特斯拉召回事關重大

????身為年輕的電動汽車制造商特斯拉汽車公司（Tesla Motors）的首席執行官，埃隆?穆斯克根本無暇休息。

????去年年初，特斯拉遭到《紐約時報》（New York Times）一位作者的抨擊。這位作者指責特斯拉的車無法經受住美國東北部冬季惡劣天氣的考驗。隨著公司股價因這篇報道大幅下挫，穆斯克開始公開譴責《紐約時報》有意歪曲報道該公司的試駕過程。

????幾個月前，三輛特斯拉電動車在發生碰撞后分別起火。由于這幾起事故間隔時間很短——只有兩個月，因此美國國家公路交通安全局（National Highway Traffic Safety Administration）開始介入調查。

????因此意料之中的是，本周特斯拉因為召回事件再次深陷輿論漩渦。這次召回（從技術上說，就是一次無線軟件升級）涉及到29,000個2013款Model S電動車的充電適配器。這些設備的主要風險在于可能引發火災。

????盡管這件事三天前就已經公之于眾了，但媒體直到今天才抓住它大做文章，因為今天正好是底特律北美國際車展正式開幕的第二天。所以就有了現在這出戲：關于特斯拉深陷危機的報道鋪天蓋地，哪怕這次升級實際上影響到的特斯拉電動車似乎還不到3%（不過這一次，這家公司的股價沒有受到沖擊。召回事件見諸媒體后，它反而帶來了遠高于預期的銷量，并有望推動銷量迅猛增長）。

????五年來，穆斯克和他的公司一直在打一場持久戰——不是為了汽車動力系統的未來而戰，而是為了掌控公司在媒體上的形象而戰。事實上，這是穆斯克成為汽車業媒體寵兒時所簽下的魔鬼契約的部分后果：在媒體上頻頻露面并不總是好事。

????問題在于：特斯拉公司與媒體愛恨交加的關系綁架了人們圍繞電動汽車的整體討論。很多人對電動汽車的擔憂是實實在在的，因為這種車的性能現在確實不如汽油車。它們開著開著就會沒電，把乘客們撂在路上。一出事故它們就會起火，甚至充電時也會起火。

????但多數人所不知道或故意忽視的是，汽油車也會動力不足，沒油或是起火。而且每年都會有一定數量的汽油車出現這些情況。

????這種情況穆斯克當然心知肚明。他對人們對電動汽車先入為主的成見很在意——撇開原則不說，它會直接影響他生意的成敗。最近，通用汽車公司（General Motors）剛剛召回了37萬輛汽油皮卡，因為這些車的軟件可能引發自燃，而且確實發生了至少八起自燃事件。盡管如此，真正站在媒體聚光燈下遭到千夫所指、滿頭大汗的卻還是特斯拉公司。通用召回的汽車數量是特斯拉2014年預期銷量的十幾倍，但通用及其汽車在購車者心目中卻不太可能和自燃風險扯上關系。這就是為何特斯拉的召回規模雖小，影響卻極為重大的根本原因。

????不過請注意，不是說因此就要和通用汽車大干一場。我們只是呼吁大家對特斯拉及其電動汽車同行要高抬貴手一點，不要那么苛刻?？紤]到發生故障車輛的實際數字，這種請求并不過分。

????特斯拉第一輛電動車下線時，它并不需要費勁氣力向第一批來自硅谷的富豪買家證明，電動汽車才是未來交通工具的代表，因為這些買家早就對此深信不疑。不過如果特斯拉想要最終征服大眾市場，它就必須讓大家相信，它現在的這些技術故障實屬平常，而且實際上它的故障率已經優于行業平均水平。（財富中文網）

????譯者：清遠???

????Elon Musk, chief executive of the young electric automaker Tesla Motors (TSLA), can't catch a break.

????Early last year, Tesla came under fire by a New York Times writer for producing vehicles that weren't up to the difficulties of driving in a winter in the northeastern U.S. With his company's stock slipping, Musk took the Times to task publicly for misrepresenting its test drive.

????Several months ago, three separate Tesla vehicles caught fire after involvement in a collision. The brief window in which they occurred -- just two months -- spurred the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an inquiry.

????So it comes as no surprise, then, that the company is in hot water again this week for issuing a recall (technically, an over-the-air software update) concerning 29,000 charging adapters for its 2013 Model S electric cars. The risk?Potential fire hazard.

????Though the issue was first made public three days prior, the press latched onto the news today, one day after the official opening of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. And so it goes: wall-to-wall coverage of Tesla's troubles, even though the update appears to affect fewer than 3% of its vehicles. (This time, the company's stock remains unaffected. It helps to post higher-than-expected sales and promise "reckless growth" shortly after making a recall public.)

????For five years, Musk and company have been waging a war not over the future of the automotive powertrain but control over the company's narrative. It's a part of the devil's bargain Musk struck when he became the industry's media darling: lots of press doesn't necessarily guarantee that it will be good.

????Here's the problem: The company's love-hate relationship with the press is hijacking the conversation around electric vehicles as a whole. For many people, fear about electric cars is real: They can't perform as well as gasoline-powered vehicles. They'll run out of charge and strand their passengers. They'll catch fire when involved in an accident. They'll catch fire when they're charging.

????What they don't know or choose to ignore: that gasoline-powered cars can be underpowered, under-fueled and catch fire, too. And a small number do, every year.

????Musk knows this. He's sensitive about the preconceptions people have about electric vehicles -- principles aside, it directly affects the success of his business. Yet it's still his company sweating in the limelight, even as General Motors (GM) works its way through a recent recall of 370,000 gasoline-powered trucks for a software-derived fire hazard blamed for at least eight known fires. That's more than 10 times the number of vehicles Tesla hopes to sell in 2014, though it's unlikely that GM or its vehicles will be closely associated with risk of fire in the minds of buyers. Which is why Tesla's tiny recall really matters.

????This isn't a call to arms against GM, mind you. It's a suggestion to be a little easier on Tesla and its electric-powered peers. Based on the numbers, it's only fair.

????When its first vehicles rolled off the production line, Tesla didn't need to make a strong case to its initial well-heeled, Silicon Valley-based customers that electric cars were the future; they were already converts. If Tesla hopes to succeed as an eventual electric automaker to the masses, it must convince people that its technical troubles are not unusual, but in fact better than the industry average.