China Is on Course to Build the Best Cars in the World中国正在打造世界上最好的汽车

Europeans and other western nations have dominated automotive excellence for over a century.

一个多世纪以来，欧洲等西方国家一直主导着汽车行业的发展。

Whether it is the satisfying thud of the door closing on a Volkswagen from Wolfsburg， or the beauty of a Ferrari from Modena， these brands are iconic—and very lucrative1 for their manufacturers. When we think of reliability， the Germans， and latterly the Japanese， have had it sewn up2.

无论是来自沃尔夫斯堡的大众汽车令人舒适的关门声，还是出自摩德纳的法拉利的优美线条，这些品牌都是标志性的——对其制造商来说是巨大的摇钱树。在可靠性方面，德国，以及后来的日本，已经做到万无一失。

But if you rest on your laurels3， an upstart will soon be chasing at your heels.

但是，如果你安于现状，后起之秀很快就会赶上你的脚步。

The Chinese are not exactly upstarts in the traditional sense： it’s more than a decade since they surpassed America to become the most prolific carmakers in the world. But despite reaching that milestone in 2008， China’s cars were still mostly clones of cheap western vehicles.

中国并非完全是传统意义上的新秀：它超越美国成为世界上产量最大的汽车制造国已有十多年。不过，尽管2008年就达到了这一里程碑，但中国汽车过去多数仍是西方廉价汽车的翻版。

Now， however， China is arguably producing the best cars in the world， and is on track to dominate auto manufacturing. How did this happen， and will the West be able to regain its crown？

然而，当今中国可谓正在生产世界上最好的汽车，并有望在汽车制造业中占据主导地位。中国是如何做的？西方国家又能否再次夺回王位？

The centre of excellence in car manufacturing moved from Europe at the turn of the 1900s to the US with the growth of Detroit as the world’s auto powerhouse. The 1980s and 1990s saw Japan and South Korea surge ahead， only for Europe to rise again in the early noughties4 as Volkswagen duelled5 Toyota to be number-one manufacturer by output.

19世纪末20世纪初，随着底特律成为世界汽车工业重镇，汽车制造业的中心从欧洲转移至美国。20世纪80年代和90年代，日本和韩国二马当先，直到本世纪初，大众汽车与丰田汽车争夺产量第一的制造商地位，欧洲才再度崛起。

Each continent has added its own flavour along the way， from innovation in safety in Europe， to volume production in the US， to lean manufacturing in Japan.

从欧洲的安全创新，到美国的批量生产，再到日本的精益制造，各大洲都在发展过程中融入了自己的特色。

China has gradually built its auto-making capabilities during these different eras. It originally began making Soviet-designed utility vehicles under licence in the 1950s， before its state-owned companies reached similar arrangements in joint ventures with western manufacturers such as General Motors and Volkswagen in the 1980s. This produced cars that were far better designed and more sophisticated， and soon China’s roads were becoming choked with western clones.

经历各个时代，中国逐渐发展起自己的汽车制造能力。20世纪50年代，中国获得许可，开始生产苏联设计的多用途汽车;到了80年代，中国国企与通用汽车和大众汽车等西方制造商达成类似的合资协议，生产的汽车设计精巧得多、工艺也精密得多，中国的道路很快就挤满了这些西方同款车。

The goal for any automotive nation is to produce vehicles of outstanding quality at the lowest possible price， simultaneously delighting the owner with innovative features and good design.

任何汽车制造国的目标都是以尽可能低的成本生产质量卓越的汽车，同时以新颖的功能和精美的设计取悦车主。

Vehicle quality is both about simple reliability and also what we would describe as build quality： how well the vehicle is finished， the uniformity of the paint finish， how well the different panels on the body align， and even—as Volkswagen made famous—the sound the doors make when they close.

汽车质量不仅关乎可靠性，也关乎所谓的制造品质：车辆的精加工，油漆的均匀度，车身不同板块的嵌合度，甚至是——大众汽车的名气所在——车门关闭时的响声。

Japanese and Korean vehicles have dominated reliability， while build quality has been the preserve of the Germans for mass-manufactured cars， and British names like Rolls-Royce and Bentley at the luxury end （ironically both are owned by the Germans）.

日本汽车和韩国汽车在可靠性方面一直占据优势，而在量产车的制造品质上，德国企业一贯独占鳌头，豪车领域则专属劳斯莱斯和宾利等英国品牌（讽刺的是，这两个品牌如今均归德国企业所有）。

China is now a major threat on both fronts： as each new nation learns to produce vehicles at scale， they benefit from all the learning and technical developments that have gone before. Incumbent nations would have to start from the ground up to unlock these benefits， which is an enormous upheaval and expense.

中国如今在两方面都势头凶猛：每个新兴国家开始大规模生产汽车时，都会受益于此前所有的经验积累和技术开发。老牌国家则不得不从头做起才能吃到这些红利，而这会引发巨大动荡并付出高昂代价。

China is also well placed to build cars for the right price. It still pays relatively low wages and has millions of skilled workers steeped in the nation’s strong manufacturing culture. Skilled workers are vital to reducing automotive costs because they make vehicles that need fewer adjustments or rebuilds.

中国还有条件生产价格适当的汽车。它仍然只需支付相对较低的薪资，还坐拥深受本国浓厚制造业文化熏陶的数百万熟练工人。熟练工人对于降低汽车成本至关重要，因为他们生产的车辆较少需要调校或重装。

China also has excellent shipping links， with many auto factories close to Shanghai， the world’s largest shipping port. This includes Tesla’s gigafactory6， one of the largest facilities in the world， capable of producing about 2，000 cars daily. Getting the product out， shipped and with the customer quickly reduces costs because manufacturers get paid sooner.

中国还拥有出色的航运网络，许多汽车厂靠近上海这个世界最大的航运港口。其中就包括特斯拉的超级工厂，它是世界上最大的工厂之一，每天大约能生产2000辆汽车。快速推出产品、装船运输、接洽客户可以降低成本，因为制造商会更快收回货款。

Also crucially important is China’s huge components supply-chain， which is already a large exporter of car parts to other nations. This all adds up to huge economies of scale that don’t exist anywhere else， and are difficult to replicate.