Last Wednesday, Tesla Inc. displaced Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s most valuable automaker, underscoring investor enthusiasm for a company trying to transform an industry that has relied on internal combustion engines for more than 130 years.
Tesla Inc.’s market value also surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp.’s last Tuesday in a sign that investors are increasingly betting on a global energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Exxon is the world’s second biggest energy company after Saudi state-controlled oil giant Aramco went public late last year.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
Shares of Tesla, which have more than doubled since the start of the year, climbed as much as 3.5 percent in intraday trading last Wednesday, giving it a market capitalization of US$207.2 billion, surpassing Toyota’s US$201.9 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has ignored or broken many of the established auto industry’s rules and norms in the 10 years since he took Tesla public, selling cars online and assembling vehicles in high-cost California. But while his company’s value has soared, there remains a gulf in the scale of his company and the world’s biggest car manufacturers.
Tesla produced 103,000 vehicles in the first quarter, or about 4 percent of the almost 2.4 million made by Toyota, which built its brand on affordability and reliability backed by innovations in large-scale manufacturing.
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
Tesla became the world’s second most valuable automaker in January, when it surpassed Volkswagen AG. It is now worth more than twice the German giant.
After pioneering gas-electric vehicles with the Prius hybrid, Toyota was late to shift to fully electric autos and has wagered heavily on hydrogen fuel cells. The company is now making a series of high-profile investments in electric vehicles (EVs) and self-driving cars. The manufacturer has forecast an 80 percent plunge in profit this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and expects it could take until the first half of next year before the auto market recovers to pre-pandemic levels.
The market for electric vehicles is forecast to increase to 10 percent of global passenger vehicle sales by 2025, 28 percent in 2030 and 58 percent by 2040, according to a May 19 report by BloombergNEF.
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
(Bloomberg)
特斯拉上週三取代豐田汽車，成為全球市值最高的汽車製造商，凸顯投資人對一家嘗試為倚賴內燃機超過一百三十年之汽車工業帶來轉型的公司非常有興趣。
特斯拉的市值在上週二也已超過石油巨擘埃克森美孚，此跡象顯示有越來越多投資人押注在淘汰化石燃料的全球能源轉型。
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
埃克森美孚是世界第二大能源公司，僅次於去年底上市的沙烏地阿拉伯國有石油巨頭阿美公司。
自今年初以來，特斯拉的股價已翻漲了一倍多。在上週三的盤中交易，特斯拉的股價上漲了三點五個百分點，使其市值達到兩千零七十二億美元，超越了豐田的兩千零十九億美元。
汽車業已建立的許多規則與常態，在特斯拉上市以來的十年間，都被執行長伊隆‧馬斯克置若罔顧或打破了。馬斯克在網路上賣車，並在高成本的美國加州組裝車輛。他的公司雖然市值飛漲，但特斯拉之規模與全球最大的一些汽車製造商相比，仍有很大的落差。
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
特斯拉在第一季生產了十萬零三千輛車，約為豐田近兩百四十萬輛之生產量的百分之四。豐田的汽車以民眾買得起、性能可靠而著名，其創新技術可被大量製造。
特斯拉在一月份超越大眾汽車，成為市值全球第二之汽車製造商。現在特斯拉的市值是這家德國汽車巨頭的兩倍多。
豐田以Prius混合動力汽車開創了油電複合動力車之先河，卻很慢才轉向純電動車，它先前投入大量資源押注的是氫燃料電池。豐田目前正對電動車及自動駕駛汽車進行一系列引人注目的投資。由於武漢肺炎（新冠病毒病，COVID-19）的影響，豐田預測今年其營收將大減百分之八十，並預計車市要到明年上半年才能夠恢復到疫情爆發前之水準。
Photo:EPA-EFE 照片：歐新社
彭博新能源財經在五月十九日的報告中預測，到了二○二五年，電動車之市場將擴大到佔全球乘用車市場的百分之十，到二○三○年將佔百分之二十八，到了二○四○年，將達到百分之五十八。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
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Questions
1. Describe how Tesla differs from traditional auto makers in terms of the types of energy consumed, factory location and sales channels.
2. Where is the battery pack installed in a Tesla electric car? What is the benefit of this placement?
3. Which part(s) can you find in an electric car: battery, exhaust pipe, fuel tank cap?
4. What is the significance of Tesla’s market value surpassing that of Toyota and Exxon?
(Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
In today’s digital age, every click and swipe generates data, and the need for reliable and efficient data management has become critical. This is where data centers come into play. Data centers include servers, storage drives, networking equipment, and other hardware to manage, process, and store vast amounts of digital information. __1__ For that reason, some companies are pursuing an unusual idea: placing data centers under the surface of the ocean. What makes underwater data centers cheaper than traditional land-based ones? For one thing, the cool temperature of the ocean means that companies can cut down on the high cost of
A: Apart from BTS’ J-Hope and EXO’s Xiumin, Hong Kong singer Eason Chan is holding six concerts in Kaohsiung. B: And versatile British musician Jacob Collier is visiting Taiwan for the first time, performing in New Taipei City tonight. A: US singer Lauv and rock band LANY will also stage individual shows in Kaohsiung next week. B: Plus, Singaporean singer JJ Lin will hold two concerts at the Taipei Dome in early June. A: Which show are you going to? A: 除了BTS的J-Hope和EXO的Xiumin，香港歌王陳奕迅正在高雄熱唱6場。 B: 而多才多藝的英國歌手雅各柯里爾首度訪台，今晚即將在新北開唱！ A: 美國歌手洛夫、搖滾樂團藍尼下週也分別在高雄演出。 B: 此外新加坡歌王林俊傑則將於6月初，首次挑戰台北大巨蛋嗨唱兩場。 A: 你想去聽誰的演唱會？ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張迪）
US President Donald Trump on Monday last week signed the TAKE IT DOWN ACT (Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act), bipartisan legislation that enacts stricter penalties for the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery, sometimes called “revenge porn,” as well as deepfakes created by artificial intelligence. The measure, which goes into effect immediately, was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and later gained the support of First Lady Melania Trump. Critics of the measure, which addresses both real and artificial intelligence-generated imagery, say
1. 我不夠快。 ˇ I wasn’t fast enough. χ I wasn’t enough fast. 註：enough用作副詞時，一般放在它修飾的形容詞或其他副詞後面。例如： The tea is hot enough.（茶是夠熱。） He did not work hard enough.（他不夠用功。） 但enough用作形容詞時，前置或後置都可以。例如： There is enough food (/food enough) for us. 2. 今晚七時我們將開董事會。 ˇ We are having a board meeting at seven o’clock this evening. ˇ We are having a board meeting this evening, at seven o’clock. χ We are having a board meeting this evening at seven o’clock. 註：如果有多個時間副詞，一般單位大的放在單位小的後面。例如： I was born in May 1939. The meeting was held at five o’clock yesterday afternoon. 但如果大的單位是說話者強調的重點，則可以放在前面，但後面要有逗號，表示停頓。例如： He arrived yesterday afternoon, at about five o’clock. 3. 我生於麻州波士頓。 ˇ I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. χ I was born in Massachusetts, Boston. 註：一般而言，地點副詞的位置，範圍大的放在範圍小的後面。例如： Before
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