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Conventional wisdom holds that battery-powered cars are the future of motoring.
傳統觀點認為，電池驅動汽車是汽車駕駛的未來。
But Hyundai, a big South Korean vehicle-maker, is not so sure.
但是韓國大型汽車制造商現代汽車卻不這么認為。
Over the past few months it has been running a worldwide public-relations campaign
在過去幾個月，該公司一直在進行全球性的公關活動，
extolling the virtues of an alternative source of electrical power—fuel cells.
吹捧一種可替代電源——燃料電池的優點。
Instead of storing and then releasing electricity gathered from the mains in the way that a battery does,
電池是儲存并釋放從電源收集的電力，和電池不同，
a fuel cell generates current from a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen comes from the air.
燃料電池通過氫和氧之間的化學反應產生電流。氧氣來自空氣。
The hydrogen, suitably compressed, is stored in a tank on board the vehicle, and is replenished at a filling station, like petrol.
經過適當壓縮的氫氣被儲存在車輛上的油箱內，并在加油站加氣，就像加汽油一樣。
Unlike a battery, a fuel cell does create exhaust. But that exhaust is simply the reaction product of hydrogen and oxygen, namely water.
和電池不用，燃料電池確實會產生廢氣。但這種廢氣只是氫和氧的反應產物，即水。
Hyundai's campaign features members of BTS, a mop-topped South Korean boyband,
現代汽車的廣告代言人是BTS的成員，BTS是韓國男團
staring dreamily into the middle distance amid backdrops of natural beauty. As a reminder of fuel cells' environmental advantages, water is everywhere.
成員們在自然美景的背景下，凝視著遠方。為了暗示燃料電池的環境優勢，水無處不自。
It falls as snow. It roils in oceans. It floats gently through forests as mist.
它像雪一樣落下。它在海洋中激蕩。它像薄霧般在森林中緩緩飄過。
The marketing may be silly, but Hyundai is serious. The firm already sells battery-powered vehicles,
這種市場營銷可能有些愚蠢，但韓國現代是認真的。該公司已經開始銷售電動汽車，
but it is hedging its low-carbon bets by developing hydrogen ones as well.
但它還通過開發氫汽車來避免其低碳投資的損失。
The advertising campaign is designed to sell the Nexo, the firm's second fuel-cell car, which was launched last year.
該廣告活動是為了銷售Nexo，該公司在去年推出的第二款燃料電池汽車。
And Hyundai is not the only company keeping its options open in this way.
現代并不是唯一一家以這種方式公開其方案的公司。
On June 5th Toyota, maker of the Prius, the world's best selling battery-hybrid vehicle,
6月5日，全球最暢銷混合電動汽車，普銳斯的制造商豐田宣布
announced a joint venture with several Chinese carmakers to develop fuel-cell technology.
與幾家中國汽車制造商成立合資企業，開發燃料電池技術。
An updated version of Toyota's Mirai, another hydrogen-powered car, is due out later this year.
豐田旗下另一款氫汽車Mirai的升級版將于今年晚些時候推出。
Hydrogen is enjoying a purple patch, then, and not just among carmakers.
氫氣不僅只在汽車制造商中享有盛譽。
It is being touted as a means of propelling buses and lorries, and even ships and aircraft.
它被吹捧為推動公共汽車和卡車，甚至船舶和飛機的一種手段。
There is talk of it replacing natural gas as a source of heat, of it being used to store the surplus output of solar and wind power stations,
有說它可以替代天然氣成為一種熱源，可以被用來儲存太陽能和風力發電站的剩余產出，
of it being employed as a chemical feedstock and even of it replacing coke as a means of extracting metallic iron from its ore.
可以被用作一種化工原料，甚至可以替代焦炭成為從礦石中提取金屬鐵的一種方式。
If all this came to pass, then hydrogen would become a dominating factor in human life in the way that hydrocarbons currently are.
如果這一切都實現了，氫就會像現在的碳氫化合物一樣成為人類生活中的一個主導因素。
It would, in other words, usher in a hydrogen economy.
換句話說，它將會開辟一個氫能經濟。
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