Tesla Motors’ first delivery of a car to a Chinese customer tomorrow will come in a week when electric vehicles are centre stage at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

特斯拉汽车公司(Tesla Motors)将于明日向中国客户交付第一辆汽车。与此同时，本周电动汽车将在北京国际汽车展览会占据中心舞台。

But the amount of attention lavished on the sector at the Beijing show belies a market in which fewer than 7,000 units were sold in the first quarter of the year, including about 4,100 electric vehicles and 2,750 hybrids. That compares with sales in Norway of 1,200 electric vehicles per month, helped by tax breaks and a network of free recharging stations.

但是，电动汽车在北京汽车展得到的关注掩盖了一个事实：今年首季中国市场仅售出不到7000辆此类车辆，包括大约4100辆电动车和2750辆混合动力车。相比之下，挪威在税收优惠和免费充电站网络的推动下，每月售出1200辆电动车。

In China, the government has also made a concerted effort to promote electric cars. However, the lack of supporting infrastructure continues to confound Beijing’s ambitions for the sector.

在中国，政府也付出协调一致的努力推广电动车。然而，缺乏配套基础设施的现实继续使北京方面在该领域的雄心受挫。

Tesla has only recently established a presence in China and is not participating in the Beijing auto show. Nevertheless, chief executive Elon Musk will be in town to hand over the keys to the first local buyer of his company’s premium electric cars.

特斯拉最近才建立中国业务，该公司并未参加本届北京汽车展。然而，首席执行官埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)将抵达北京，向购买该公司高档电动车的第一个本地买家亲手交出钥匙。

“A Tesla is, in a sense, not an electric vehicle. It is an expensive gadget that happens to be an electric vehicle,” says John Jullens, a Shanghai-based partner with Booz & Company. “Some people in China will buy it. But that’s very different from widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the mass market.”

“从某种意义上说，特斯拉并不是一款电动车。它是一种昂贵的小工具，恰好也是一辆电动车，”博斯公司(Booz & Company)驻上海合伙人朱利安(John Jullens)表示。“中国有些人会买它。但这与大众市场普遍接受电动车是非常不同的。”

Since 2009, Beijing and local governments have tried to boost sales by granting subsidies for “pure” electric cars as well as for plug-in hybrids with an electric range of more than 50km.

2009年以来，中国中央和地方政府都试图通过提供补贴来促进销售，这些补贴面向“纯”电动车和电动行驶距离超过50公里的插电式混合动力车。

But the vehicles have to be locally developed to qualify for subsidy support and customers remain wary, given the lack of a viable charging infrastructure. In March, Chinese utilities company State Grid Corp said it would welcome private investment in fast-charging stations for electric vehicles.

但是，获得补贴支持的车辆必须是本土研发的，同时顾客仍持谨慎态度，原因是缺乏可行的充电基础设施。今年3月，中国公用事业公司国家电网(State Grid Corp)表示，将欢迎民营资本投资于电动车快速充电站。

Its earlier insistence on slow-charging systems would have forced owners of electric cars to swap their depleted batteries for charged ones – a strategy complicated by different battery types and manufacturers’ determination to protect proprietary technologies.

此前国家电网坚持要求采用慢速充电系统，这一方案将迫使电动车车主用充电完毕的电池更换耗尽的电池——该战略存在一些复杂因素，包括电池类型各有不同，以及相关制造商都决心保护自己的专有技术。

“Most customers now have to charge at home overnight,” Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi director responsible for technical development, said. “There are not so many [public] charging stations and they need to be fast-charging – in half an hour or one hour.”

“多数顾客现在不得不在家里充电一整夜，”奥迪(Audi)负责技术开发的董事乌尔里希•哈肯贝格(Ulrich Hackenberg)表示。“没有那么多（公用）充电站，而且他们需要快速充电——在半小时或一小时内完成。”

Earlier this month, the Beijing municipal government announced that 12 property developers and car companies had signed agreements to co-operate on the installation of charging facilities at residential compounds and shopping malls.

北京市政府本月早些时候宣布，12家房地产开发商和汽车公司签署了在居民小区和商场安装充电设施的合作协议。

“Charging infrastructure is the critical factor for promoting electric vehicles,” says Dong Yang, general secretary of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. “But the industry’s development requires a lot of co-ordination.”

“充电基础设施是推广电动汽车的关键因素，”中国汽车工业协会(CAAM)秘书长董扬表示。“但是，这个行业的发展需要大量协调。”

Among the many companies promoting electric vehicles or hybrids at this week’s Beijing auto show are BMW, Daimler, Nissan and Volvo Cars. Daimler will be showing a car developed with BYD, the struggling Chinese car manufacturer that has Warren Buffett as an investor.

在本周的北京汽车展上，多家公司将推介自己的电动车或混合动力车，包括宝马(BMW)、戴姆勒(Daimler)、日产(Nissan)和沃尔沃汽车(Volvo Cars)。戴姆勒将展示与比亚迪(BYD)联手研发的一款车；比亚迪是一家陷入困境的中国汽车制造商，其投资者包括美国“股神”沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)。

As it waits for the electric vehicle market to take off, BYD’s sales of traditional cars fell 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, year-on-year, to just 100,300 units. “Buying an electric vehicle in the mass market is a very difficult proposition because it’s simply too expensive,” says Mr Jullens. “The subsidies . . . in China are not enough.”

在等待中国电动车市场起飞的同时，比亚迪2014年第一季度传统汽车销量同比下降30%，至区区10.03万辆。“在大众市场买电动汽车是一个非常困难的想法，因为这种车太贵了，”博斯公司的朱利安表示。“中国的这些补贴是不够的。”