By KEITH BRADSHER April 23, 2013
中国家用轿车“大”行其道
KEITH BRADSHER 报道 2013年04月23日
SHANGHAI — The models wore traditional cheongsam dresses and medieval Chinese armor as well as the usual rainbow of shiny miniskirts at the Shanghai auto show this weekend, but the many midsize cars and sport utility vehicles on display made it look almost like an American auto show.上海——在这个周末的上海车展上，模特们穿着传统的旗袍、中古时期的中国盔甲，此外还有常见的五彩闪亮迷你短裙，但展出的大量中型车和SUV让此次车展看上去几乎像是一场美国汽车展。
Gone are the days when buyers in China, the world’s largest car market since 2009, mostly purchased fuel-sipping compacts and subcompacts. Their shift toward larger and ever-more-numerous vehicles is not only driving up China’s oil import bill and contributing to pollution but is also fattening automakers’ profits — and manufacturers made clear over the weekend that they plan to infuse the market with large vehicles.从2009年开始，中国成为全世界最大的汽车市场。中国消费者主要购买低油耗的紧凑型轿车和微型车的时代已经过去了。他们转而青睐更大型的汽车，拥有的汽车数量也越来越多，这抬高了中国在石油进口上的开支，加重了污染，但同时也为汽车制造商带来了利润。周末，这些汽车制造商明确表示，它们计划向中国市场输入大型车。
General Motors announced that it would introduce nine new or restyled S.U.V. models in China in the next five years, and disclosed that it would build four more factories and add 6,000 jobs to accommodate its ever-rising sales here.通用汽车(General Motors)宣布，将在未来五年里引入9款新的或重新设计过的SUV车型，并透露会增设4家工厂，增加6000个工作岗位，以适应中国市场不断增加的销量。
Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press
上海车展上的SUV。SUV在中国越发受欢迎。
A Chrysler executive said that his company would start making Jeep Cherokees in Changsha in southern China by the end of next year. And China’s domestic carmakers showed a wide range of S.U.V.’s, the heftier the better.克莱斯勒公司(Chrysler)的一名高管表示，他所在的公司将在明年年底前开始在中国南方的长沙制造吉普切诺基(Jeep Cherokee)。中国国内汽车制造者也展出了各种SUV，块头越大越好。
Sedans were also bigger than at previous Chinese auto shows. Ford promoted its Lincoln brand, which it is bringing to China. Many manufacturers gave prominence to luxury cars, a nod to the rising affluence in China of the upper middle class and the wealthy.展出的轿车也比以往中国车展上的大。福特(Ford)大力推销自己正在向中国推广的林肯品牌。许多制造商突出豪华车，以吸引中国中上层阶级和富人日益增加的财富。
“Our focus is on luxury vehicles and S.U.V.’s going forward,” said Bob Socia, president of G.M. China, which has been neck-and-neck for years with Volkswagen as the Chinese market leader.“我们的重点是豪华车，SUV也会继续发展，”通用汽车中国(GM China)公司总裁苏瑞博(Bob Socia)说。多年来，通用汽车中国一直和大众汽车势均力敌，争做中国汽车市场的领导者。
“Not long ago, both were considered niche segments,” he said. “Both are now mainstream and growing rapidly.”
不久前，豪华车和SUV还都被认为是很小的细分市场，”他说。“现在都成了主流市场，而且增长迅速。”
S.U.V. sales jumped 49 percent in March from a year ago as new models poured into the market. Overall auto sales in China climbed 13 percent in March and are on track for almost 21 million vehicles sold this year. By comparison, the latest forecasts in the United States this year are for a little more than 15 million vehicles. Both totals include sales of pickup trucks and other light commercial vehicles.
随着新车型的涌入，3月中国市场SUV的销量同去年相比上升49%。同月，中国汽车销售总量增加13%，而且中国今年的汽车销量可能会接近2100万辆。相比之下，最新的预测数据显示，美国今年的汽车销售量略高于1500万辆。这两个总销量数字均包括皮卡车和其他轻型商用车辆。
Mr. Socia predicted that S.U.V. sales would double by 2015, to four million vehicles. But that would still leave them trailing midsize car sales, which have surged to five million cars a year.
苏瑞博预计，到2015年前，SUV的销量将会翻番，达到400万辆。但即便有这样的销量，SUV依然落后于中型车，中型车的年销量已增至500万辆。
That has made midsize cars not only the largest market segment in China, but also bigger than the entire auto market in Japan, or the combined auto markets of Germany and Britain, said Jim Farley, Ford’s executive vice president for global marketing, sales and service and of the Lincoln brand.
福特负责全球营销、销售和服务的执行副总裁吉姆·法利(Jim Farley)表示，这不仅使中型车成了中国最大的细分市场，也让它比日本的整个汽车市场，或者德国和英国的汽车市场相加都大。法利也是林肯品牌的执行副总裁。
Having opened one assembly plant in Chongqing last year, Ford is in the process of building another assembly plant, an engine factory and a transmission factory in Chongqing, as well as assembly plants in Hangzhou and Nanchang.
福特已于去年在重庆开设了一家装配厂，目前正在重庆增建一家组装厂、一家发动机厂和一家变速器厂，同时还在正在杭州和南昌修建组装厂。
Ford is predicting that the annual Chinese market will soar to 30 million cars and trucks by 2020. General Motors is forecasting 35 million by 2022.福特预计，到2020年之前，中国汽车市场的年销量将飙升至3000万辆轿车和卡车。通用汽车则预测这一数字将为3500万。
Fuel consumption concerns in China often focus more on the sheer number of vehicles being sold than on the fuel economy of each one. But while China is a negligible market for the true behemoths that remain fairly popular in the United States, like the
Chevrolet Tahoe and the
Lincoln Navigator, the upward creep in vehicle size in China toward midsize cars and S.U.V.’s is complicating policy makers’ efforts to limit total oil use.在中国，对燃料消耗方面的担忧更多地集中在车辆的庞大数量上，较少关注每辆车的节油。尽管就真正的大型车而言，中国还是一个微不足道的市场，但中国消费者越来越喜欢体积大的车，青睐中型车和SUV，这使政策制定者在限制总油耗的问题上感到愈发棘手。真正的大型车，比如雪佛兰Tahoe和林肯领航员(Lincoln Navigator)，在美国依然很受欢迎。
S.U.V.’s and midsize cars in China tend to be a little smaller than in the United States. The S.U.V.’s are almost entirely what the auto industry refers to as crossover utility vehicles, which are built on car platforms instead of the heavier pickup truck underbodies that Detroit relied on in the 1980s and ’90s.中国的SUV和中型车往往要比美国的小一些。中国的SUV几乎完全是汽车业所说的城市多功能车(CUV)，这种车是以小汽车底盘为基础的，而不是以更重的皮卡车地盘，上世纪八、九十年代的底特律便是依赖皮卡车底部制造汽车的。
Midsize cars in China tend to be what are classified as lower midsize cars in the United States, like the
Ford Fusion, sold here as the Ford Mondeo. Upper midsize cars, like the
Toyota Camry, are also gaining ground but are not quite so popular.中国的中型车往往被美国归为偏小的中型车，比如福特Fusion，也就是在中国的福特蒙迪欧(Ford Mondeo)。较大型的中型车，比如丰田凯美瑞(Toyota Camry)，也正愈来愈受认可，不过还不是特别流行。
The shift toward bigger cars and S.U.V.’s, despite punitive taxes of as much as 40 percent on models with large engine displacements (more than 4 liters) is prompting concern in Beijing. Policy makers there are weighing whether to follow the example of the Obama administration and the European Union in increasing gas mileage regulations.尽管针对大排量汽车（超过四升）征收的惩罚性税费高达40%，消费者还是选择购买大型汽车及SUV，这种转变在北京引发担心。北京的政策制定者正在权衡是否应该效仿奥巴马政府和欧盟，强化有关油耗定额的管制。
Stricter rules could hurt sales of the largest models, but automakers have already been preparing by offering many cars and S.U.V.’s with slightly smaller engines than are used in the United States. “The most important discussion around this area is the changing fuel-economy requirements,” Mr. Farley said.更加严格的条例会影响大型汽车的销售，但汽车制造商已经开始准备提供很多装有小型发动机的汽车和SUV，这些发动机比美国汽车的发动机小一些。法利说，“这个领域最重要的议题就是不断变化的节能需求。
Much of the change in Chinese automotive tastes is culturally driven. Until the last few years, sport utility vehicles were dismissed as looking too much like farm vehicles, at a time when many recent Chinese arrivals in cities were eager to shed any link to their rural pasts.中国人汽车品味的变化主要是受文化的驱使。就在几年前，人们还认为SUV看起来太像农用车，不接受这种车，那时候很多刚进入城市的中国人渴望摆脱与农村生活的关联。
Hatchbacks were also unpopular, as a big glass window in the back of a vehicle instead of steel-enclosed trunk struck many buyers as unsafe, particularly after the crime waves that rolled through many Chinese cities in the 1980s and ’90s.掀背车也不受欢迎，汽车后部的大玻璃窗取代了钢铁外壳的封闭式旅行箱，这给人一种不安全的感觉，尤其是20世纪80、90年代中国许多城市犯罪率高企。
But public safety has improved in China, suburban and rural retreats from polluted cities have become fashionable and tens of millions of Chinese are now traveling overseas and becoming aware of the international popularity of higher-riding vehicles.但中国的公共安全情况已经有所改善，从污染城市撤出的郊区和农村居民变得非常时尚，现在有数千万中国人出国旅游，他们发觉那些底盘较高的汽车在国际上很受欢迎。
“S.U.V.’s were definitely uncool to drive here, and now something is changing — they’re cool,” said Michael Dunne, an automotive consultant specializing in Asia.专门研究亚洲市场的汽车顾问迈克尔·邓恩(Michael Dunne)说，“以前在中国开SUV绝对不是件时髦的事情，而现在情况发生了变化，它们成为一种时尚。”
Personal injury lawsuits from rollovers have been costly for S.U.V. manufacturers in the West, but such litigation tends to be very rare in China. Virtually all of the vehicles sold in China are manufactured either by Chinese automakers or, more often, by multinationals in joint manufacturing ventures with Chinese automakers. Most Chinese automakers in turn are owned by local governments that also have considerable control over local courts, making the automakers nearly invulnerable to private litigation.在西方，对于SUV制造商来说，翻车事故中个人伤害诉讼案的赔偿费非常高，但此类诉讼在中国往往非常少见。事实上，所有在中国出售的汽车都是由中国汽车制造商，或者经常是由与中国公司合资的跨国公司制造。而大多数中国汽车制造公司归当地政府所有，政府在很大程度上控制当地法院，这促使汽车制造商几乎不受个人诉讼的影响。
Air pollution has become a big issue in China, particularly after severe smog early this year in Beijing. But Western and Chinese studies have attributed most of the smog to coal-fired power plants, factories and diesel-powered trucks and buses, not gasoline-powered cars.在中国，空气污染已经成为一个大问题，特别是今年早些时候北京出现了几次严重的雾霾之后。但中西方的研究都将大部分雾霾天气归咎于煤电厂、工厂及柴油驱动的货车和公共汽车，而不是汽油驱动的汽车。
One question mark hanging over the auto industry is the Communist Party’s austerity and anticorruption campaign, in place since November. The campaign has hurt many luxury restaurants and some luxury retailers, especially in Beijing.中国共产党从去年11月发起的厉行节俭、反腐倡廉的行动让汽车行业遭受困扰。该行动已经给很多豪华餐厅和一些奢侈品零售店带来影响，这种影响在北京地区尤为明显。
But auto executives insisted that the program’s effects on their sector had been more muted. Torsten Müller-?tv?s, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd., said that sales in China of his company, a subsidiary of BMW, were up only slightly in recent months from a year earlier. But he attributed slower growth mainly to an inevitable stabilization of the Chinese luxury market as it has matured, not the austerity campaign.但汽车业高管们坚持说该行动对汽车行业的影响一直很小。劳斯莱斯汽车有限公司(Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd)的托尔斯滕·米勒-厄特沃什(Torsten Müller-?tv?s)表示，最近几个月，该公司——宝马公司(BMW)的子公司——在中国的销售量只比去年同期略有增加。但他认为增长缓慢主要是因为中国奢侈品市场已经成熟，不可避免地趋于稳定，而不是因为厉行节俭的行动。
“Growth isn’t any longer as explosive as it had been in the years before, but we are still satisfied,” he said, while declining to provide sales data for China. “Some potential customers are waiting a little bit to better understand what the government is doing.”“虽然增长不再像几年前那样迅猛，但我们仍然很满意，”他说，“一些潜在的客户要等一段时间，以更好地理解政府的举措。”但他拒绝提供该公司在中国的销售数据。
For now, manufacturers in China are so focused on the Chinese market that exports are limited and mainly aimed at other emerging markets, with little sign of large-scale shipments to industrialized countries. Mr. Socia of G.M. and other executives said that their factories could barely keep up with demand in China.目前，中国制造商主要关注中国市场，导致出口商品的数量有限，而且出口国家主要是其他新兴市场，几乎没有向工业化国家大量发货的迹象。苏瑞博及其他高管们表示，他们的工厂勉强能够满足中国的需求。
Chrysler is already starting to make the new
Jeep Cherokee in Toledo, Ohio, and is preparing to start initial production runs by the end of next year at a joint venture in Changsha. The Changsha factory already makes cars for Fiat, which holds a controlling stake in Chrysler.克莱斯勒公司已经开始在俄亥俄州托莱多生产新的吉普切诺基汽车，并准备从明年年底开始在长沙的一家合资企业大量生产这种汽车。这家长沙工厂为菲亚特(Fiat)制造汽车，菲亚特为克莱斯勒公司控股股东。
John Burton, the general manager of the Fiat and Chrysler joint venture with the Guangzhou Automobile Group, declined to speculate on where and whether the company might export Jeeps from China.菲亚特-克莱斯勒与广州汽车集团成立了合资企业，公司总经理伯恩翰(John Burton)拒绝推测该公司是否可能出口中国生产的吉普车，以及向何处出口。
“Potentially we could,” he said, “but if the Chinese market sucks them up then they’ll stay here.”
“我们很可能这么做，”他说，“但如果中国市场能够消化这些汽车，那我们就不会出口。”
翻译：陈亦亭、许欣
