2014年经济学人 欧洲汽车制造商 豪车

Europe's carmakers

Polishing up

Cheap cars are not selling, so their makers¹ are betting on expensive ones

It's shiny, but who will buy it?

AN ARMY of buffers² attends to the cars at motor shows, continually polishing them to a level of otherworldly gleam. The sparkle they are putting on models from Europe's mass-market carmakers at the Paris show, which opened to the public on October 4th, is at odds³ with the lacklustre state of the automotive market. But it reflects growing, if misguided, optimism among the manufacturers that they can sell more cars for more money.

The carmakers' cheer is explained by a belief that the worst is over. Sales in Europe tumbled in the 2008 financial crisis, and have fallen every year since. Only 12.4m cars were sold in 2013, nearly 4m fewer than in 2007. But early this year a rebound⁴ began, and sales so far this year are up 6%.

Unfortunately, it already seems to be fading. Gloomier analysts⁵ predict that after an increase of just 2% for this year as a whole, there may be no growth in 2015. Even if the recovery is stronger, IHS, a research firm, expects that demand will remain well below pre-crisis levels in 2020.

This is grim for the firms which lean most heavily on Europe. PSA Peugeot-Citro?of France relies on the continent for almost three-quarters of revenues, though it hopes a recent tie-up with Dongfeng of China will boost sales there. Fiat⁶'s merger⁷ with Chrysler has provided insulation⁸, but as with Ford⁹ and General Motors, Europe is still an open wound. All the mass-market firms lost money in the region last year, with the exception of VW. Its expensive Audi and Porsche brands keep its profits rolling in. And like BMW and Daimler, it has done well in China, whose rich regard fancy German cars a status symbol.

Other parts of the world that had helped keep some carmakers going have hit trouble. Recession in Brazil has been bad for Fiat and Renault. Ford's European factories are among those suffering as sales in the big and hitherto profitable Russian market are falling because of Western sanctions over Ukraine. Russian car sales may fall by a third this year, to 2m.

Even after six years of falling sales, carmakers have not done enough to cut their excess capacity in western Europe. Haroon Hassan of Mitsubishi UFJ, a bank, reckons that together, their assembly lines are turning out just 65% of the 21m cars a year they could make at full tilt¹⁰. Analysts reckon they need to run at 70-80% just to break even.

GM and Ford have restructured the most, closing a couple of plants each. But governments and unions have prevented the scale of job cuts that might make a difference. PSA's closure of a car-assembly plant at Aulnay in 2013 was the first in France for 20 years. Workers at PSA and Renault have agreed to be more flexible, but only in return for a promise that no more factories will shut.

Instead of making more cuts, the mass-market carmakers are aspiring¹¹ to boost their volumes and margins¹² with new, premium-priced models. At the Paris show, PSA unveiled the latest designs for its upmarket DS range. Fiat wants its underused Italian plants to turn out Jeeps, Alfa Romeos and Maseratis. Ford's Vignale and Renault's Initiale Paris brands offer high-specification versions of lowlier cars.

They are pushing into a market that is already crowded. The upmarket German brands, and Jaguar¹³ Land Rover of Britain, have broadened their ranges to include more petite but pricey models. The big Japanese carmakers are relaunching their luxury marques. Moving upmarket is a long and expensive business for companies that do not have time or money to spare. And motorists do not value the mass-market companies' own brands enough to want to pay for more than basic models, no matter much polish is applied¹⁴.

1 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》

2 buffers   

起缓冲作用的人（或物）( buffer的名词复数 )； 缓冲器； 减震器； 愚蠢老头

参考例句：

• To allocate and schedule the use of buffers. 分配和计划缓冲器的使用。
• Number of times the stream has paused due to insufficient stream buffers. 由于流缓冲区不足导致流程暂停的次数。

3 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

4 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

5 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

6 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。

7 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

8 insulation   

n.隔离；绝缘；隔热

参考例句：

• Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。
• It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

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 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

11 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

12 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。

13 jaguar   

n.美洲虎

参考例句：

• He was green with envy when he saw my new Jaguar car.看见我那辆美洲虎牌新车，他非常妒忌。
• Should you meet a jaguar in the jungle,just turn slowly,walk away.But slowly,never look back.你在丛林中若碰上美洲虎，就慢慢转身走开，可一定要慢，切莫回头看。

14 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。