美国国家公共电台 NPR Chinese Electric Carmaker Aims To Become A Global Brand

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep in Beijing amid thousands of people in this city's Tiananmen Square. The Red Wall at the front of the Forbidden City is just behind me here. President Trump¹ comes to this city this week. He's going to meet China's leader, Xi Jinping, who was just confirmed as China's leader for another five years. It happened at the Great Hall of the People, this massive, columned building off to the side. President Xi has set ambitious goals for his country, goals that matter as President Trump comes here seeking better trade terms with China. China has goals to dominate industries of the future, including an industry we'll discuss this morning. We saw a sign of it as soon as we traveled to the southern city of Shenzhen and climbed into a taxi - an electric taxi.

So what's it like to drive this car?

LUI JUN FAN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: The driver whose name is Lui Jun Fan answered, OK. He's a restaurant owner whose business failed. So he put on sunglasses and climbed behind the wheel. His taxi runs quietly and is easy to drive but...

FAN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: "Let me tell you one problem," he says. "There aren't enough battery charging stations around here." He's heard of people fighting over them. His battery is not the world's best.

How many kilometers can you go without charging the car?

FAN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: He says his battery gets him about 180 miles per charge. He's heard from taxi passengers that American electric cars made by Tesla go farther. And what he's heard is true. But from China's perspective, the key point is that the battery is made in China. The government has set a goal to become the biggest player in what are called new energy vehicles - like hybrid² and electric - setting the stage for a quiet revolution in the auto³ industry.

You can hear that gentle whine⁴ of the electric motor. That's the only sound this car makes as we're driving through Shenzhen.

The driver is taking us outside the city to a place where we can learn more. The electric vehicle company - BYD - initials that stand for Build Your Dreams. Its investors⁵ include Warren Buffett, and its brand ambassador in China is Leonardo DiCaprio...

(SOUNDBITE OF BYD COMMERCIAL)

LEONARDO DICAPRIO: New energy can give us a new future...

INSKEEP: ...Whose face appears on ads at the corporate⁶ campus. BYD started making batteries years ago for phones and computers and, with help from government subsidies⁷, has expanded into battery-powered cars and even electric monorails like the one that runs overhead at the company headquarters. We climbed on board with Richard Li, the company's chief of public relations.

So I got to ask this question, have you ever been to Walt Disney World?

RICHARD LI: (Laughter) Yeah.

INSKEEP: I asked that because the monorail looks like the elevated trains that glide⁸ around Disney. It passes a parking garage.

FAN: So you see they have 10 floors, and each floor you have 40 spots, so you can charge 400 cars simultaneously⁹ here.

INSKEEP: Every single parking space is a charging station?

LI: Yes.

INSKEEP: Later we transferred to an oversized golf cart - battery-powered, of course - and ride past the factory entrance.

We're watching a shift change over here. Hundreds if not thousands of people walking out of the factory. Everybody in a blue shirt.

Close to 40,000 people work here. Some of them live in apartment buildings right on the property, four to a room with their laundry drying on balconies.

LI: Our goal - our objective - is to achieve complete transportation electrification¹⁰.

INSKEEP: Electrification of every kind of...

LI: Yes.

INSKEEP: ...Moving vehicle...

LI: Yes.

INSKEEP: ...Essentially¹¹.

For all of the grandeur¹² of its headquarters, BYD is not a big automaker yet. The company says it sold more than 100,000 hybrid or pure electric vehicles last year. That is a fraction of what Toyota sold with its hybrid the Prius. But BYD's stock value is soaring. It stands to benefit as China's government begins requiring all automakers to produce at least some new energy vehicles. That rule by China's central planners could reshape the global auto industry. To learn just how, we returned to Beijing to the home of a man with long experience in the Chinese auto business.

JACK¹³ PERKOWSKI: Jack Perkowski.

INSKEEP: Hey. Steve Inskeep.

PERKOWSKI: Nice to meet you.

INSKEEP: Jack Perkowski led the way into the elevator of his apartment building.

PERKOWSKI: You can experience my daily commute¹⁴.

INSKEEP: He works on one floor and lives on another.

Oh, what a lovely apartment.

PERKOWSKI: Thank you.

INSKEEP: Perkowski is an American who came here more than 20 years ago and put together an auto parts company.

PERKOWSKI: Individuals didn't have money. Companies didn't have money. Nobody had money. So all of a sudden, there's this guy running around China, visiting all these factories, saying that he was going to bring - or could bring - capital.

INSKEEP: Today it's different. China has access to almost limitless capital. And when the government decided¹⁵ the future belonged to new energy cars with those electric vehicle - or EV - batteries inside, Chinese entrepreneurs lunged at an opportunity.

PERKOWSKI: Do you know that now there are 140 companies in China - over 140 companies in China - making EV batteries? One hundred forty.

INSKEEP: Wow.

PERKOWSKI: And there are probably a half a dozen around the rest of the world. Are all of them good? No. No, not all them are good, but there are 140, and they're all putting on capacity.

INSKEEP: Years ago, China turned its attention to steel, and Chinese companies made so much of it they flooded the world market. The same could happen with electric vehicles and parts. There may be a place for American firms in all of this. Tesla says it plans to build a factory in China. And Jack Perkowski himself is now involved in founding an electric vehicle company. But Chinese firms will have a powerful government behind them. The people watching this include Alvin Lin - of the U.S.-based nonprofit the Natural Resources Defense¹⁶ Council - who works in Beijing.

ALVIN LIN: China really wants to dominate the world market in electric vehicles and - put very simply.

INSKEEP: Do you think that China could dominate the world market for electric vehicles?

LIN: Certainly. You know, I think in a way they already are.

INSKEEP: China's President Xi approaches this growing industry very differently than the president he will host this week. President Trump's proposed tax plan would eliminate tax credits for Americans who buy electric cars. And instead of a focus on new energy sources, President Trump promotes fossil fuels.

LIN: China is really - at the central level compared to the U.S. federal government - really viewing this as a strategic industry. So they're putting their weight behind it.

INSKEEP: China's biggest advantage is visible here. We're on a pedestrian bridge overlooking a Beijing thoroughfare, six lanes of auto traffic. China - not the United States - now has the world's biggest auto market, which gives China outsized influence no matter what President Trump may achieve when he comes here to Beijing this week. We will report from China throughout this week of the president's visit.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

3 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。

4 whine   

v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣

参考例句：

• You are getting paid to think,not to whine.支付给你工资是让你思考而不是哀怨的。
• The bullet hit a rock and rocketed with a sharp whine.子弹打在一块岩石上，一声尖厉的呼啸，跳飞开去。

5 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

6 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

7 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 glide   

n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝

参考例句：

• We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着，眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
• So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞，宛如滑翔。

9 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

10 electrification   

n.充电，电气化；起电；电化；带电

参考例句：

• Electrification of the countryside--yes, that, too, is impressive. 是的。农村电气化也是了不起的事。 来自演讲部分
• After electrification, it will readily stick to a wall or a ceiling. 起电后，它立即吸附到墙壁上或天花板上。 来自辞典例句

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 grandeur   

n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华

参考例句：

• The grandeur of the Great Wall is unmatched.长城的壮观是独一无二的。
• These ruins sufficiently attest the former grandeur of the place.这些遗迹充分证明此处昔日的宏伟。

13 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

14 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。