宝马为迷你车型开拓市场
Maximizing Mini At BMW
顺应时代潮流，宝马汽车(BMW)的广告宣传重心已经不再是豪华车产品，而转向了旗下尺寸最小、相对利润较低的车型迷你(Mini)。
It is a sign of the times that BMW isn't shouting about its luxury range. Instead, the car maker is making most noise about the Mini, its smallest, relatively low-margin vehicle.
由于旗下顶级小轿车领域面临着竞争对手的强势威胁，这种状况促使宝马进一步拓展迷你的市场。与此同时，更严格的环保要求和经济疲软也给宝马的轿车和SUV系列带来了打击。
The drive to get more out of Mini comes as rivals are jumping into its premium small-car segment. Meanwhile, tighter environmental regulations and a sluggish economy are hitting BMW's sedans and SUVs.
迷你定价高达2.1万英镑（约合3.7万美元），几乎是大型制造商所生产的尺寸类似车型价格的两倍。尽管价格高昂，但购买小型车的市场潮流给迷你的销量带来了提振；7月份迷你销量同比略有增长，而宝马品牌销量同期下滑了15%。因此，宝马计划提高迷你唯一一家工厂（位于英国）的产量，并在奥地利生产一款跨界越野车型。
Minis fetch as much as GBP 21,000 ($37,000), roughly twice the price of similarly sized cars made by volume manufacturers. Yet despite the high price point, a trend toward buying smaller cars helped Mini volumes rise slightly in July from a year ago while BMW-branded models declined 15%. Hence BMW's plans to expand production at Mini's sole plant in the U.K. and for a crossover version made in Austria.
迷你需要更好的规模经济。位于牛津的迷你工厂目前已经接近22万辆的年最高产能了。相比之下，宝马一个平台3款小型车的年产能是80万辆，而宝马大型豪华车的年产能是40万辆（总计16家工厂）。
Mini needs better economies of scale. The Oxford plant is running near full capacity of 220,000 vehicles a year. In contrast, BMW builds nearly 800,000 of its three smaller models on one platform and 400,000 of its large luxury vehicles on another, across 16 factories.
要想收回大笔投资，相对减少高价大型车的产量是一个途径，大规模生产较为廉价的车型则是另外一个途径。
Making relatively few high-priced big cars is one way to recoup heavy vehicle investments. The other is mass production of cheaper cars.
面临着奥迪(Audi)和雪铁龙(Citroen)的竞争，除非迷你能够提高销量，否则其市场地位就有可能最终落于两者之间。
Unless Mini can boost volumes, in the face of competition from Audi and Citroen, it risks ultimately falling between the two.
没有评论:
发表评论