口译时事：中国观致汽车亮相日内瓦车展

　　Given the parlous state of the European car market, this would not seem a sensible moment to launch a new car brand. Yet, Qoros, a Chinese-Israeli joint venture, did exactly that at the Geneva motor show last week.

　　鉴于欧洲汽车市场的糟糕现状，当前或许并不是推出一个新汽车品牌的合适时点。但中国和以色列合资的观致汽车有限公司(QOROS)上周在日内瓦车展上举行了全球首秀。

　　Qoros’ primary target market is China. But more than 10 per cent of an annual volume of 150,000 cars that are set to roll off its production line in Changshu, China later this year are set to be exported to Europe.

　　观致汽车的主要目标市场是在中国。但在其位于中国常熟的生产线今年晚些时候计划产出的15万辆汽车当中，有超过10%将被出口至欧洲市场。

　　This explains the stream of curious executives from rivals including Volkswagen, Toyota and Renault who came to the Qoros stand in Geneva to size up the young pretender and its first model, a sedan.

　　这也是来自大众(Volkswagen)、丰田(Toyota)、雷诺(Renault)等竞争对手的高管对观致汽车充满好奇的原因，他们来到观致汽车在日内瓦车展的展台，仔细打量这家年轻的竞争者及其首个车型——一款轿车。

　　Qoros is a 50-50 joint venture between China’s Chery Automobile and Israel Corporation, the industrial holding company controlled by Idan Ofer, Israel’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $5.6bn, according to Bloomberg.

　　观致汽车是由中国奇瑞汽车(Chery Automobile)与以色列控股集团(Israel Corporation)各自持股50%成立的合资企业。以色列集团是由以色列首富伊丹 奥佛(Idan Ofer)掌控的工业控股公司。来自彭博(Bloomberg)的数据显示，奥佛的财富总额估计达到56亿美元。

　　China, the world’s largest car market, is dominated by foreign brands and Chinese makes have in the past struggled to penetrate the European market because of concerns over quality.

　　中国作为全球第一大汽车市场，目前主要是外国品牌占据优势地位。而且，中国汽车生产商过去一直难以进入欧洲市场，因为当地对于中国汽车的质量存在顾虑。

　　Qoros, which was founded in 2007, therefore put together an international team of well known western car executives to deliver western standards of safety and German-influenced design.

　　有鉴于此，成立于2007年的观致汽车组建了一支由著名西方车企管理人士构成的国际化团队，以贯彻西方的安全性能标准以及德国式产品设计。

　　They include Gert Hildebrand, former chief designer at Mini, and Volker Steinwascher, former head of Volkswagen’s North America operations. Qoros also relied on advice from McKinsey, the consultancy.

　　观致汽车请来了Mini的前任首席设计师格特 希尔德布兰德(Gert Hildebrand)以及大众北美业务前任主管石清仁(Volker Steinwascher)。该公司还聘请了咨询机构麦肯锡(consultancy)提供建议。

　　“The car industry went through very bad times in the financial crisis but it was beneficial for us as we were able to recruit great talent in that period,” Mr Ofer told the FT in an interview. “We were fortunate to reach practically anybody we wanted.

　　奥佛在接受英国《金融时报》的一次采访时表示：“在金融危机期间，汽车工业经历了非常艰难的阶段，但这对于我们来说是有利的，因为我们得以在此期间请到如此优秀的人才加盟。我们非常幸运地把想要邀请的绝大多数人都成功招至麾下。”

　　“I’m not a racing guy, I like to think of myself as an industrialist so I’m not doing this for fun, this is a serious industry . . . And we couldn’t have found a better partner than Chery. We’ve come a long way from the initial concept and they never said: ‘maybe we should do it in another way’.”

　　“我不是一名赛车爱好者。我喜欢把自己看做是一个实业家，因此成立观致汽车并不是为了好玩，这是一个严肃的领域……而且我们不可能找到比奇瑞更好的合作伙伴。相对于最初的构想，我们现在已经取得了很大进展，而且他们从来不曾说过：‘或许我们应该采用另一种方法来做这件事。’”

　　Qoros will require about $2.7bn in funding of which $1.2bn is equity – split 50-50 between the two parties – and $1.5bn debt. As well as the Changshu plant, Qoros has had to establish its own dealer network in China.

　　观致汽车所需资金规模高达27亿美元，其中12亿美元以股权形式筹集，奇瑞汽车和以色列集团各承担50%;其余15亿美元则以债务形式募集。除了在常熟设立生产厂以外，观致汽车还需要在中国国内建立一套自有经销商网络。

　　But for an industry where a new plant typically costs upwards of a €1bn, these sums are relatively small. Qoros has saved money by outsourcing much of the auto development work to suppliers, including Austria’s Magna Steyr.

　　对于汽车行业而言，一个新的生产厂通常耗资超过10亿欧元，因此观致汽车的资金需求规模相对来说并不算大。该公司还通过将部分车型开发业务外包给澳大利亚Magna Steyr公司等供应商节约成本。

　　Mr Steinwascher, Qoros’ vice-chairman, said: “I’m a big fan of outsourcing. I prefer to work with experts. You need to have good people on board and then can outsource the rest. The creativity of suppliers is much higher if you give them a lot of freedom.”

　　观致汽车的副董事长石清仁表示：“我喜欢外包，我愿意与业内专家合作。你必须聘请优秀人才负责重点业务，并把其他业务外包出去。如果你愿意给予供应商较大的自由度，他们的创造力将显著提升。”

　　Qoros hopes to tap demand among young urban Chinese consumers for high tech western goods and its sedan, therefore, has a state of the art touchscreen infotainment system.

　　观致汽车希望迎合中国城市年轻消费群体对于西方高科技产品的需求，因此其所推出的轿车车型配有一个一流的触摸屏车载信息娱乐系统。

　　Although Qoros would not say how much the vehicle will cost, the price is expected to be below €20,000, meaning it will compete against similar offerings from Volkswagen, General Motors and Toyota.

　　观致汽车不愿透露这款轿车的具体定价，市场预计其价格可能低于2万欧元。这意味着该公司将与大众、通用汽车(General Motors)以及丰田等公司提供的类似车型展开竞争。

　　Mr Steinwascher admitted that Qoros’ timing in entering the European car market was not ideal. “Right now, the European market is really bad,” he said. Therefore, only a limited export is planned at the outset to selected markets in eastern Europe.

　　石清仁承认，观致汽车进入欧洲汽车市场的时点并不理想。他表示：“目前欧洲汽车市场的形势非常惨淡。”有鉴于此，该公司一开始仅会向东欧地区的部分市场进行规模有限的出口。

　　He said it would take at least two to three years before Qoros had a positive cash flow. “The auto industry demands heavy initial investment before you are able to sell cars,” he said.

　　石清仁指出，观致汽车要想实现正向现金流至少需要两至三年时间。他说：“对于汽车行业而言，在能够售车之前需要规模很大的初始投资。”

　　Israel Corp is also the chief backer of Better Place, the Israeli electric car battery sharing company founded in 2007 by visionary entrepreneur Shai Agassi. Better Place expanded rapidly internationally but has since parted ways with Mr Agassi after running up big losses and turned its focus to just two markets – Denmark and Israel.

　　以色列集团还是以色列电动汽车电池共享公司Better Place的主要支持者。这家公司是富有远见的企业家夏嘉曦(Shai Agassi)于2007年成立的。Better Place在国际市场上的扩张速度很快，但该公司在遭受了巨额损失之后与夏嘉曦分道扬镳，并将注意力集中于丹麦和以色列两个市场。

　　Mr Ofer is still a believer in the Better Place model and says one day it might be possible for the two projects to work together. “These [Qoros] cars are built with a platform that can do battery exchange,” he said.

　　奥佛对于Better Place的商业模式仍有信心，并表示有朝一日两项业务可能展开合作。他说：“观致的车型是基于一个能够实现电池更换功能的平台来生产的。”

　　“But you have to separate the businesses . . . Better Place has to prove it can sell cars and once you do that there’s not reason why Qoros should not build cars for the Better Place model. We have the team and infrastructure within Qoros to do this.”

　　“但有必要把汽车和电池业务分开。Better Place必须证明自己能够卖出汽车，而如果这一点能够实现，观致就没有理由不能按照Better Place的模式生产汽车。在观致汽车内部我们有团队和基础设施来实现这一点。”

　　Mr Ofer is a patient investor. “The thing I’m most proud of [in business] is what usually takes five to 10 years – building a new business from a clean sheet.”

　　奥佛是一位耐心的投资者。他说：“在商业领域最让我感到骄傲的是通常需要五到十年来完成的事情，那就是从零开始创立一家新企业。”

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