Elon Musk¹, head of Tesla Motors, has sketched³ out a lofty and futuristic vision for his electric car company, as he sought to regain⁴ the initiative after recent setbacks to some of his most ambitious plans.

特斯拉汽车(Tesla Motors)董事长埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)为其电动汽车公司勾勒了崇高而充满未来色彩的图景。在部分最大胆计划近期遭遇挫折之后，他试图借此举重新获得主动性。

Writing on his company’s blog, Mr Musk on Wednesday laid out what he described as an update to the Tesla “master plan” he first published 10 years ago. It will involve Tesla expanding to make a full range of electric cars, buses and trucks, as well as a smartphone app through which Tesla owners will one day earn money by renting out their self-driving cars.

周三，马斯克在其公司博客上列出了他称之为特斯拉“总体规划”更新版的内容。特斯拉“总体规划”由他首次于十年前发布。这一更新版将令特斯拉向生产电动汽车、电动公交和电动卡车全系列产品扩张，还包括一个智能手机应用，特斯拉汽车所有者将从某日起可以通过该应用出租其自动驾驶汽车赚钱。

Though much of the plan was vague, echoing Mr Musk’s habit of teasing new ideas long before they come into production, he did reveal that Tesla was in the “early stages of development” on heavy-duty trucks and a new form of “high passenger-density urban transport”, with both likely to be unveiled next year.

该计划多数内容仍不够明确，重现了马斯克会将新创意炒作许久再投入生产的习惯。尽管如此，他确实披露特斯拉处于“开发”重型卡车和一种新形式“高乘客密度市政交通工具的早期阶段”，两者都可能于明年公布。

With its characteristic mix of vagueness, ambition and self-defensiveness, Mr Musk’s sketch² for a 10-year plan looked set to draw a sceptical reaction at a time when Tesla is facing mounting challenges.

马斯克行文的特色是将含糊不清、野心勃勃和自我防备混为一炉，在这个特斯拉面临挑战越来越大的时节，他对十年计划的描绘似乎注定会引起人们的怀疑。

“As is typical, Elon Musk has laid out a grandiose⁵ plan for the future with no time frames and few specifics, and no mention of how and when Tesla will be profitable,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst⁶ at Autotrader, a US car magazine.

美国汽车杂志Autotrader高级分析师米歇尔•克雷布斯(Michelle Krebs)表示：“和往常一样，埃隆•马斯克排出了宏伟的计划，却没有列出时间表和给出多少具体细节，也没提到特斯拉将如何盈利及何时盈利。”

Wednesday’s blog post came a month after Mr Musk ran into a wall of scepticism with an offer to buy SolarCity, the solar panel installation company of which he is chairman, for Tesla stock worth up to $3bn. Investors⁷ worried it would distract the company at a critical time, as it struggles to fix nagging⁸ production problems and accelerate a move to mass production of its next vehicle, the Model 3, by two years.

就在周三的博客文章发出一个月前，马斯克曾提出以价值总计30亿美元的特斯拉股票收购SolarCity的收购要约，引起了许多人的怀疑。SolarCity是一家太阳能电池板安装公司，马斯克是该公司董事长。投资者担心，在特斯拉竭力消除持续不断的生产问题并加速向下一款车型Model 3的大规模生产转型之际，马斯克此举会在关键时期把该公司注意力分散两年时间。