In China, Hybrids Prove To Be A Tough Sell
2008年04月21日14:21
全球汽车厂家将在本周的北京汽车展上纷纷展现自己最新的环保技术，其中包括混合动力发动机、电动轿车和燃料电池汽车。
AT THE Beijing auto show this week, global auto makers are showing off their latest environmentally friendly technologies, including hybrid engines, electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles.
但是，席卷中国、俄罗斯和印度等新兴市场的购车潮对环境的影响恐怕难以在短期内因这种技术创新而得到缓解。
But there is little chance such innovations will help reduce the environmental fallout of the car-buying boom sweeping across China and other emerging markets like Russia and India anytime soon.
问题主要在于成本。发达国家的许多汽车厂家所宣传的高科技绿色解决方案都太过昂贵，在发展中国家常常是行不通的，这里的消费者刚开始能负担得起配备着老式发动机的轿车。比如，中国2007年的轿车销量飙升21%，超过了520万辆，尽管一些本土消费者具有环保意识，但他们也很关心价格。
The problem is cost. The high-tech green solutions touted by many auto makers in the developed world are proving to be far too expensive and often impractical in the developing world, where consumers are just beginning to afford the old-fashioned combustion engine. For instance, in China, where passenger-car sales soared 21% to more than 5.2 million vehicles in 2007, some consumers are environmentally conscious, but they also care about price.
丰田汽车公司(Toyota Motor Corp.)就从普锐斯(Prius)过去三年里在中国令人失望的销售业绩中认识到了这一点。起价21,000美元的普锐斯在美国非常受欢迎，因为居高不下的燃油价格提振了市场对小型节油车辆的需求。
Toyota Motor Corp. is learning this lesson from its disappointing efforts to sell the Prius hybrid in China for the past three years. The Prius, with a starting price of $21,000, is extremely popular in the U.S., where high fuel prices have increased demand for smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles.
但在中国，相同车辆的售价却高出了近一倍，达到了40,000美元左右，分析师称，这主要是因为政府对进口零部件征收高额关税、生产成本较高以及推动降价的竞争压力不大。中国许多能支付起这个价格的富有消费者都会选择高端的运动型多用途车(SUV)和豪华轿车。
But in China, the same car costs nearly twice as much -- about $40,000 -- because of government duties on imported parts, higher production costs and, analysts say, no competition to drive down prices. For that amount of money, many wealthy Chinese consumers are choosing high-end sport-utility vehicles and luxury cars.
J.D. Power & Associates旗下亚汽资源公司(Automotive Resources Asia)的数据显示，尽管去年中国的SUV和豪华轿车销量实现了两位数增长，但普锐斯的销量只有414辆，比2006年下降了81%。此前丰田汽车设定的目标是销售3,000辆普锐斯轿车。
So while sales of SUVs and luxury vehicles soared by double digits in China last year, Toyota sold only 414 of the hybrid vehicles, an 81% decline from 2006, according to J.D. Power & Associates' Automotive Resources Asia unit. Toyota's goal was to sell 3,000 cars.
丰田汽车驻中国发言人Hitoshi Yokoyama称，中国消费者的环保意识仍比较薄弱。
'Chinese consumer awareness of the environment is still relatively low,' says Hitoshi Yokoyama, Toyota's spokesman in China.
同样，本田汽车(Honda Motor Co.)的思域(Civic)混合动力车自去年11月上市以来仅售出了约150辆。这款车的售价约为38,000美元，几乎是其美国销售价格的两倍。
Similarly, Honda Motor Co. has sold only about 150 of its Civic hybrids since the model's launch in November. It costs about $38,000, or about twice the price in the U.S.
中国政府正在采取一些措施，来帮助那些价格更可承受的混合动力车开拓市场，其主要措施是推动本土汽车厂家进军这一领域。根据汽车咨询机构CSM Worldwide的预计，2010年前后市场上将有30种左右不同的混合动力车型可供选择。
The Chinese government is making some effort to promote more affordable hybrids, mainly by pushing state-owned car makers to develop a domestic hybrid market. According to forecasts by auto consulting firm CSM Worldwide, some 30 different hybrid models will be available in China by about 2010.
汽车业新贵奇瑞汽车有限公司(Chery Automobile Co.)计划今年开始销售1.3升排量的低价油电混合动力轿车。与一家中国国有公司合作的通用汽车(General Motors Corp.)预计今年将在中国市场推出别克君越(Buick LaCrosse) Eco-Hybrid油电混合动力。位于重庆的长安汽车(Changan Automobiles)也计划在年底推出杰勋(Jie Xun)掀背式混合动力车。
The upstart Chery Automobile Co. plans to start selling a lower-cost gas-electric hybrid sedan with a 1.3-liter engine this year. General Motors Corp., which has partnered with a state-owned company, expects to start selling the Buick LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid in China this year. And Changan Automobiles, a big car maker in the southwestern city of Chongqing, also plans to launch a hybrid hatchback, Jie Xun, at the end of the year.
通用汽车表示，选择君越作为在中国推出的首款混合动力车是因为这款豪华中级车能够吸引更具环保意识的富有买家，同时他们也能够承受混合动力车的额外成本。
GM says it chose the LaCrosse, a large and luxurious sedan, as its first hybrid offering in China because the car appeals to wealthier buyers who are more environmentally conscious and can afford the extra cost of a hybrid.
通用汽车表示，能为混合动力车掏更多钱的轿车买家同时也看重自己的地位，希望拥有更大、配置更加先进的轿车。通用汽车中国销售、服务和营销部门执行董事刘曰海(Joseph Liu)说，我们认为这是从普锐斯的销售情况中汲取的教训。
Car buyers who can shell out the extra money for a hybrid are also status conscious and expect a bigger and better-equipped car, GM says. 'We believe that is the lesson to be learned from the sales performance of the Prius,' says Joseph Liu, executive director for vehicle sales, service and marketing at GM in China.
君越混合动力车在城市中行驶时将比标准君越少消耗约15%的汽油，排放也会减少15%。刘曰海表示这款车将于6月份上市销售。
The hybrid LaCrosse will burn about 15% less fuel and produce 15% fewer emissions than a standard LaCrosse in city driving. Mr. Liu said the car will go on sale in June.
通用汽车首席执行长瓦格纳(Rick Wagoner)周日表示，混合动力车面临的问题是，我们能否把混合动力车的成本降低到普通用户能够负担的水平。他说，中国有望在为节能轿车生产带来规模效应的过程中扮演重要角色。
The question with hybrids, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said Sunday, is: 'Can we get the cost down on hybrids enough to get them to pay off for the average guy?' He said China will likely play an important role in providing economies of scale for producing energy-saving vehicles.
福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)亚太及非洲区执行副总裁约翰?帕克(John Parker)周日表示，我们正在为中国及其他发展中国家里最大的客户群体寻找行之有效的解决方案。
John Parker, Ford Motor Co.'s executive vice president for Asia-Pacific and Africa, said Sunday: 'We're trying to find solutions that work for the biggest volume of customers' in China and other developing countries.
在福特汽车不断改进混合动力和其他技术，并想方设法降低相关产品价格的同时，该公司还在全球市场推出了更加省油和环保的汽油发动机。福特表示，相对于标准发动机，公司新开发的EcoBoost汽油发动机在城市中行驶时能够减少约15%的排放，提高燃油经济性约20%。
While Ford refines its hybrid and other technologies and looks for ways to make them more affordable, it is also rolling out improvements globally to gasoline engines designed to make them more fuel-efficient and cleaner. The company says its new EcoBoost gasoline engine, used in city driving, reduces emissions by about 15% and improves fuel economy by about 20%, compared with a standard engine.
所有汽车厂家都表示，中国政府若能出台减税等鼓励措施将会降低混合动力车的价格，推动销量增加。当前中国政府并未对丰田汽车的混合动力车推出鼓励措施，为的是不危及国内市场的发展。
What would help hybrid sales, all car makers say, would be for the Chinese government to provide incentives -- like tax cuts -- to make the vehicles affordable. At the same time, the government isn't providing incentives to Toyota hybrid models because it doesn't want to jeopardize the domestic market in development.
关注中国机动车问题的独立咨询师迈克尔?沃尔什(Michael Walsh)表示，中国需要尽快采取措施支持环保汽车。他说，中国政府在过去10年中作了很多工作，取消了含铅汽油，实施了更严格的排放标准，但为了减少排放、降低燃油消费，中国还有很长的路要走。
China needs to move quickly to back cleaner vehicles, says Michael Walsh, an independent consultant who works on motor-vehicle issues in China. The Chinese government has come a long way during the past decade, eliminating leaded fuel and adopting stricter emissions regulations, he says, but it still has a long way to go to curb emissions and reduce fuel consumption.
沃尔什称，中国需要更有紧迫感，否则污染水平或石油消耗将会达到非常高的程度。
'They need to move quickly, or the levels of pollution and oil consumption are going to be out of sight,' he says.
国际轿车厂家一直在游说中国采用他们中意的环保技术，主要是那些他们已在自己国内推广了的技术。但所有这些做法都面临着很多困难。美国公司作为短期解决方案而推出的生物燃料因食品价格上涨而显得后劲不足。欧洲厂家看好的清洁柴油也难以实施，因为中国的炼油厂无法生产该技术所需的低硫燃料，而升级设施需要投入数十亿美元。电动汽车和插电式混合动力车可能不会给中国的环境带来多大帮助，这是因为中国的大多数电力都来自于污染较高的燃煤电厂。
International car makers have lobbied China to adopt other eco-friendly technologies they favor, mainly the ones they use back home. But all these approaches face challenges. Biofuels, pushed by U.S. companies as a short-term solution, are losing support in the face of food-price inflation. Clean diesel, which European makers favor, would be difficult because China's refineries don't have the capacity to make the low-sulfur fuel that would be required, and upgrading them would cost billions of dollars. Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, designed to be recharged by plugging them into the country's electricity grid, may not do much to help the environment in China. That is because most electricity in China is generated by burning coal, a polluting fossil fuel.
不过，中国的轿车厂家正在寻找多种变通方式。奇瑞汽车在本周的汽车展上展出了燃料电池轿车和混合动力轿车。吉利汽车(Geely Holding Group)和比亚迪集团(BYD Group)旗下的比亚迪汽车(BYD Auto Co.)都研制了电动轿车。比亚迪计划2009年前向大众市场推出e6电动轿车，一次充满电后该车能够行驶300公里。
Still, Chinese car makers are exploring many of these alternatives. Chery Automobile has a fuel-cell car and hybrid on display at this week's auto show. Geely Holding Group and BYD Auto Co., a unit of the Shenzhen-based BYD Group, both feature electric vehicles. BYD plans to mass-market its e6 electric car, which can travel 300 kilometers on a single full charge, by 2009.
不过，尽管中国非常重视混合动力车市场，但未来仍需面临重重挑战。眼下降低混合动力车成本还未提到中国制造商的议事日程之上，因为他们需解决电池的供电时间和寒冷天气下的运行情况等诸多技术问题。
For now, however, China is focusing on hybrids, though many challenges lie ahead. Chinese manufacturers haven't yet reached the stage of trying to make hybrids affordable as they work out technical issues, such as battery endurance and cold-weather operation.
中国汽车技术研究中心(China Automotive Technology and Research Center)下属电动汽车研发中心主任吴志新表示，他的调查研究显示中国大多数驾车者都愿意购买混合动力车，前提是它们和普通轿车比起来价格涨幅在 20%之内。这是一个艰巨的挑战，因为占去年中国轿车总销量67%的小型和微型轿车的最低售价仅为4,500美元左右。
Wu Zhixin, director of research and development at the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, a think tank in Shanghai, says his survey research shows that the majority of Chinese drivers would be willing to buy a hybrid -- if the price tag were no more than 20% higher than that of a conventional car. That is a tough challenge since compact and smaller cars, which made up 67% of all car sales in China last year, are selling for as little as $4,500.
清华大学核能与新能源技术研究院教授吴宗鑫说，节约的汽油费不足以抵消这类轿车购车成本的上升。他表示，政府应该开始用混合动力车取代政府机关的现有车辆，以帮助厂家实现规模经济，降低车价。
'The money being saved on gas isn't enough to cover the higher cost of the vehicles,' says Wu Zongxin, dean of Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology. Mr. Wu says the government should start replacing its own vehicle fleets with hybrids to help auto makers gain economies of scale and bring prices down.
上个月，丰田汽车向政府官员展示了混合动力技术的好处，捐赠了50辆普锐斯轿车供政府部门使用。丰田汽车上月还宣布将普锐斯的价格下调8%，降低3,000美元左右。
Last month, Toyota did its part to demonstrate to government officials the benefits of hybrid technology, donating 50 Prius vehicles for use by government officials. Toyota also announced last month it was dropping the price of the Prius by 8%, or about $3,000.
虽然这可能不足以提高这款车的销量，但丰田汽车乐观地认为在中国市场中，此类轿车的销量或许不用几十年、而只需几年时间就有可能实现增长。
That may not be enough to change sales, but Toyota is optimistic about the chances for sales to grow in years, if not decades, ahead.
丰田汽车发言人Hideaki Homma表示，中国是一个具有悠久历史的国家，我们正处于向中国市场介绍混合动力车的阶段；一旦混合动力车的理念得到认可，丰田预计其销量将会出现快速增长。
'China is a country with a very long history, and we are at the point where the introduction of the hybrid car is taking place,' says Hideaki Homma, a Toyota spokesman. 'Once the idea of hybrids catches on, we expect to see rapid growth.'
John Murphy / Gordon Fairclough
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