2016年经济学人 德国大众 征服全世界(上)

 

Volkswagen

大众汽车

VW conquers the world

大众征服世界

Germany’s biggest carmaker is leaving rivals in the dust

德国最大汽车制造商令对手望尘莫及

When Ferdinand Piech arrived as Volkswagen’s chief executive in 1993, things looked dire². The carmaker was overspending, overmanned and inefficient³, and had lost its reputation for quality. How things have changed: last year the VW group’s profits more than doubled, to a record 18.9 billion ($23.8 billion). As other European volume carmakers seek to close factories and cut jobs, VW is seizing market share in Europe, booming in China and staging a comeback in America. It plans to spend 76 billion on new models and new factories by 2016. Its global workforce⁵ is more than half a million, and growing.

1993年，当费迪南德·皮耶希出任大众所首席执行官时，这家汽车制造公司的处境十分糟糕——公司不仅经费超资、人员冗杂、效率低下，还丢掉了产品质优的牌子。如今时过境迁，大众集团去年利润翻了一番有余，以189亿欧元（238亿美元）创历史新高。正当欧洲其他年产汽车制造商试图关厂裁员时，大众集团却在欧洲抢占市场份额，在中国迅速蓬勃发展，在美国卷土重来。大众计划在2016年投入760亿欧元用于新车型的研发以及增设新工厂，公司现有全球劳动力逾50万，这一数字还在持续增长。

It took years for Mr Piech—now chairman, but still with his hands firmly on the wheel—to tame VW’s menagerie of semi-independent brands and get to grips with its global empire of factories. He has been a ruthless hirer and firer of executives: only last month Karl-Thomas Neumann was removed as head of VW’s Chinese operations, supposedly for his disappointing performance, despite the juicy profits VW is making in China. Mr Neumann had been talked of as a possible successor to the chief executive, Martin Winterkorn.

皮耶希先生现在虽已退居集团主席一职，却依然紧握大全，他在驯服大众旗下一系列半独立品牌，把握全球工厂帝国上耗费数年。他一直是冷酷无情雇主，也是执行官“杀手”——仅在上月，大众中国CEO倪凯明突遭撤换，尽管大众在中国的利润不菲，据猜测倪凯明是因其在华表现不佳而黯然离场。倪凯明先生曾被认作是继任首席执行官马丁·文德恩的热门人选。

Mr Piech is a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who founded VW after Hitler called in 1934 for the creation of a cheap “people’s car”, a Volkswagen. The Piech-Porsche clan⁶ controls both VW and Porsche, a sports-car maker¹ that is now being folded into VW after the failure of an overambitious and highly leveraged⁷ reverse takeover. On July 4th VW agreed to buy the 50.1% of Porsche it does not yet own for 4.46 billion.

皮耶希先生是费迪南德·保时捷的孙子。老费迪南德响应希特勒设计一款价格低廉，属于“人民大众的轿车”的号召，在1934年创立了大众公司。如今，皮耶希-保时捷家族同时打理大众和保时捷两个品牌。保时捷是跑车制造商，在一次雄心过大且高杠杆的反向收购失败后，被整合至大众麾下。今年7月4日，大众同意以44.6亿欧元的价格吞下保时捷余下的50.1%的股份。

VW is also buying Ducati, a maker of fancy motorbikes, and consolidating⁸ MAN and Scania, two lorrymakers, into its commercial-vehicles division. Yet still the firm remains⁹ hungry. It has long coveted¹⁰ Alfa Romeo, a premium¹¹-car division of Fiat¹²; and is rumoured¹³ to be eyeing up Navistar, an American lorrymaker. Mr Winterkorn nevertheless dismisses the suggestion that the group is getting unmanageably big.

大众公司还买下顶级摩托制造商杜卡迪，并将曼恩和斯堪尼亚这两家卡车制造商合并至旗下的商务车系。然而，大众依旧野心勃勃。它对菲亚特旗下的高档车品牌阿尔法·罗密欧觊觎已久，有谣传称大众还盯上了美国卡车制造商纳威司达。有人提议称大众集团正日趋壮大而变得难以管理，可是文德恩却对此不予理睬。

Mr Piech’s plan was for VW to become the world’s biggest carmaker by volume by 2018. Last year, however, as Toyota struggled with the aftermath of Japan’s tsunami¹⁴ and GM floundered in Europe, VW reached its goal seven years early (see chart), if you do not count Subaru, Toyota’s distant affiliate¹⁵, or GM’s Wuling joint¹⁶ venture in China, which mainly makes Chinese-branded cars.

皮耶希先生的计划是希望大众能在2018年坐上全球汽车销量头把交椅。可在去年，丰田公司在日本海啸余波中苦苦挣扎，美国通用在欧洲步履艰辛，如果不将丰田的远房分支斯巴鲁，或是通用在华合资企业，主要以生产中国品牌汽车的五菱公司计算在内，大众公司已提前7年实现目标（见上图）。

The 8.5m vehicles VW made last year cover all corners: Volkswagen, Skoda and SEAT in the mass market; Audi in premium cars; Porsche, Bugatti and Lamborghini in sports cars; Bentley at the luxury end; plus various commercial-vehicle brands. Most (SEAT excepted) are firing on all cylinders¹⁷. IHS Automotive, a forecaster, expects VW easily to beat its target of 11m sales by 2018.

大众公司去年生产的850万辆汽车覆盖了所有市场类型——大众市场内有大众、斯柯达以及西亚特；高档车市场有奥迪；跑车领域有保时捷、布加迪和兰博基尼；高端豪车里有宾利，外加诸多商务车品牌。除西亚特外，其余品牌销量大都一路领先。预测机构思迈汽车信息咨询公司称，大众公司有望在2018年轻松突破年1100万辆车的销售目标。

Fierce competition and regulatory pressure to develop alternative-fuel cars are forcing other makers⁴ to seek cost-sharing partnerships¹⁸. Toyota and BMW are teaming up on low-carbon technologies. GM’s Opel division in Europe is joining Peugeot-Citroen to make smaller cars. Daimler is edging towards a threesome with the Renault-Nissan alliance. Sergio Marchionne, the boss of Fiat and Chrysler, recently suggested merging¹⁹ several European makers to create “another Volkswagen”.

在代用燃料型汽车的研发上，其他汽车制造商面临着激烈的竞争，以及来自监管部门的压力，使制造商们不得不寻求能分摊成本的合作伙伴。丰田和宝马就正在低碳技术上进行合作。美国通用欧洲子公司欧宝携手标致雪铁龙一同制造小型轿车。戴姆勒则倾向于加入雷诺-尼桑联盟，玩三人行。菲亚特和克莱斯勒总裁塞尔吉奥·马尔基翁近期提议，将几家欧洲汽车制造商合并，组建起“另一个大众”。

Volkswagen has been better than its rivals at reducing the number of common “platforms” that its cars are built on. This allows it to offer a fabulous²⁰ variety of brands and styles while slashing²¹ manufacturing costs. The next stage, launched this year, is a versatile²² platform codenamed MQB, which will underpin²³ the VW Golf, Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and SEAT Leon, in all their variations.

在减少组装汽车的通用“平台”数量上，大众公司一直比竞争对手做的出色。而这方面的优势也让大众能在大刀阔斧削减制造成本的同时，极大程度的丰富旗下的品牌和车型。今年新发行的代码为MQB的多功能组装平台，将支持大众高尔夫系列，奥迪A3，斯柯达明锐系列，西亚特Leon以及上述系列衍生车型的组装。

Wolfsburg’s lone²⁴ wolf

狼堡的独狼

VW’s size means it seldom needs partnerships with rivals, says Mr Winterkorn. Perhaps this is just as well. Judging by its botched hook-up with Suzuki, a mid-sized Japanese maker, VW is not much good at romance. Suzuki’s boss, Osamu Suzuki, has filed for divorce and is taking VW to arbitration²⁵ to force it to sell its 19.9% stake in Suzuki. Among other things, he has complained of being treated like a subsidiary, rather than a partner. VW had hoped to develop cheap cars for emerging markets with Suzuki, which is big in India. Now it must do so alone, at considerable cost.

文德恩先生说，大众的规模决定了它几乎不需要同对手合作。事实或也诚然如此。从大众与日本中型汽车制造商铃木失败的联姻来看，大众实属不懂浪漫之辈。铃木总裁铃木修已向仲裁法院递交了“离婚”申请，希望通过仲裁以迫使大众返回其持有铃木的19.9%的股份。此外，铃木修还抱怨称，铃木更像是大众的子公司，而非合作伙伴。铃木在印度占有大量市场份额，大众曾期望能携手铃木，共同为新兴市场生产廉价车。如今，大众不得不以高昂的成本独自完成了。

In many of the 26 countries where VW has factories, it has been around long enough to be seen as a domestic firm, so protectionists usually leave it alone. The founding family’s controlling shareholding²⁶, and a blocking stake held by the state of Lower Saxony, where VW is headquartered, allow it to resist short-term pressures to pull out of any market that turns difficult. Rivals envy the stability this brings, especially just now, says Mr Winterkorn.

在大众设厂的26个国家中，被看做国企，故不受保护主义分子的骚扰。大众公司的股权受创始家族掌控，而拦截性股权又由总部所在的下萨克森州州政府持有，这便使公司在市场转难的时候可以抵御短期压力，及时抽身。文德恩先生说，大众的对手们都羡慕这种关系所带来的稳定，尤其是现在。

VW can cope with a collapse²⁷ of the European car market. Others must make deep cuts—or perhaps even, in the case of GM (which has lost $16 billion in Europe since 1999) and Ford²⁸ (which gave warning on June 28th of deepening losses there), pull out of the continent altogether.

如果欧洲汽车市场崩溃，大众可轻松应付。其他汽车制造商则不得不大幅削减，甚至退出欧洲大陆市场，例如自1999年至今损失160亿美元的美国通用公司，以及在6月28日对欧洲损失预警的福特公司。

1 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

2 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

3 inefficient   

adj.效率低的，无效的

参考例句：

• The inefficient operation cost the firm a lot of money.低效率的运作使该公司损失了许多钱。
• Their communication systems are inefficient in the extreme.他们的通讯系统效率非常差。

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

6 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

7 leveraged   

促使…改变( leverage的过去式和过去分词 )； [美国英语]杠杆式投机，（使）举债经营，（使）利用贷款进行投机

参考例句：

• Chrysler has traditionally been a highly leveraged company. 克莱斯勒一向是一家周转十分灵活的公司。
• Leveraged recaps have become popular for a number of reasons. 杠杆资本重组的大行其道有好几个原因。

8 consolidating   

v.（使）巩固， （使）加强( consolidate的现在分词 )；（使）合并

参考例句：

• These measures are meant for consolidating the system of basic medical care. 这些举措旨在夯实基层医疗体系，让老百姓看大病不必出远门。 来自互联网
• We are consolidating the Chinese and English versions of our homepage. 我们将为您提供中英文版本一起的主页。 来自互联网

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 coveted   

adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图

参考例句：

• He had long coveted the chance to work with a famous musician. 他一直渴望有机会与著名音乐家一起工作。
• Ther other boys coveted his new bat. 其他的男孩都想得到他的新球棒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

12 fiat   

n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布

参考例句：

• The opening of a market stall is governed by municipal fiat.开设市场摊位受市政法令管制。
• He has tried to impose solutions to the country's problems by fiat.他试图下令强行解决该国的问题。

13 rumoured   

adj.谣传的；传说的；风

参考例句：

• It has been so rumoured here. 此间已有传闻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. 有人传说陪审团要退场很久。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

14 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

15 affiliate   

vt.使隶(附)属于；n.附属机构，分公司

参考例句：

• Our New York company has an affiliate in Los Angeles.我们的纽约公司在洛杉矶有一个下属企业。
• What is the difference between affiliate and regular membership?固定会员和附属会员之间的区别是什么？

16 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

17 cylinders   

n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物

参考例句：

• They are working on all cylinders to get the job finished. 他们正在竭尽全力争取把这工作干完。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• That jeep has four cylinders. 那辆吉普车有4个汽缸。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

19 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

20 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

21 slashing   

adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Slashing is the first process in which liquid treatment is involved. 浆纱是液处理的第一过程。 来自辞典例句
• He stopped slashing his horse. 他住了手，不去鞭打他的马了。 来自辞典例句

22 versatile   

adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的

参考例句：

• A versatile person is often good at a number of different things.多才多艺的人通常擅长许多种不同的事情。
• He had been one of the game's most versatile athletes.他是这项运动中技术最全面的运动员之一。

23 underpin   

v.加固，支撑

参考例句：

• China needs regional stability to underpin its continued economic growth.中国需要地区稳定来巩固其持续的经济增长。
• These developments are underpinned by solid progress in heavy industry.重工业的稳固发展为这些进展打下了基础。

24 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

25 arbitration   

n.调停，仲裁

参考例句：

• The wage disagreement is under arbitration.工资纠纷正在仲裁中。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding.双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

26 shareholding   

n.股权

参考例句：

• Shareholding commercial banks must exercise an independent system of board of directors. 股份制商业银行必须实行独立董事制度。 来自互联网
• Asset re-structuring: to conduct shareholding reform for high quality assets. 资产重组：对优质资产进行股份制改造。 来自互联网

27 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

28 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。