商业报道:丰田全球扩张计划

Scripts:

Behind The Wheel this morning, Toyota is in hot pursuit of the title of the world’s biggest automaker in global vehicle sales. This morning the company has released its plan to dethrone GM. And joining us this morning with more is CNBC’s auto¹ reporter Phil Lebeau. Phil, looks like they got a shot of this, doesn’t it?

Yeah, it could happen this year, Carl. The latest number is coming out of Tokyo this morning with Toyota’s president giving a press conference outlining the goal. And take a look at where the sales are for Toyota and General Motors. Last year, this year. Now this year, it's an estimate halfway² through the year, they are probably gonna end up tied. Toyota might be slightly ahead but next year Toyota is expected to pull ahead at 9.8 million vehicles. And then look at 2009, they are projected to build 10.4 million vehicles which would be the greatest number of vehicles built by an automaker ever in one year. Whether or not Toyota can match that was brought up to the President of Toyota Katsuaki Watanabe.and here is what he had to say this morning in Tokyo. He said that the company will take on all risks that are out there and all markets. And for Toyota that means aggressively expanding, not only in Europe and the United States where they come on strong, but also in China, India, Russia. That’s really where the growth globally is gonna come for Toyota. Quickly let's take a look at a chart comparing the shares of Toyota VS General Motors over the last three years. Every time I show this, I hear from investors³ who say enough already. We realize there is no comparison here, but it is worth we taking a look at, look at that up 43% over the last three years. And again, Toyota's expecting to set a record a one year sales by 2009 of 10.4 million vehicles. Carl?

You are not piling on, Phil, you are just bringing in the facts, right? (There you go.) You're just bringing in the facts. Stick around because we wanna dig deeper into what this means for the future of both Toyota and the big three. We're bringing in Michael Robinet. He is a vice⁴ president of Global Vehicle Forecasts with CSM worldwide. Uh, Michael, good morning to you.

Good morning.

Uh, I guess the question is (how) where is Toyota exposed? Compared to where GM is exposed, Toyota has already mentioned things like sub-prime here in the US, as some headwinds they are gonna face.

I think there is no doubt, everybody's gonna be facing its headwinds, Toyota, Honda, General Motors, everybody. But it is the different levels. Within North American though, Toyota is still putting the full-court press on Lexus, new full-size pickups, new Camry. They have a Corolla coming out next year. It’s relentless⁵, they're, they are not gonna stop.

Are they , are they , err⁶, more exposed to...to those growth markets like Russia and China that Phil was just talking about?

Uh, they're, they are very exposed to those growth markets. And, but that’s uh, that’s all been within the plan. They look at the brisk locations--the Brazil, Russia, India, China locations and they also look at what we call non-Japan Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tailand. They are gonna go very strong after those markets. They have the best breadth of any company on earth when it comes to the automotive industry.

Phil, err,I guess how, how easily could the big three unwind their own problems and get to a production level, a level of efficiency that would match Toyota’s?

Well, I think when you are looking at Toyota and General Motors on a global scale that GM has done a phenomenal job about leveraging⁷ its resources, particularly in Asia and in Korea and the Chevy brand is growing very aggressively over in Asia as well as in Europe. The key for General Motors is going to be to leverage⁸ that international exposure and those international assembly factories to do even more in those developing markets. You know, we focus so much on GM, Ford⁹ and Chrysler here in the United States. Yes, it’s the largest market in the world and they have problems here. But the future really is going to depend on what they can do globally. And that’s why you see even Chrysler realizing hey we have got to be more aggressive growing overseas because it’s primarily a North American automaker right now.

Yeah, China, is it the fastest growing automaker in China, Uh, Toyota is,uh, Michael?

Toyota is doing very well, so is General Motors actually. They are both doing extremely well in China. The real growth market that a lot of OEMs are looking at vehicle manufacture (is) India. That is one market that a lot of manufacturers are looking at. And right behind it is Russia.

Are the emerging markets’ margins¹⁰ are noticeably higher or lower out there?

Well, it,it’s a , it's a margin¹¹, it's a margin play but it’s also a market share play. If you can be well-set and get a good distribution network in those markets. You will be set for years to come but if you are late, you'll get a real problem.

Interesting, Michael, Phil, I mean I guess we will be talking about it when , if and when moment comes, but until then it’s awfully¹² interesting to speculate about, Michael Robinet and our own Phil Lebeau.

Notes:

full-court press: originally a basketball term, now refers to one's unrelenting best effort.

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

6 err   

vi.犯错误，出差错

参考例句：

• He did not err by a hair's breadth in his calculation.他的计算结果一丝不差。
• The arrows err not from their aim.箭无虚发。

7 leveraging   

促使…改变( leverage的现在分词 )； [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：

• De-leveraging is a painful process: it has barely begun. 去杠杆化是个痛苦的过程：它才刚刚开始。
• Archimedes said, saying: Give me a fulcrum, I can leveraging the Earth. 阿基米德说过一句话：给我一个支点，我可以撬动地球。

8 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

9 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。

10 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

11 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

12 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。