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Electric air taxis to make their debut in Brazil’s most congested city
巴西圣保罗将推出“空中出租车”服务 价格或与的士相当
The skies over Latin America’s largest city are set to witness a futuristic aerospace revolution after the Brazilian airline Gol struck a deal that could see it ferry commuters around São Paulo in hundreds of low-cost zero-emission electric air taxis.
拉丁美洲最大城市圣保罗的上空将会见证一场未来主义航空革命。巴西戈尔航空公司日前达成了一项协议，将用数百架低成本零排放的电动空中的士搭载当地的通勤族。
Dómhnal Slattery, chief executive of the Dublin-based firm Avolon, which will provide the aircraft to Gol and recently placed an order for 500 of the aircraft from their British manufacturer, admitted helicopters were the “domain of the ultra wealthy”. Nowhere is that more true than in Brazil’s economic capital, where South America’s super-rich have long used them to hop between luxury beach properties, ranches and heavily guarded compounds.
向戈尔航空供应空中的士的都柏林公司阿沃隆最近刚从他们的英国生产商那里订购了500架飞机。阿沃隆的首席执行官多姆纳尔·斯莱特瑞承认，直升机过去是“超级富豪的专属”。在巴西的经济中心圣保罗更是如此，长时间以来南美的超级富豪一直乘坐直升机在豪华海边度假屋、农场和守卫森严的住宅区之间往返。
But the Avolon boss claimed the introduction of VA-X4 eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft to São Paulo would be a gamechanger for commuters once the taxis, which look like a futuristic cross between a helicopter and a glider, were delivered in late 2024 or 2025.
但是阿沃隆的首席执行官称，圣保罗引进VA-X4电动垂直起降飞机对通勤族而言将是改天换地的变革。这款未来风格的空中的士外形介于直升机和滑翔机之间，将于2024年底或2025年交付使用。
"Our basic estimate at the moment is that the operating cost here for this aircraft will be the equivalent of $1 per passenger over a 25-mile trip,” Slattery told the Financial Times. “We think we can get the cost of this down to the equivalent of an Uber ride, equivalent to downtown Manhattan to JFK.”
斯莱特瑞告诉《金融时报》说：“据我们目前粗略估算，这款飞机在圣保罗的运营成本相当于25英里范围内每名乘客1美元（约合人民币6元）。我们认为，我们可以把成本压到和优步出租车差不多的水平，相当于从曼哈顿市中心到肯尼迪国际机场的打车费。”
Few cities are crying out for such a revolution more than São Paulo, a sprawling metropolis with more than 12 million inhabitants and choked by a fleet of 8.6m vehicles.
像圣保罗这样急需出行方式变革的城市不多，圣保罗是一座无序扩张的大都市，居住人口高达1200多万，车辆多达860万。
In the late 1990s, the congestion became so bad in what is now the world’s fifth biggest city after Tokyo, Delhi, Seoul and Shanghai that authorities were forced to introduce a number plate rotation system for vehicles.
上世纪90年代末，圣保罗的交通堵塞变得十分严重，迫使政府引进了车牌尾号限行制度。圣保罗如今是世界第五大城市，仅次于东京、德里、首尔和上海。
Stephen Fitzpatrick, the head of the British aerospace manufacturer that produces the aircraft, Vertical Aerospace, said the flying taxis would be ideal for Brazil’s biggest city and will “transform how we travel around high population density cities that are clogged with traffic”.
这款飞机的英国飞机制造商垂直航空科技公司总裁史蒂芬·菲茨帕特里克说，这款空中的士非常适合圣保罗，而且会“变革我们在人口密度高、交通拥堵城市的出行方式”。
The Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace was founded in 2016 and promises to pioneer “a new era in vertical transport”.
位于布里斯托尔的垂直航空科技公司创立于2016年，承诺将率先开创“垂直交通的新时代”。
"We’ll be looking to Asia after São Paulo,” Avolon’s chief commercial officer, Paul Geaney, told Reuters.
阿沃隆的首席商务官保罗·吉尼告诉路透社说：“继圣保罗之后，我们将向亚洲进军。”
