Visitors inspect a BYD Seal electric sedan at the Munich Motor Show. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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这是纽约气候周的开始,纽约将接待世界各国领导人参加一年一度的联合国大会。美国昨日举行了数年来的首次大规模抗议活动。欲了解本周活动的无限报道,请订阅 Bloomberg。
今天的时事通讯着眼于欧盟对中国电动汽车补贴的调查,以及为什么它们可能不是解决方案。你也可以在Bloomberg.com上阅读并分享这个故事。
译文
欧洲的中国电动汽车问题
欧盟领导人表示,他们对“中国补贴是否使其公司在电动汽车市场上处于不利地位”的调查源于之前的焚烧。
注意:
1.giving someone an unfair advantage 使得 XXX 处于不利地位
2.stems from being burning before 源于之前的焚烧?
欧盟委员会主席 Ursula von der Leyen 上周在宣布调查时表示:“我们没有忘记中国的不公平贸易行为是如何影响我们的太阳能行业的。”。她指的是21世纪末,廉价的中国太阳能电池板涌入市场,削弱了许多欧洲竞争对手的竞争力。
保护主义是当今欧洲和美国的口头禅,因此看到另一个贸易前沿受到审查也就不足为奇了。根据欧盟委员会的数据,汽车行业在欧盟创造了近1400万个就业岗位,约占总就业人数的6%。随着中国自主品牌在欧洲大陆电动汽车销量中的份额从2020年的1%提高到近6%,这可能会使得欧洲车企受到威胁。
注意:
1.mantra 口头禅。原意是颂歌
但与太阳能的比较可能会让欧洲吸取错误的教训。虽然太阳能和电动汽车都是需求激增的绿色产品,但中国在这两项技术上的领先优势截然不同。
注意:
1.experiencing soaring demand 需求激增
这家亚洲巨头从21世纪初开始补贴太阳能制造业,其明确意图是为欧洲不断增长的电池板市场提供服务。这是一项以出口为导向的投资,成功地打败欧洲的生产,其中包括其最大的制造商之一,德国Q-Cells公司。在太阳能电池板涌入国外市场后,中国才制定了自己的国内太阳能部署激励措施,使其在不到十年的时间内成为世界上最大的太阳能市场。
注意:
1.intent of 意图做某事
2.succeeded in crushing European production 成功击败欧洲生产
相比之下,中国对电动汽车和锂离子电池的投资始于当地。2000年,中国平均每个公民每年消耗约一桶石油,而美国公民消耗20桶。亚洲经济永远负担不起如此巨额的石油进口账单,这意味着(美国)需要找到一种替代方式来为汽车提供动力。译者注,这里的含义是,亚洲还能源的动力是比不上北美地区。
这一努力的核心是汽车工程师万钢,他在21世纪初从德国搬回中国,开始了一个秘密的研究项目,该项目将帮助他的国家制造不依赖石油的新能源汽车。他的首要任务是在2008年北京奥运会上展示中国制造的电动汽车。但直到2015年,中国才开始在电动汽车制造领域占据世界主导地位,直到今年,中国才成为世界上最大的汽车出口国。
与欧洲太阳能共公司不同(其被中国公司的竞争搞得措手不及),该地区的老牌汽车制造商有近20年的时间来追赶中国,但他们即将占据主导地位的警告基本上都是悄无声息地到来。
注意:
1.were caught off guard 被搞得措手不及
2.catch up with A 追赶A
3.largely went unheededly 大面积地、悄无声息地到来
意大利汽车工业协会Anfia的负责人Roberto Vavassori说:“我们面临着巨大的竞争力问题。”。Vavassori 对欧盟的调查表示欢迎,但承认这还不够。贸易壁垒本身并没有振兴欧洲的太阳能制造业,也不太可能拯救其汽车制造商。
Bloomberg NEF 的运输分析师 Siyi Mi 表示,虽然限制措施对电动汽车进口的影响可能比对太阳能电池板的影响更大,但欧洲监管机构很难在中国政府的支持和更便宜的汽车之间划清界限。
中国已经停止了对电动汽车的大部分消费者补贴,留下了其他类型的补贴,Mi 说这些补贴很难追踪。调查可能会持续一年,在此期间,中国企业竞争力将加强,及时没有到达政府支持力度,这些政策力度点燃行业的城镇,在上一个十年。
然而,如果欧洲政策制定者真的决定设置壁垒,它们可能比限制太阳能进口更有效。在这种情况下,中国公司只是将供应链中更简单的部分(如组装模块)转移到东南亚国家,同时保持其在全球太阳能市场的主导地位。但汽车需要数千个零件,将组装转移到另一个国家将更加昂贵,耗时更长。
Mi 表示,欧盟的担忧可能也被夸大了。太阳能电池板是由德国品牌还是中国品牌制造,对消费者来说无关紧要。汽车品牌的情况并非如此,它们的忠诚度要高得多。“在大多数大型汽车市场中,区域品牌占大多数,”她说。
原文
Europe’s China EV problem
European Union leaders say their investigation into whether Chinese subsidies are giving its companies an unfair advantage in the electric-vehicle market stems from being burned before.
“We have not forgotten how China’s unfair trade practices affected our solar industry,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when announcing the probe last week. She was referring to how cheaper Chinese solar panels flooded the market in the late 2000s, undercutting many European competitors.
Protectionism is the mantra these days in Europe and the US, so it’s not surprising to see another trade frontier come under scrutiny. The auto industry is responsible for nearly 14 million jobs in the EU, covering about 6% of total employment, according to figures from the European Commission. That may be under threat as China-owned brands have increased their share of the continent’s EV sales to nearly 6% from as little as 1% in 2020.
But the comparison to solar may lead Europe to draw the wrong lessons. While solar and EVs are both green products experiencing soaring demand, China gained leads in each of those technologies quite differently.
The Asian giant began subsidizing solar manufacturing in the early 2000s with the express intent of servicing a growing market for panels in Europe. It was an export-oriented investment which succeeded in crushing European production, including one of its largest makers, the German company Q-Cells. China created its own domestic incentives for solar deployment only after its panels had flooded foreign markets — allowing it to become the world’s largest market for solar in less than a decade.
In contrast, China’s investments in EVs and lithium-ion batteries to power them began with a local focus. China consumed, on average, about one barrel of oil per citizen each year in 2000, whereas US citizens consumed 20 barrels. The Asian economy could never afford an oil import bill of that magnitude, which meant it needed to find an alternative way to power its cars.
At the heart of that push was Wan Gang, an auto engineer who moved back to China from Germany in the early 2000s to begin a secretive research project that would help his country build new-energy vehicles that would not rely on oil. His first major task was to showcase Chinese-built EVs at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But it wasn’t until 2015 that China began dominating the world in EV manufacturing and only this year will it become the world’s largest car exporter.
Unlike European solar companies that were caught off guard by Chinese competition, the region’s legacy automakers have had nearly two decades to catch up with China, but warnings of their coming dominance largely went unheeded.
“We have a massive competitiveness problem,” said Roberto Vavassori, who heads Italy’s automotive industry association Anfia. Vavassori welcomed the EU probe but admitted that it won’t be enough. Trade barriers alone did not revitalize Europe’s solar manufacturing and are unlikely to save its automakers.
While restrictions might have a bigger impact on EV imports than they did on solar panels, it will be challenging for European regulators to draw a clear line between Chinese state support and cheaper vehicles, says Siyi Mi, BloombergNEF’s transport analyst.
China has discontinued much of its consumer subsidies for EVs, leaving other kinds of subsidies, which Mi said are much harder to trace. The probe may go on for a year, during which Chinese competitiveness is likely to only strengthen even without the level of government support that fueled the industry’s growth in the previous decade.
However, if European policymakers do decide to put barriers in place, they could be more effective than restrictions against solar imports. In that case, Chinese companies simply shifted simpler parts of the supply chain, such as assembling modules, to Southeast Asian countries while maintaining their dominance of the global solar market. But cars need thousands of parts and moving assembly to another country will be much more expensive and will take longer.
The EU’s fears may also be overstated, according to Mi. Whether solar panels are made by a German brand or a Chinese brand matter little to the consumer. That’s not the case with car brands, which command much higher loyalty. “Regional brands make up the majority in most big auto markets,” she said.