中國造沃爾沃汽車將出口美國

After years of promises followed by manufacturing delays, a major automaker finally appears on the verge of beginning sustained exports from China to the United States.

多年來前景良好，但屢屢受制於生產滯後的一家大型汽車製造商，終於即將開始從中國向美國持續出口其產品。

The Volvo Car Corporation announced at the Detroit auto show on Monday that it planned to begin shipping a midsize sedan from Chengdu in the next several months. Volvo, which a Chinese investor bought from the Ford Motor Company in 2010, said it would ship 1,500 to 2,000 cars to the United States this year, with increases in subsequent years based on demand.

在週一的底特律車展上，沃爾沃汽車集團(Volvo Car Corporation)宣佈將在未來幾個月開始出售一款在成都生產的中型轎車。2010年被中國投資者從福特汽車公司(Ford Motor Company)手中買下的沃爾沃稱，今年將向美國交付1500到2000輛汽車，接下來幾年裏會根據需求增加數量。

Volvo already makes the same model, the S60 Inscription sedan, for the Chinese market, albeit under a different name, the S60L. It sells about 26,000 cars there, so Volvo can add production for the American market at a modest cost.

沃爾沃此前已經在中國市場開售這款S60 Inscription轎車，不過名稱爲S60L。它在這裏的銷量約爲2.6萬輛，因此沃爾沃爲美國市場增產的成本不高。

Li Shufu, a self-made automotive tycoon, owns a controlling stake in Geely Auto and separately owns Volvo through his personal holding company. Mr. Li has talked for a decade of exporting cars from China to the United States, and Geely Auto has repeatedly said that it would like to undertake its own exports.

白手起家的汽車鉅子李書福擁有吉利汽車控股權，而沃爾沃是他通過自己的個人控股公司持有的。過去十年裏，李書福一直在說要把中國的汽車出口到美國，吉利汽車也反覆表示會展開自己的出口業務。

These plans have been consistently delayed. Geely initially struggled with quality issues and the Chinese government had warned its automakers not to export until they were completely ready to meet Western quality and safety standards. The global financial crisis and the long slowdown it produced in the American auto market further delayed Geely and Mr. Li.

這些計劃被不斷推遲。吉利一開始遇到了質量問題，而中國政府曾警告本國車廠，在達到西方質量和安全標準之前，不要貿然出口。全球金融危機以及美國汽車市場由此出現的漫長衰退，也令吉利和李書福的計劃一推再推。

Volvo already has a reputation for quality and for safety, making it easier for Mr. Li to allay the Chinese government’s concerns. Several years ago, China’s commerce ministry set 2015 as its goal for China to begin exporting cars to the West.

沃爾沃在質量和安全方面已經享有盛譽，這樣就方便李書福去說服中國政府，減輕他們的擔憂。中國商務部多年前制定的計劃是中國從2015年開始向西方出口汽車。

China is already a huge supplier of low-cost auto parts to assembly plants and car repair shops in the United States. But its exports of fully assembled cars have been negligible, even as China has emerged as the world’s largest auto market and largest assembler of cars.

中國已經是低端汽車零件的巨型供貨商，向美國的組裝廠和汽車修理店供應零件。但它的整車出口規模微不足道，儘管中國本身已經成爲世界最大汽車市場和最大的汽車組裝國。

A big reason for the country’s slowness in exporting cars to the United States lies in the dominance in the Chinese market of joint ventures between multinationals, like Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford, and their state-owned Chinese partners. The multinationals have been wary of antagonizing powerful unions in their home countries — the United Automobile Workers in the United States and its counterparts in Germany in particular — by bringing in Chinese cars. And the state-owned manufacturers are too reliant on the multinationals’ designs and technology to export cars to the West on their own.

中國向美國出口汽車的進展之所以如此緩慢，主要是因爲中國市場是以跨國合資企業爲主導，比如大衆(Volkswagen)、通用汽車(General Motors)和福特(Ford)，以及它們的中國國有企業合作伙伴。一直以來，跨國公司因爲怕得罪各自國內勢力強大的工會——尤其是美國的全美汽車工人聯合會(United Automobile Workers)以及德國的相應組織——不敢引入中國產汽車。而國有車廠又過分依賴跨國公司的設計和技術，無法向西方出口自己生產的汽車。

Volvo does not have these constraints. At the same time, beginning exports to the United States could give Mr. Li a considerable increase in prestige within China, even as Geely has been facing challenges at home.

沃爾沃沒有這些制約。與此同時，向美國出口也可以讓李書福在中國豎立更高的威望，儘管目前吉利在國內也面臨着挑戰。

Several large Chinese cities have joined Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in recent months in limiting the issuance of new car license plates in response to severe air pollution and chronic traffic jams. Geely and other indigenous producers, like BYD, of inexpensive, often utilitarian cars have lost market share as buyers have chosen costlier models from multinationals when they are able to obtain scarce license plates through auctions or lotteries.

爲應對嚴重的空氣污染和交通堵塞，最近幾個月，又有幾座大城市加入到北京、上海和廣州的行列中，開始限制新車上牌數量。吉利以及比亞迪這類本土車廠的市場份額開始流失，因爲它們主打廉價的、往往偏重實用的車型，而當購車者能夠通過拍賣或搖號拿到一塊寶貴的牌照時，他們會選擇購買跨國公司生產的更昂貴車型。

Yale Zhang, the managing director of Automotive Foresight, a consulting firm in Shanghai, said that the S60 Inscription was fairly big for a midsize sedan and thus was a better choice for exports to the United States than to Europe.

上海諮詢公司汽車市場預測(Automotive Foresight)總監張豫(Yale Zhang)說，S60 Inscription在中型轎車中是比較大的，因此出口到美國比到歐洲更理想。

“Chinese consumers, like U.S. consumers, like something bigger, so exporting this to the United States makes sense,” Mr. Zhang said.

“中國的消費者和美國消費者一樣，喜歡大一點的，所以它出口到美國是有道理的，”張豫說。

Other automakers and various consulting firms have said that factories in China can match quality levels in the West when producing cars according to the designs and procedures of multinationals. Chinese brand automakers have lagged on quality, although they are closing the gap; they have tended to design high-quality parts, but still lack the engineering expertise to integrate the many systems required for a modern car.

還有一些車廠和諮詢公司說，只要根據跨國公司的設計和流程來生產，中國的工廠可以製造出質量水平和西方相當的車。中國自主品牌車廠在質量上是落後的，不過它們在縮小差距；它們一般能夠設計出高品質的零件，但至今仍然缺乏將多個系統整合成一輛現代化汽車的工程能力。

Volvo, which is still based in Sweden, said that its Chengdu factory was just as good as its European factories. “Levels of installed technology and equipment are the same as the company’s European facilities, as are the working environment, safety and environmental performance standards,” Volvo said.

總部仍在瑞典的沃爾沃稱，其成都工廠和公司在歐洲的工廠一樣出色。“它的技術和設備，和公司在歐洲的工廠處在同等水平，工作環境、安全和環保標準也是一樣的，”沃爾沃說。

The company also announced at the Detroit show that it would introduce two other models in the American market this year, both made in Ghent, Belgium: the S60 Cross Country, a sedan with some of the same rugged designs as the company’s Cross Country wagons, and the XC90 R-Design, a seven-seat sport utility vehicle.

在底特律車展上，公司還宣佈今年將向美國市場推出另外兩款車，都在比利時根特生產，分別是S60 Cross Country，一款借鑑了沃爾沃Cross Country旅行車的堅固設計的轎車，以及XC90 R-Design，一款七座越野車。