竞争对手，这对那些曾经对日本的再造能力以及丰田的能力持怀疑态度的人来说，引发了一些尴尬的问题。毕竟，谁会想错过这样一个可能性，即日本最有价值的公司有望开发出一种能够在10分钟充电后行驶1200公里的电池？

But CLSA autos analyst Christopher Richter argues this is only part of the renewed glow around Toyota. Along with the eye-catching solid-state zinger, Toyota has provided timeframes for four other battery technologies to be rolled out. 但是，CLSA汽车分析师克里斯托弗·里希特认为，这只是围绕丰田重新焕发光彩的一部分。除了引人注目的固态电池技术外，丰田还提供了其他四种电池技术的推出时间表。

Some have sensed desperation. The message intended to accompany the tech announcements was two-fold: first, that Toyota is now genuinely serious about EVs and second, that in a world where many EV-makers are reliant on others to develop and commoditise batteries, Toyota’s magic differentiator is that it can do it in-house. The tyres on both of these messages need a decent kick. Long-term faith in Toyota requires a good deal more than believing its capacity for technological breakthrough. 有些人感受到了绝望。技术发布会的宣传信息有两个目的：首先，丰田现在真正认真对待电动汽车；其次，在许多电动汽车制造商依赖他人开发和商品化电池的世界中，丰田的魔力独特之处在于它可以自行完成。这两个信息都需要一个不错的推动力。对丰田的长期信任需要更多的东西，而不仅仅是相信它在技术突破方面的能力。

The difficulty lies in framing the issue in a way that fairly measures achievement against ambition. Toyota, by production and sales, is the world’s number one automaker. But rapidly changing times and the progress of Tesla — and even, arguably, of China’s BYD — have made Toyota feel some way from the global top slot in terms of importance and leadership.  困难在于以一种公正的方式来衡量成就与雄心的对比。丰田凭借生产和销售量成为全球第一大汽车制造商。但是，快速变化的时代和特斯拉的进步，甚至可以说是中国比亚迪的进步，使得丰田在重要性和领导力方面有些距离全球顶级位置。

The psychological blows to the company have been heavy. For decades, it has prevailed in a combustion-engine industry where newcomers were few and the advantages of its position of incumbency large. Toyota could surely see that the world was shifting towards EVs and that the market wanted it to follow, but had a visceral aversion to competing in a realm where the barriers to new entrants are relatively low. 公司承受了沉重的心理打击。几十年来，它在内燃机行业中占据主导地位，新进入者寥寥无几，而其现有地位的优势也十分明显。丰田肯定能看到世界正在向电动汽车转变，市场也希望它跟随潮流，但对于在一个新进入者门槛相对较低的领域竞争，它却有一种本能的厌恶。

Now that Toyota has made it clear that it intends to compete on EVs, it clearly deserves re-evaluation — not least because a company as deep-pocketed and resilient as Toyota is at its best in crisis mode. But rather than solid-state batteries, the focus should be on three questions.  既然丰田已经明确表示打算在电动汽车领域竞争，那么它显然值得重新评估——尤其是因为像丰田这样财力雄厚、适应能力强的公司在危机模式下表现最佳。但与其关注固态电池，我们应该关注三个问题。

The first is whether the declared cultural change at the top of Toyota can be quickly and thoroughly transmitted down through the company. The second is whether it actually needs to be: kaizen — the Toyota-perfected process of continuous small improvements — got the company this far. It may not be the right formula at this moment of huge disruption but who is to say the magic will not return once EVs are the dominant life form? 首先是丰田公司高层宣称的文化变革能否迅速而彻底地传达到整个公司。其次是是否真的有必要这样做：改善（kaizen）是丰田公司完善的持续小改进的过程，它使公司走到了今天。在这个巨大颠覆的时刻，这可能不是正确的方案，但谁又能说一旦电动汽车成为主导生命形式，魔力就不会回归呢？

The third question is whether the meteoric rise of more streamlined players like Tesla has blinded markets to the long-term importance of Toyota’s global complexity and range of offering. The shift to EVs may have flattered the Tesla proposition that a small handful of models and a cars-are-just-iPhones-on-wheels attitude is right: in 10 years, the market may decide otherwise. 第三个问题是，像特斯拉这样的更加精简的参与者的迅猛崛起是否让市场对丰富多样的丰田全球复杂性和产品范围的长期重要性视而不见。转向电动汽车可能会使特斯拉的主张受到吹捧，即只有少数几款车型和一种“汽车只是装在轮子上的iPhone”的态度是正确的：在10年后，市场可能会有不同的决定。

沉浸式翻译查看双语原文：https://www.ft.com/content/ef48c3ec-6063-4aac-aa67-e0a6f66603ad