(本文选自《经济学人》20210424期)
背景介绍：
最近这两年，资本市场最热门的概念之一，莫过于“造车”了：特斯拉去年一年涨幅超700%，中国三大“造车新势力”在美股表现优异，传统汽车厂商纷纷加码“新能源”、“自动驾驶”等新技术的投入，华为、小米等头部企业更是以此为契机，开始跨界。
Huawei and other non-carmakers invade Auto Shanghai
The live trade show is back—with a new guest list
Petrolheads descended on China’s largest exhibition complex on April 21st for the opening of Auto Shanghai, the first big global car show since the start of the pandemic. Dozens of typical exhibitors, from Cadillac to Kia,
flaunted
their latest models to China’s
burgeoning
consumer class.
4月21日，车迷们齐聚中国最大的展览中心，参加自疫情爆发以来的全球首个大型车展——上海车展。从凯迪拉克到起亚，数十家老牌汽车制造商向中国迅速壮大的消费阶层展示着他们的最新车型。
Yet the most popular booths, as judged by foot traffic, belonged to a clutch of Chinese companies with little carmaking experience: Huawei, a telecoms giant; DJI, the world’s biggest drone-maker; and Evergrande, a property developer.
然而，从客流量来看，最受欢迎的展位却是一些缺乏汽车制造经验的中国公司：电信巨头华为；全球最大的无人机制造商大疆；以及房地产开发商恒大。
The newcomers aim to capitalise on China’s new thirst for electric vehicles (EVs). Last year 1.3m of them were sold in the country, accounting for two-fifths of the global total, estimates Canalys, a research firm. As part of its anti-pollution drive, China’s government wants every other new car sold to be an EV by 2035.
这些新晋者的目标是满足中国对电动汽车的新需求。据研究公司Canalys估计，去年中国电动汽车销售量达130万辆，占全球总销量的五分之二。作为反污染行动的一部分，中国希望到2035年，每一辆在售新车均为电动汽车。
Tech firms like Huawei and DJI are betting that future EVs will compete not so much on the “eye appeal” of their hardware as on the
sophistication
of their software. Fully autonomous vehicles, able to understand their surroundings, are the ultimate (if distant) goal.
与其说华为和大疆等科技公司押注的是未来电动汽车在硬件上的“吸引力”，不如说是其在软件设计上的竞争力。从长远来看，能够感知周围环境的全自动汽车才是最终目标。
Conveniently, both Huawei and DJI have developed advanced laser-based detection systems which, they reason, could easily be applied to passenger cars. China’s most popular search engine, Baidu, another star turn, unveiled its own radar self-driving technology.
华为和大疆的优势在于，他们都开发出了先进的基于激光技术的探测系统，他们认为，这种系统可以很容易地应用于乘用车。另一家明星企业、中国最受欢迎的搜索引擎公司百度也发布了自己的雷达自动驾驶技术。
Some of the firms are joining forces with conventional carmakers to get to market quickly—important in an industry where first-mover advantage matters, as Tesla has shown. Huawei is teaming up with Beijing-based BAIC Group to roll out its new luxury EV.
一些公司正在与传统车企强强联手，以便迅速进入市场——正如特斯拉所证明的那样，这在一个先发优势至关重要的行业非常重要。华为正在与总部位于北京的北汽集团合作推出新型豪华电动汽车。
Baidu recently entered into a “strategic partnership” with Geely, which owns Volvo among other brands, to mass-produce “intelligent” EVs (which are short of full autonomy).
百度最近与拥有沃尔沃等品牌的吉利集团建立了“战略合作伙伴关系”，以大规模生产“智能”电动汽车（不具有完全自主性）。
Other newcomers prefer to do things in-house. Evergrande is building its own EV factories. It aims, ambitiously, to compete with Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Tesla, says Dai Lei, an executive at the company. Xiaomi, a purveyor of smartphones that has given the Shanghai jamboree a miss, pledged last month to invest $10bn over ten years in its new EV business.
其他新晋者则更喜欢自力更生。恒大集团正在建设自己的电动汽车工厂。恒大高管戴磊表示，恒大有信心与奔驰、宝马和奥迪相竞争。未能参展上海车展的智能手机供应商小米上个月承诺，将在未来10年投入100亿美元用于发展新的电动汽车业务。
Xiaomi gamely insists it has “distinct and unique advantages in manufacturing cars”, despite having no history of making them (and its planned investment being a fraction of what carmakers familiar with producing at scale, like Volkswagen, are ploughing into EVs).
虽然小米没有制造汽车的历史（而且其计划投资额仅为大众等熟悉大规模生产的汽车制造商在电动汽车领域投入的一小部分），但其坚称“在汽车制造方面有着独特的优势”。
Proponents of do-it-yourself argue they can
recoup
initial outlays on new factories down the line by not having to share revenues with partners. They add that the incentives of established carmakers are not aligned with those of the newcomers; Geely’s own EV marque, called Zeekr, is on display at Auto Shanghai not far from Baidu’s booth. For all the talk about “win-win co-operation”, rivalry is likely to intensify.
自力更生阵营的支持者认为，他们无需与合作伙伴分一杯羹，从而很快能收回建设新工厂的初期支出。他们补充道，传统车企的合作动机不同于新晋者；在上海车展上，吉利自己的电动汽车品牌极氪汽车就在离百度展台不远的地方展出。虽然大家嘴上都在说“合作双赢”，但竞争或将愈加激烈。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
几年之前中国突然冒出了许多全新的汽车公司，它们的共同特点为都是以生产新能源车型为主，其中比较有代表性的品牌是蔚来与理想。如今，中国正在迎来新一波的造车热潮，此次的主角正是华为、小米、大疆和恒大等其他各行各业的巨头。新晋造车品牌与传统车企的战争似乎一触即发。
重难点词汇：
flaunt
[flɔːnt] v. 炫耀；飘扬；招展
burgeon
[ˈbɜːrdʒən] v. 发芽；迅速增长
