Britain’s unusual stance on Chinese electric vehicles
英国对中国电动车的奇怪立场
Unlike America or Europe, Britain is welcoming the cheap cars—for now
不像美国或欧洲，英国目前对廉价车持开放态度。
2024年8月29日 04:50 上午
ASHORT WALK down the road from Berkeley Square in Mayfair, a swish part of London, sits a BYD showroom. The Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturer set up shop there last year. Rolls-Royce displays its luxury cars just across the street, having first taken up in the neighbourhood in 1932. BYD probably doesn’t mind the association.
在伦敦时髦的梅菲尔区伯克利广场附近，有一家比亚迪展厅。这家中国电动汽车制造商去年就开业了。对面是劳斯莱斯展示他们的豪华车，他们早在1932年就进驻了这个地方。可能比亚迪并不介意与劳斯莱斯扯上关系。
BYD clearly hopes to pitch its vehicles as aspirational. But their real allure is that they are affordable. One model on display, the Dolphin, sells for around £25,000 ($33,000); British car reviewers have called the pricing “attractive” and “impressively low”. What really worries BYD’s Western rivals is that there is plenty of room for prices to fall. In China the Dolphin sells for 99,800 yuan, or just over £10,000. An analysis by Rhodium Group, a consultancy, found that BYD could cut its prices in Europe by 30% and still make the same profit per car that it does in China.
比亚迪显然希望把他们的车打造成人们向往的梦想之车。但它们真正吸引人的地方在于价格实惠。其中一款展出的车型叫海豚，售价约为2.5万英镑（3.3万美元）；英国汽车评论家称这个价格“很有吸引力”和“非常低廉”。让比亚迪西方竞争对手真正担心的是，这些车还有大幅降价空间。在中国，海豚售价为9.98万元人民币，相当于1.02万英镑左右。咨询公司罗迪欧集团（Rhodium Group）进行了分析发现，比亚迪可以在欧洲将价格降低30%，同时仍能保持与中国市场同样的利润水平。
Consumers are gradually cottoning on to the appeal of Chinese EVs. Seeing an Ora, Maxus, MG or BYD marque on the road in Britain still feels noteworthy. On current trends, that won’t be the case for long. Chinese brands now make up around 10% of new EV sales in Britain, up from around 3-4% five years ago (see chart). Those figures, if anything, understate China’s increasing role in the car market because Western brands are also shifting carmaking to China. According to data from JATO Dynamics, an automotive-research firm, 22% of EVs registered in Britain (and 7.5% of all cars) are now made in China.
消费者慢慢开始意识到中国电动车的吸引力。在英国看到欧拉、上汽大通、名爵或比亚迪的车开在路上还是挺引人注目的。但按照现在的趋势，这种情况不会持续太久了。目前，中国品牌在英国新电动车销量中占比约为10%，而五年前只有3%到4%左右（见图表）。这些数字可能低估了中国在汽车市场中日益增长的影响力，因为西方品牌也把生产线移到了中国。根据汽车研究公司JATO Dynamics的数据显示，如今英国注册的电动车中有22%（所有汽车总数的7.5%）是中国制造。
More affordable cars are welcome news for households: EVs are more expensive than their petrol equivalents for now, but the gap is narrowing fast. Making it cheaper to get around ought to be a welcome spur to growth. Speedy EV penetration is critical for the government’s decarbonisation goals. But these arguments also apply in America and the European Union, and they are both instituting hefty tariffs on Chinese cars to discourage imports and shield domestic carmakers. On August 26th Canada said that it was following suit.
更便宜的车对家庭来说是个好消息：现在电动车比汽油车贵，但差距正在迅速缩小。这样出行成本更低肯定会刺激经济增长。政府要实现减排目标，电动车普及速度很关键。不过，美国和欧盟也有同样的考虑，他们都对中国汽车加了高额关税，打压进口保护本土制造商。加拿大也表示会效仿他们在8月26日。
Wisely, Britain’s new Labour government has so far largely leant away from such protectionism. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said in July that he was not planning to ask the independent Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to investigate Chinese EVs, a necessary first step towards tariffs. Britain’s own car industry, which can also demand an investigation, has held off, too.
英国的新工党政府明智地迄今为止大多避开了这种保护主义做法。商务大臣乔纳森·雷诺兹在7月份表示，他没有计划要求独立的贸易救济局(TRA)对中国电动车进行调查，这是征收关税所必需的第一步。英国自己的汽车行业也可以提出调查请求，但目前也选择观望。
Why the different approach? The main motivation is likely to be fear of retaliatory tariffs. China is a big export market for high-end producers like Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Bentley, which make up a big chunk of Britain’s car industry. And China would be unlikely to limit its retaliation to the car industry. Scottish salmon and whisky might be juicy targets; China buys lots of both products and Labour is loth to risk alienating voters north of the border.
为什么采取不同的策略？主要原因可能是担心遭到报复性关税。中国对于劳斯莱斯、捷豹和宾利等高端制造商来说是一个重要的出口市场，它们占英国汽车工业的很大一部分。而且中国不太可能只针对汽车行业进行报复。苏格兰三文鱼和威士忌可能成为诱人的目标；中国进口这两种产品都很多，工党不愿得罪北方选民。
Advocates of trade barriers on Chinese EVs also raise security concerns. Modern cars gather vast amounts of data. Sensors scan road conditions; on- board computers connect to passengers’ smartphones; voice-control systems record conversations. The Chinese military has banned Tesla vehicles from its facilities since 2021, citing security issues with their on- board cameras. A Chinese carmaker should not be supplying ministerial cars in Britain—no matter how cheap. And there may come a point when Chinese EVs exert too much control over the market for comfort.
对中国电动车征收关税的支持者还担心安全问题。现代汽车会收集大量数据，传感器扫描道路状况，车载电脑连接乘客手机，语音控制系统记录对话。由于担心车内摄像头存在安全隐患，中国军方自2021年起已禁止特斯拉进入其设施。无论多便宜，一家中国汽车制造商都不应该向英国提供部长级用车。而且可能会有这样的时候，中国电动车对市场的控制力让人感到不安。
But what distinguishes Chinese EVs is less their usefulness for surveillance and more that they are increasingly competitive. For cameras, smart toasters and more, Chinese manufacturers have an incentive to behave well because any whiff of association with spying would be commercially harmful. The logic isn’t any different behind the steering wheel.
但是让中国电动车与众不同的并不是它们用于监视的功能，而是它们变得越来越有竞争力。对于摄像头、智能烤面包机等产品，中国制造商都有动力表现良好，因为任何与间谍活动相关的传闻都会对商业产生负面影响。这个逻辑在驾驶座后面也一样适用。
