苹果用10年都没做到，为何小米只用三年就做到了|纽约时报

作者：一天一篇外刊          来源：一天一篇外刊

After nearly a decade of trying, Apple finally gave up its effort to produce an electric car last year, canceling a project that soaked up $10 billion.

去年，在经过近十年的不懈努力后，苹果公司决定终止电动汽车生产计划，放弃了一个投资高达100亿美元的项目。

But last year in China, the electronics maker Xiaomi launched its first electric car after just three years of development and delivered 135,000 vehicles. It has vowed to double that number in 2025.

去年，电子制造商小米仅用三年时间便成功推出了首款电动汽车，并实现了13.5万辆的交付量。更是信誓旦旦的承诺，到2025年，这一数字将翻倍。

Xiaomi’s ability to succeed where Apple could not shows how thoroughly China has come to dominate the supply chain for electric vehicles. Chinese companies have mastered electric vehicle manufacturing. By tapping that infrastructure, Xiaomi was able to get components quickly and cheaply.

小米能够在电动汽车领域取得突破，这彰显了中国在电动汽车供应链中的主导地位。凭借企业对电动汽车制造技术的熟练掌握，以及对汽车产业基础设施的有效利用，小米能够迅速且低沉本获取所需零部件。

More Chinese electric vehicle companies — including Leapmotor, Li Auto and Seres Group — are starting to turn a profit after burning cash for years in their intense competition for the world’s largest auto market.

在经过多年的激烈竞争和持续投入后，越来越多的中国电动汽车企业，诸如零跑汽车、理想汽车以及赛力斯集团，正逐步迈向盈利阶段，竞相角逐全球最大的汽车市场。

And Xiaomi is not the only Chinese consumer electronics company that has branched out to electric vehicles. The telecommunications giant Huawei, which the U.S. government has targeted with sanctions and legal action for years, is making autonomous driving software. Huawei has teamed up with multiple Chinese automakers, including Seres Group and the state-owned firms SAIC Motor, BAIC and Chery.

小米并非个案，众多消费电子企业也纷纷涉足电动汽车领域。其中，长期遭受美国政府打压的华为，正致力于自动驾驶软件的研发。华为已与多家中国汽车制造商建立了合作关系，涵盖了赛力斯集团以及上汽、北汽和奇瑞汽车等。

Xiaomi has long been compared to Apple. It made bets that its rivals rushed to imitate, like selling its low-cost, high-design phones mainly online. Its chief executive, Lei Jun, even dressed like the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in jeans and a black shirt, for Xiaomi’s first phone launch in 2011.

长期以来，小米一直与苹果对比。它通过采取一系列策略，如主打在线销售低成本且设计感十足的手机，引领了市场潮流，这些策略随后也被竞争对手纷纷效仿。小米在首款手机发布之际，首席执行官雷军甚至特意身着牛仔裤与黑色衬衫，以此向苹果联合创始人史蒂夫·乔布斯的经典风格致敬。

Xiaomi’s first electric car was brought out last March: the SU7, a four-door sedan with artificial intelligence features that can help with parking, play movies for passengers and program Xiaomi home appliances from the road. Mr. Lei said it looks like a Porsche. But at $30,000, it’s a quarter of the price.

去年3月，小米推出了首款电动汽车SU7，这是一款集四门设计与人工智能功能于一体的轿车。SU7不仅能够辅助停车、为乘客播放电影，还支持远程控制智能家居设备。雷军透露，SU7车型神似保时捷，而售价却仅为3万美元，这大约是保时捷同类车型的四分之一。

Xiaomi makes all kinds of electronics, from robot vacuum cleaners to air-conditioners, which are connected through its operating system and controlled in its app. The SU7 is, in some ways, just another gadget. It can use data collected from other devices about a driver’s daily routine to determine the best time to charge the car’s batteries.

小米涉足广泛的电子产品领域，从扫地机器人到空调一应俱全，这些设备均通过专属操作系统实现互联，并能在小米应用程序中进行统一控制。在某种意义上，SU7不过是小米智能生态中的又一款旗舰产品。它能够充分利用来自其他智能设备的海量数据，深入分析驾驶员的日常行为习惯，据此精准设定最佳的充电时段。

While the SU7 earned Xiaomi just a small fraction of the sales of China’s top electric vehicle makers, it puts Xiaomi among the Chinese companies that are dealing a major blow to foreign automakers’ long command over China’s market for premium cars. In the year since the SU7 went on sale, Porsche deliveries in China were down nearly 30 percent.

尽管SU7的销量在中国顶级电动汽车制造商的总销售额中仅占一小部分，但它却成功助力小米跻身至那些正逐步撼动外国汽车制造商在中国高端汽车市场长期统治地位的中国企业行列。自SU7上市的一年间，保时捷在中国的交付量遭遇了近30%的显著下滑。

On Thursday night in Beijing, Xiaomi released a high-end version, the SU7 Ultra, alongside a premium version of its latest smartphone. The company staged a flashy teaser for the car by racing a prototype around Germany’s Nürburgring racetrack, where, Xiaomi said, it set a record for “fastest four-door sedan.”

上周四。，小米在北京晚间隆重发布了高端车型SU7 Ultra，并同步推出了最新智能手机的旗舰版本。为了这款汽车的发布，小米精心准备了一场引人注目的预告活动，预告展示了在德国纽博格林赛道上进行的原型车测试。据小米宣称，SU7 Ultra在该赛道上创下了“最快四门轿车”的纪录。

Xiaomi also plans to release a sport utility vehicle, the YU7, this year, according to regulatory filings in China.

根据中国的监管文件，小米还计划在今年推出一款SUV，命名为YU7。

Intense competition at home has pushed many Chinese carmakers to flood the global auto market with affordable electric cars. Last year, BYD sold more than four million new cars worldwide.

国内汽车市场激烈竞争，这推动了众多汽车制造商纷纷加大向全球汽车市场供应价格亲民的电动汽车的力度。去年，比亚迪在全球范围内实现了超过400万辆新车的销售佳绩。

Xiaomi’s popularity as a maker of all kinds of consumer electronics gave it a deep well of knowledge about Chinese consumer preferences. On the first day SU7s were delivered, buyers could go to Xiaomi’s app store and get accessories to trick out the cars, like analog dashboard clocks and a row of physical switches that attach to a touch-screen panel.

小米，作为一家专注于生产多样化消费电子产品的公司，凭借其广泛的受欢迎度，对中国消费者的偏好有着深刻的理解。在SU7交付的首日，车主便能访问小米应用商店，选购各式各样的配件，以便对车辆进行个性化改装，比如安装模拟仪表盘时钟以及一排可置于触控屏上的实体开关，从而满足个性化需求。

“The strength of the brand puts Xiaomi ahead of a lot of their competitors,” said Tu Le, a managing director of the consultancy Sino Auto Insights. “That’s what it takes to sell cars globally, because it’s not just a consumer product, it’s an emotional product.”

小米凭借其品牌影响力，在众多竞争对手中脱颖而出，”咨询公司Sino Auto Insights的管理董事涂乐（Tu Le）指出，“要在全球范围内成功销售汽车，不仅需将其视作一种消费产品，更需深刻理解它蕴含的情感价值。

作者：一天一篇外刊          来源：一天一篇外刊