印度式兼并：原封不动

Indian-Style Mergers: Buy A Brand, Leave It Alone

2008年03月24日18:50

福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)旗下的捷豹(Jaguar)和陆虎(Land Rover)两大品牌或许看上去会成为一场变革的刀下“鱼肉”。然而，估计将在接下来这周斥资20亿美元收购这两个品牌的印度塔塔汽车(Tata Motors Ltd.)实际上很可能会用不同的方式对待它们，那便是：原封不动。

Ford Motor Co.'s Jaguar and Land Rover brands might seem ripe candidates for a radical overhaul and a swift swing of the ax. Instead, India's Tata Motors Ltd., which is expected to formally agree to buy the brands in the coming week for $2 billion, likely will take a different approach: Do next to nothing.

塔塔汽车希望的不是从这两个长期亏损的品牌中榨取利润，而是利用这它们的管理团队和员工、吸取他们的经验，进而推动自己的汽车业务向国际扩张。

Rather than seeking to wring profits out of two luxury automotive brands that frequently have lost money, Tata is looking to learn from them to help launch its own global expansion in autos, using the brands' own management team and a full roster of employees.

塔塔汽车看中的是这两个品牌的经验、技术和销售网络。虽然它们一直受到制造成本高昂和其他问题困扰，但看上去塔塔汽车并未将短期损失放在心上。

Tata sees benefits from their knowledge, their technology and their sales networks. Although the brands have been plagued by high manufacturing costs and other difficulties, Tata doesn't seem concerned about short-term losses.

塔塔汽车最后可能会将捷豹和陆虎两个品牌引入印度，而对外出口自有品牌汽车。该公司期望，其自有品牌长期而言能创造利润。要知道，收购要比白手起家打造国际品牌更划算。这种策略在印度公司中间很常见。不过，这是头一次有印度公司打算将国内市场的快速增长力转化成向国际扩张的动力。这是一种正在形成的印度式的并购思路。

Eventually, it may bring Jaguars and Land Rovers to India and sell its own cars overseas, which the company hopes will translate into profits over the longer term. An acquisition is less expensive than creating a global brand from scratch. This approach is common for Indian companies that, for the first time, are seeking to translate fast growth at home into an international presence. It is coming to define mergers and acquisitions, Indian-style.

印度Essar Global Ltd.去年斥资17亿美元收购加拿大的Algoma Steel Inc.后保留了后者的管理层和供应商。Essar Global非但没有实施大裁员、将工作岗位转移到印度，反而给了他们提升。此外，Essar Global还向Algoma Steel派出不少董事去取经。

India's Essar Global Ltd. last year paid more than $1.7 billion to acquire Canada's Algoma Steel Inc. and kept its management and its suppliers. Far from laying off employees and sending their jobs to India, Essar gave them a raise. Meanwhile, it sent a few directors to Canada to learn from the company.

高科技和外包公司Infosys Technologies Ltd.设置了20亿美元收购专项资金，但只有在得到收购目标现有管理层欢迎并愿意合作的情况下才会出手。

Technology and outsourcing company Infosys Technologies Ltd. has $2 billion set aside for acquisitions, but will buy only when it is welcomed by, and can work with, the current management of targets.

印度最大的汽车零配件厂商Bharat Forge Ltd.在欧美进行了多宗小规模并购，但都没有对这些公司大动干戈。

Bharat Forge Ltd., one of India's largest auto-parts makers, has made many small acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe and done little to shake them up.

普华永道(PriceWaterhouseCoopers)咨询和税务全球执行合伙人吉恩?唐纳利(Gene Donnelly)表示，印度公司及其文化显示出一种不愿大动干戈的倾向性，若换作是一家西方公司，便会单刀直入的要求压缩成本。唐纳利曾为许多印度公司担任并购事务顾问。

'Indian companies and culture show a tendency not to come in and turn things upside down,' said Gene Donnelly, global managing partner for advisory and tax at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, who has helped advise many India companies on how to deal with mergers and acquisitions. 'A Western acquirer goes in and says, 'I need to take costs out.''

印度的高科技巨擎维布络(Wipro Technologies)最近几年斥资逾10亿美元开展海外并购，他们希望自己的收购对象能“教”给他们一些东西，比如说如何了解当地文化、顾客的购买习惯以及员工对休假的期望等等。

Tech giant Wipro Technologies, which has spent more than $1 billion on overseas acquisitions in the past few years, looks in part to its new takeover targets to teach it things, like how to understand local culture, the buying habits of customers, or the expectations employees will have about vacation.

许多时候，维布络会安排被收购公司的经理们去管理旗下更大的部门。以提姆?马特拉克(Tim Matlack)为例，他原担任American Management Systems Inc.的能源和公用事业咨询业务经理，维布络于2001年收购了该公司，而如今他主管着维布络的全球咨询业务。

In many cases, managers later are given a larger part of the Wipro Ltd. unit to run. For example, Tim Matlack, who headed the energy and utilities consultancy business of American Management Systems Inc., which Wipro bought in 2001, now heads up Wipro Technologies' global consulting business.

维布络并购事务总监Lakshminarayana称，在公司看来，让原有团队继续管理业务无论从文化上、战略上、某些情况下还有技术上都非常重要。

'From our point of view, it's important; culturally, strategically, sometimes even technologically and of course, financially to get the team to continue to run that business,' said Lakshminarayana, chief strategy and M&A officer for Wipro Technologies (who goes by one name).

上图为Tata董事长和“人民汽车”Nano的合影；下图为Tata集团在孟买的总部大楼作为印度工业的王牌企业，活跃在国际并购市场的塔塔集团(Tata Group)在孕育这种并购理念方面所发挥的作用之大在印度市场无出其右者。身兼塔塔汽车和塔塔集团控股公司塔塔之子(Tata Sons Ltd.)董事长的拉坦?塔塔(Ratan Tata)最近接受专访时表示，我们在收购一家公司后会尽力让管理层维持原样，我们为自己能够激励管理层的能力感到自豪。

No company has played a greater role in crafting that approach to acquisitions than Tata Group, India's flagship industrial conglomerate and most active international acquirer. 'We have sought to keep management in place after we acquire a company,' Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors as well as Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company for the conglomerate, said in a recent interview. 'We pride ourselves on our ability to motivate management's plans.'

塔塔集团在国际上的第一次大规模收购发生在2000年，其旗下的Tata Tea Ltd.将英国最大的茶饮料品牌特立(Tetley Tea)收入囊中。

One of the first major international acquisitions by an Indian company was Tata Tea Ltd.'s takeover of one of the U.K.'s biggest tea brands, Tetley Tea, in 2000.

至今特立公司没有一位董事或高管被要求离开公司。而且，塔塔还向特立派出经理学习茶叶采购、品牌宣传和开辟新市场方面的知识和经验。至于Tata Tea，则向特立提供更多资金，协助后者通过自己的收购扩张业务。

To this day, no Tetley directors or senior management have been asked to leave. Tata, instead, has sent its managers to work for Tetley and learn about tea buying and branding and exporting to new markets. Tata Tea, for its part has invested more money in Tetley and helped it expand through its own acquisitions.

Tata Tea副董事长R. K.克利须纳?库马(R. K. Krishna Kumar)表示，专家告诉我们必须对收购的企业进行重新洗牌，但我们并没如此。可能有人会认为我们是在做蠢事。有时候，一场收购也会对收购方造成同样的影响。

'Experts say you have to slash, burn, cut and we have not. People might say that is foolish,' says R. K. Krishna Kumar, vice chairman of Tata Tea. 'Sometimes acquisitions should have an equivalent impact on the acquiring company.'

库马表示，Tata Tea从特立身上所学到了要保证产品质量统一这一点，并将之应用到所有的茶饮品牌身上。Tata Tea还协助特立品牌扩展新市场，例如邻国巴基斯坦和孟加拉国。

He says Tata Tea has applied what it learned from Tetley about making quality consistent for all its tea brands. It has also taken the Tetley brand to new markets, like neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.

塔塔集团另一家子公司Tata Steel Ltd.去年斥资约120亿美元收购了英荷钢铁公司Corus Group PLC，并原封不动的保留了后者的管理团队和雇员。Tata Steel希望通过这笔交易学习优质钢材冶炼方法，来满足需求激增的印度汽车行业的需要。

Another Tata company, Tata Steel Ltd., bought the Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus Group PLC last year for around $12 billion, leaving its management team intact and retaining its employees. From the Corus deal, Tata Steel plans to learn about making higher-quality steel for the booming automotive industry in India.

然而，也有一些人对塔塔汽车能否消化这次收购表示怀疑。塔塔汽车是一家廉价汽车和卡车生产商，其产品包括单价2,500美元的“人民汽车”Nano。美国基金公司Cabot Money Management总裁兼首席投资长罗伯特?拉茨(Robert Lutts)表示，塔塔目前生产的汽车“基本上就是一大堆螺母螺钉”。拉茨是塔塔的投资者之一，目前管理着5亿美元的资产。

Still, some are skeptical about the latest potential acquisition by Tata Motors, maker of inexpensive cars and trucks, including the $2,500 'people's car' called the Nano. Tata's current vehicles are 'basic nuts and bolts,' says Robert Lutts, a Tata shareholder who manages about $500 million as president and chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass.

拉茨称，塔塔如果插手捷豹和陆虎，将有可能犯下大错......豪华车业务是块非常难啃的骨头。

'Once you get into Jaguar/Land Rover, you can make big mistakes . . . The luxury business is very fickle.'

左图为2008款捷豹 XJ； 右图为不过塔塔的并购理念让它在与私人股权收购公司竞购捷豹和陆虎时占了上风。英国工会Unite的管理人士罗杰?麦迪逊(Roger Maddison)表示，当他与其他工人代表了解到塔塔收购捷豹和陆虎的兴趣所在时，顿时松了一口气。

Tata Motors' approach gave it an edge over competing private-equity firms looking at Land Rover and Jaguar. Roger Maddison, an official with the U.K. trade union Unite, said that when he and other labor representatives first learned of Tata's interest in the auto brands, they were relieved.

工会要求塔塔保证不会通过从印度采购某些零配件的方式来削减成本。在英国，除了捷豹和陆虎直接雇佣的大约1.6万名工人外，另有多达4万名工人为这两个品牌的供应商工作。

The unions asked for assurances that Tata wouldn't cut costs in the U.K. by outsourcing assembly of certain components to India. As many as 40,000 jobs in the U.K. -- mainly in the supplier industry -- depend on the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. That doesn't include the roughly 16,000 people that Jaguar and Land Rover directly employ.

麦迪逊回忆起去年11月与塔塔汽车高管在伦敦的会面时称，我们当时直言不讳的问道：“很明显我们对你们在亚洲庞大的零配件基地感到担心，你们是否会从亚洲采购零配件运到英国来？”他们也直截了当的回答道：“绝不会。”

During a London meeting with Tata Motors executives in November, Mr. Maddison recalls, 'We came straight down and said 'We've obviously got fears that you've got a massive component base across Asia. Would it be your intention to source from Asia into the U.K.?' They hit it straight back and told us 'No way.''

麦迪逊表示，其他竞购捷豹和陆虎的私人股权投资公司也表示会尽量控制裁员规模。但塔塔汽车凭藉其过往历史赢得了工会的支持。

He said the other private-equity bidders also said they would try to limit layoffs, but the unions support Tata Motors because of its history.

Eric Bellman /Jackie Range

http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080324/ffe190952.asp

部分发往中国的铁矿石遭遇延迟

Some Iron Ore Delayed On Way To China

2008年03月20日10:01

最近，部分发往中国的铁矿石显然遭遇障碍，而眼下中国钢铁生产商与全球最大矿业巨头间的铁矿石价格谈判正在紧张进行中。

Some shipments of iron ore into China are apparently running into snags, as China's steelmakers enter into tense negotiations with the world's mining giants over the price of the key material.

一位了解情况的高层管理人员透露，必和必拓(BHP Billiton Ltd.)和力拓股份有限公司(Rio Tinto PLC)的部分铁矿石发货被延迟，而印度甚至一些其他澳大利亚公司的铁矿石却顺利抵达目的地。这位人士说，这明显是为了给目前的铁矿石谈判制造一些压力。

Some shipments of iron ore from BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are being delayed as iron ore from Indian and even other Australian companies are getting through, an executive familiar with the situation said. 'It's clearly aimed at creating some pressure around the iron-ore negotiations,' the executive said.

中国商务部(Ministry of Commerce)的一位官员否认了存在故意延迟发放进口许可的做法。他说，他无法对子虚乌有的事情作出回应。

An official at the Ministry of Commerce denied there was any deliberate delay in issuing import permits: 'How can I respond to something which isn't happening?' the official said.

目前，作为全球最大铁矿石出口商的澳大利亚矿业公司正在努力说服亚洲钢铁生产商接受铁矿石长期供应合同提价71%以上的提议。去年的涨价幅度与此类似，但是今年的大环境略有不同，中国等国家正为控制国内的通货膨胀而焦头烂额，全球经济面临陷入衰退的风险。

The latest row comes as Australian miners, the world's biggest iron-ore exporters, are trying to negotiate at least a 71% price increase for long-term contracts with Asian steel mills. The increase comes after similarly high increases last year and as countries like China are increasingly worried about controlling domestic inflation and a global recession.

中国最大的钢铁生产商宝钢集团有限公司(Baosteel Group Corp.)已经与巴西淡水河谷公司(Companhia Vale do Rio Doce)达成协议，同意将从后者采购的铁矿石价格提高65%-71%。但是澳大利亚矿业公司称，由于承担了较大比例的运输成本，他们应该获得更大的涨价幅度。

Baosteel Group Corp., China's biggest steel producer, has already agreed to a price increase of 65% to 71% for the iron ore it buys from Brazilian Cia. Vale do Rio Doce. Typically that sets a global benchmark. But Australian miners say they should get a bigger increase since since they are paying a bigger share of the transportation costs.

相对于通过长期合同锁定铁矿石供应的大型中国钢铁生产商，铁矿石发货的延迟对规模较小的钢铁生产商可能会产生更大的影响，因为后者往往更加依赖铁矿石现货供应。

The delays may be having a disproportionately bigger impact on smaller Chinese steelmakers, which tend to rely more on buying spot shipments of iron ore, than on the larger companies, which sign long-term contracts for their supplies.

此外，中国已经对必和必拓试图收购力拓感到紧张不安，因为这笔交易会使得中国发展所急需的铁矿石供应掌握在一家巨无霸公司的手中。中国铝业股份有限公司 (Aluminum Corp. of China)与美国铝业公司(Alcoa Inc.)已联手收购了力拓的部分股份，大多数分析师认为，这一举措是为了阻碍必和必拓的收购进程。

China is already nervous about BHP's attempt to take over Rio, since that would concentrate in the hands of one megacompany an enormous amount of the iron ore the country desperately needs. Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, joined with U.S.'s Alcoa Inc. to buy a stake in Rio, and most analysts believe that was done to block BHP's bid.

Shai Oster

http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080320/bch101302.asp

日产汽车欲借新概念汽车打动年轻用户

Nissan Going To Extremes To Lure Youth Back To Cars

2008年02月29日11:50

在年轻人云集的东京原宿，日产汽车(Nissan Motor Co.)的11名设计师梦想着能够开发出能够侧向驾驶，装备着会说话的机器人的轿车，以及另一种具有运动酒吧风格的轿车。日本年轻人对汽车的兴趣正在失去，而他们则在努力赢得世界上这批最铁石心肠的客户的芳心。

In the teenager-teeming Harajuku neighborhood here, 11 designers at Nissan Motor Co. have dreamed up a car that drives sideways and comes equipped with a talking robot and another that evokes the atmosphere of a sports bar. They are trying to woo some of the world's toughest customers: young Japanese, who have fallen out of love with the automobile.

日产负责设计下一代汽车的一个部门的主管弗朗索瓦?培根(Francois Bancon)说，为了吸引未来一代的驾车者，我们需要努力工作。这些人发现他们很难喜欢上轿车了。

'We are going to have to work hard to attract future generations of drivers -- people who find it difficult to love the car,' says Francois Bancon, who heads a Nissan division charged with designing next-generation automobiles.

日产Pivo 2概念车日产所试图解决的问题也同样困扰着所有日本汽车厂家。尽管他们的销售量在美国和其它海外市场快速增长，但国内的销售却持续下滑。2007年日本汽车厂家的国内销售量接近300万辆，比1990年的高点下跌了31%，而同期的出口量则增长了30%，至580万辆。

Nissan is tackling a problem common to all of Japan's big auto makers. While their sales are rapidly expanding in the U.S. and other overseas markets, sales back home continue to slide. Since the peak in 1990, Japanese car makers' domestic sales have dropped 31% to nearly three million automobiles in 2007, even as their exports rose 30% to 5.8 million vehicles.

其中的理由包括汽油价格高涨和日本的人口老龄化现象。但更让日本汽车制造商担忧的是，有迹象显示这种下滑是日本年轻消费者爱好发生重大变化的组成部分。

Reasons include higher gasoline prices and Japan's graying population. But even more worrying to the auto makers are signs that the downturn is part of a deeper generational shift among young Japanese consumers.

根据日本汽车工业协会(Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association)和日产汽车进行的市场研究，同将汽车视为自由象征和较高社会地位的父辈不同，如今痴迷互联网的日本年轻人对汽车的感情非常冷漠。伴随着互联网成长的他们不再需要依靠汽车购物、娱乐和社交，而是宁愿将钱花到其他方面。

Unlike their parents' generation, which viewed cars as the passport to freedom and higher social status, the Internet-connected Japanese youth today look to cars with indifference, according to market research by the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association, or JAMA, and Nissan. Having grown up with the Internet, they no longer depend on a car for shopping, entertainment and socializing and prefer to spend their money in other ways.

日本最大的商业报纸《日本经济新闻》(Nihon Keizai Shimbun)去年对1,700名年龄在20至30岁之间的日本人进行的调查发现，这个年龄段中只有25%的日本男性想拥有一辆汽车，低于2000年时的48%。JAMA发现，2005年18至29岁年龄段的日本男性占日本全部驾车者的比例为11%，约为1993年所占比例的一半。

A survey last year of 1,700 Japanese in their 20s and 30s by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's biggest business newspaper, discovered that only 25% of Japanese men in their 20s wanted a car, down from 48% in 2000. JAMA found that men between the ages of 18 and 29 made up 11% of Japanese drivers in 2005, roughly half the size of that group in 1993.

原宿街头到处都是Kazuto Matsui这样的消费者。这位头发蓬乱的20岁的学生说，年轻人能借父母的车，我认为他们更愿意将钱花到电脑和iPod上面。Matsui还没有驾照，也不急于获得驾照。尽管他说有一天可能会想要辆汽车，但现在轨道交通就够了。

The streets of Harajuku are filled with consumers such as Kazuto Matsui. 'Young people can borrow their parents' car, and I think they'd rather spend money on PCs or iPods than cars,' says the 20-year-old student with shaggy hair who doesn't have a driver's license and is in no rush to get one. While Mr. Matsui says he may want a car some day, 'trains will do' for now.

培根说，日产的设计人员4年前曾对日本、美国、欧洲和中国16至20岁之间的年轻人进行过调查，希望了解轿车与他们生活的关系。出乎他们意料的是，他们发现全球各地许多年轻人都认为汽车没有必要，也不够酷，原因是汽车会污染环境，造成拥堵。这种观念在日本尤其强烈，日本的电脑和互联网已经普及，公共交通可靠且价格低廉，使得这里的汽车制造商面对的困难要超过其他地区的同行。

Nissan designers conducted interviews four years ago with 16-to-20-year-olds in Japan, the U.S., Europe and China to grasp how cars might fit into their lives. To their surprise, they discovered that many youths world-wide felt that cars were unnecessary and even uncool because they pollute and cause congestion, Mr. Bancon says. The feeling was particularly strong in Tokyo, where computers and Internet access are widely available and where mass transit is inexpensive and reliable -- which makes the auto makers' predicament worse here than in many other parts of the world.

汽车制造商发起了一系列的营销活动，希望吸引日本的青年男女，但远未到大获成功的程度。丰田汽车(Toyota Motor Corp.)去年秋季在东京港区推出了该公司车辆的公众试驾活动，计划今年还举办类似活动。该公司还希望通过www.gazoo.com网站推出的“驾驶一日”视频下载活动拉近同痴迷电脑的年轻一代日本人的距离。这些视频让观众以驾驶员的视角与一位年青的日本女模特共度一天，一起驾驶丰田车郊游，泡温泉、参观神社，并一起在景色秀丽的道路上畅游。

Auto makers are coming up with an array of marketing efforts to appeal to young Japanese men and women but have seen limited success. Toyota Motor Corp. sponsored a public test drive of its vehicles on the Tokyo waterfront last fall and plans similar events this year. The company is also trying to connect with the computer-savvy generation through its Web site www.gazoo.com, by featuring 'drive date' video downloads. Filmed from the perspective of a driver, the videos allow viewers to experience a day drive with a young, female Japanese model as they tour the countryside together in a Toyota car, relaxing at spas, visiting shrines and driving along scenic, congestion-free roads.

日产推出了形似盒子的Cube小型轿车，并通过日本乐队进行宣传，以吸引年轻驾车者。本田汽车 (Honda Motor Co.)则将赌注放在了运动型微型客车Edix上，这款2004年推出的轿车带有独特的V型座椅，在前排提供了能乘坐3人的空间。其构想是将乘客压缩到前排座椅中，这样后排就能腾出更多空间可以放下自行车和冲浪板等物品。不过这款车的销售一直不温不火。

Nissan launched the box-like Cube compact car, which it promoted through Japanese music bands to lure young drivers. Honda Motor Co. is betting on the Edix, a sporty minivan with a unique V-pattern seat arrangement that provides space for three passengers up front that it introduced in 2004. The idea is to squeeze the passengers into the front seat of the car so there is more space in the back for things like bicycles and surfboards. Sales have been modest.

去年日本全尺寸新车的销售降至35年来的最低水平。2008财政年度的情况也难有好转。一贯以作出非常保守销售预期而闻名的丰田和本田双双下调了截至3月31日财年的日本销售预期。日产本财年前9个月在日本的销量较上年同期下跌了3.8%。

Sales of new full-size automobiles in Japan dropped to their lowest level in 35 years in calendar 2007. Fiscal 2008 isn't looking any better. Toyota and Honda, known for making extremely conservative sales estimates, both revised downward their Japanese sales outlooks for the fiscal year ending March 31. Nissan's Japanese sales are down 3.8% for the first nine months of this fiscal year from the year-earlier period.

日产急于解读日本年轻司机心中的真实想法，该公司的许多研究都是在1987年开张的Creative Box设计室中完成的。这个设计室位于原宿，这里能够激发设计人员对所有车型的灵感和创意。随着国内销量的下滑，Creative Box最近已越来越重视年轻司机。远离日产公司总部的束缚，设计人员能够自由支配时间，在充斥身着“非主流”服装的少女、街头乐队和搞怪情趣用品商店的街道上漫步。

Much of the research by Nissan, which is keen to decipher young Japanese drivers, is done at its 'Creative Box,' a design studio that opened in 1987 in Harajuku as a place to inspire creativity among its designers for all car models. As domestic sales have slumped, the Creative Box recently has focused more on young drivers. Far from the constraints of Nissan's corporate headquarters, designers set their own hours and stroll through the streets, home to wildly dressed Gothic Lolita girls, street bands and a novelty condom shop.

尽管吸引年轻人的难度不小，但日产的设计人员还是确定了在特定场合下会考虑拥有轿车的两个潜在目标群体，即喜欢上下班时驾驶环保型小轿车的众多城市年轻女性，以及想要有车参加聚会的众多日本年轻男性。日产在去年秋季的东京汽车展上推出了两款概念车，公司认为这能够满足他们的需求。

Despite the high bar of appealing to the young, the Nissan designers identified two potential target groups who could consider having a car for special occasions. They were the many young urban women who desire a small, eco-friendly vehicle for city commuting and the many young men who desire a car that lets them hang out together. The company unveiled two concept cars at the Tokyo motor show last fall that it believes meets their needs.

日产表示，公司了解到如果年轻女性能够拥有便于停车和减少在城市驾车紧张压力的轿车的话，她们会更乐于开车。因此日产设计了一款三个座位的电动轿车，带有象泡泡一样的旋转驾驶室，能够侧向驾驶，轻松地驶入停车位。这款名为Pivo 2的概念车在仪表盘上还安装了带有两个眼睛的头状“机器人”，能够以镇定的声音提供驾驶方位和指南，这有助于缓解司机的紧张感。

Nissan says it learned that young women might like driving better if they had a car that was easy to park and removed the stress of city driving. So it designed a three-seat electric car, with a bubble-like rotating cabin, capable of driving sideways to slip easily into a parking space. The car, called Pivo 2, also has a 'Robotic Agent' shaped like a head with two eyes that is mounted on the dashboard and provides driving directions and companionship in a soothing voice, supposedly reducing a driver's stress.

日产的调查显示，年轻男性不需要上下班用的轿车，而是想有一辆能与朋友一起聚会的轿车。因此该公司推出了一款敞篷小型概念车，活泼的内部空间使其具有运动酒吧的感觉，并且带有能够集体使用的电子设备。这款名为Round Box的轿车带有一个交互式的大触摸屏，前排和后排的司机及乘客都能使用。比如，通过车载导航系统，乘客能够搜索到餐馆，然后把行驶方向发送到司机的显示屏上。

Nissan's surveys showed that young men don't require a car for commuting but may want one for hanging out with friends. So Nissan came up with a compact convertible concept car with an interior inspired by the lively feeling of a sports bar, with gadgets meant to be used in a group. The car, called Round Box, features a large touch-screen, interactive display that the driver and the passengers in the front and rear seats can all use. With the car's navigation system, for example, passengers can search for a restaurant and then send the directions to it to the driver's display.

培根说，Round Box的主要目的不是从甲地到乙地，而是为司机和乘客提供一个社交空间。这位长着络腮胡的56岁的法国人称，这款车就是用来聚会的。1999年培根跟随日产首席执行长卡洛斯?戈恩(Carlos Ghosn)来到了东京。

Mr. Bancon says the Round Box's main purpose isn't to get from point A to point B but is to provide a social space for the driver and passengers. 'It doesn't convey status except the status of being together,' says the 56-year-old bearded Frenchman, who came to Tokyo in 1999 with Nissan's chief executive, Carlos Ghosn.

日产尚未计划近期大批量生产这两款车。但培根坚持认为，汽车业要想生存就可能需要在未来生产这样的汽车。

Nissan doesn't have plans to put either car into mass production anytime soon. Still, Mr. Bancon insists that for the auto industry to survive, it will likely need to produce cars like these.

他说，我们处在新世纪之中，有相当一部分人想要得到与汽车不同的东西。

'We are in a new era,' he says. 'There is a huge population who are expecting something different from the car.'

John Murphy

http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080229/ffe115919.asp