Volvo Rolls Out All-Electric SUV Aimed at First-Time Buyers


沃尔沃正押下重注，打算凭藉尺寸较小、定价较低的纯电动SUV EX30说服那些精打细算的消费者购买电动汽车。


沃尔沃首席执行官Jim Rowan在米兰举行的EX30车型发布会上。

沃尔沃(Volvo)正押下重注，打算凭藉一款尺寸较小、定价较低的纯电动SUV说服那些精打细算的消费者购买电动汽车。 6park.com
Volvo is making a big bet that a smaller, cheaper all-electric SUV can help convince budget-minded buyers to go electric.  6park.com
   
由中国浙江吉利控股集团(Zhejiang Geely Holding Group)控股的沃尔沃汽车(Volvo Cars)周三在米兰发布了纯电动SUV EX30。这款汽车的尺寸比沃尔沃七人座纯电动SUV EX90要小得多，后者将于明年开始在工厂量产。 6park.com
Volvo Cars, which is majority owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, unveiled the EX30 all-electric SUV in Milan on Wednesday. It is a significantly smaller SUV than its all-electric, seven-seater cousin, the EX90, which is due to start rolling out of factories next year. 6park.com
   
尺寸更大的EX90起售价在欧洲超过10.9万美元，在美国则低至8万美元。沃尔沃希望通过这款车与特斯拉(Tesla, TSLA)和德国高端品牌梅赛德斯-奔驰(Mercedes-Benz)、宝马(BMW)、奥迪(Audi)展开竞争，争取经济条件较好的郊区买家。 6park.com
Volvo hopes that the bigger model, starting at more than $109,000 in Europe and as low as $80,000 in the U.S., will compete with vehicles from Tesla and German premium brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi for well-heeled suburbanite buyers. 6park.com
   
同时，尺寸较小的EX30面向那些成本意识更强的消费者，如购买第一辆新车的大学毕业生，或需要第二辆车来作为市区出行交通工具的家庭。沃尔沃正在接受EX30预订，并将很快开始在其中国工厂生产，该公司高管称，首批EX30将在年底前运至展销厅。 6park.com
The smaller EX30, meanwhile, is aimed at more cost-conscious consumers, such as college grads shopping for their first new car or households that need a second car to get around town. Volvo is taking orders for the EX30 now and production will begin at its factory in China soon, executives said, with the first vehicles arriving in showrooms by year-end.  6park.com
   
沃尔沃首席执行官骆文襟(Jim Rowan)在EX30的发布会上表示：“我们全身心投入，我们全力以赴发展电动车。” 6park.com
“We are fully committed, we are all-in on electrification,” Volvo Chief Executive Officer Jim Rowan said as he unveiled the car. 6park.com
   
在美国，配备磷酸铁锂电池的EX30起售价约3.5万美元，略低于汽油版的XC40，比电动版的XC40便宜不少，在此之前XC40是沃尔沃价位最低的电动车。 6park.com
In the U.S., the EX30 starts at around $35,000 when equipped with a lithium ferrophosphate battery, making the car a tad cheaper than the XC40 gasoline version and significantly less expensive than the electric XC40, previously Volvo’s cheapest electric car. 6park.com
   
沃尔沃的EX30再次反映出汽车行业的一个趋势，厂商纷纷推出更平价的电动SUV来满足对这类汽车的旺盛需求，并为消费者尝试电动车提供更经济的方式。在其他插电式车型价格飙升之际，通用汽车(General Motors, GM)已宣布，计划发布一款售价在3万美元左右的雪佛兰(Chevrolet)电动SUV，目标人群是对价格较为敏感的买家。 6park.com
Volvo’s EX30 is the latest example of how carmakers are pushing out less expensive electric SUVs to tap the burgeoning demand for these vehicles and give consumers a more affordable way to wade into electric cars. General Motors has already said it is planning to release an electric Chevrolet SUV priced around $30,000, targeting cost-conscious buyers as prices soar on other plug-in models. 6park.com
   
沃尔沃高管说，还将推出价格更高、性能更强版本的EX30，使用更大的镍锰钴电池。 6park.com
More expensive, higher-performance versions of the EX30 using bigger nickel manganese cobalt batteries will also be available, Volvo executives said.  6park.com
   
骆文襟称，EX30将于今年晚些时候在中国投产，并在第四季度首先向欧洲交付，稍后向美国的经销商交付。 6park.com
The EX30 is set to go into production in China later this year and be delivered first to Europe in the fourth quarter and a little later to U.S. dealers, Rowan said.  6park.com
   
该公司希望这款新SUV能够助其解决传统汽车制造商在电动化转型中面临的最大挑战之一：为争取到对电动车持怀疑态度的消费者以及在未来几年实现雄心勃勃的电动车目标，它们必须提供更多价格实惠的车型。 6park.com
The company hopes the new SUV can help it address one of the biggest challenges conventional carmakers face in their electric shift: To win over skeptical consumers and meet ambitious EV goals over the next few years, they have to offer more affordable cars.  6park.com
   
沃尔沃首席商务官Bjorn Annwall说：“这对那些还没有孩子的人来说意义重大，尤其是对那些还不相信电动汽车适合他们的人来说。” 6park.com
“This is huge for people who don’t have kids yet, especially for people who are not yet convinced that electric cars will work for them,” said Björn Annwall, Volvo’s chief commercial officer. 6park.com
   
消费者研究机构Jato Dynamics的分析师Felipe Munoz说，去年，所有制造商的小型电动SUV的全球销量几乎翻了一番，达到637,000辆，占电动汽车总销量的9%。这使得该领域成为增长最快的汽车市场之一。 6park.com
Last year, global sales of small electric SUVs of all manufacturers nearly doubled to 637,000 vehicles, or 9% of total electric-car sales, said Felipe Munoz, an analyst with Jato Dynamics, a consumer-research group. That makes the segment one of the fastest-growing car markets.  6park.com
   
沃尔沃将在与吉利汽车共用的一家中国工厂生产EX30，通过共享技术节约成本。 6park.com
Volvo is building the EX30 at a Chinese factory it shares with Geely Auto to take advantage of cost savings through shared technology.  6park.com
   
这款小型四门轿车采用了很多技术，如泊车辅助和车门上的传感器，如果有人骑自行车经过，会警告不要开车门。大量使用回收的钢和铝帮助该公司削减了成本。中控台后方安装条状音箱，取代了通常安装在车门上的扬声器。 6park.com
The small four-door is packed with technology, such as parking assist and sensors in the doors that warn against opening if a cyclist is riding past. The extensive use of recycled steel and aluminum helped the company cut costs. The typical array of speakers in the car doors is replaced with a single soundbar under the dashboard.  6park.com
   
沃尔沃以其斯堪的纳维亚风格的设计元素为傲：车内照明方案被赋予“极昼”(Midnight Sun)这样的名字，而大灯的形状酷似雷神之锤。 6park.com
Volvo touted its Scandinavian design elements: lighting schemes in the car with names like Midnight Sun and headlights in the shape of Thor’s hammer.   6park.com
   
与宝马和梅赛德斯等竞争对手相比，沃尔沃的车型系列有限，但随着该公司在不断发展中的电动汽车市场上占据一席之地，其车型系列也在不断扩大。沃尔沃雄心勃勃，力争在2025年前每年销售约120万辆汽车，其中一半是纯电动汽车。 6park.com
Volvo’s model range is limited compared with rivals such as BMW and Mercedes, but it has been growing broader as the company stakes out positions in the developing electric-car market. It has ambitions to sell around 1.2 million cars a year by mid-decade—half of those fully electric.  6park.com
   
去年，该公司的全球汽车销量略高于61.5万辆，其中纯电动汽车约占11%。 6park.com
Last year, it sold just over 615,000 vehicles worldwide. Fully electric vehicles accounted for about 11% of total sales.  6park.com
   
沃尔沃是首批将其未来押注于纯电动汽车的传统车企之一，逐步停止销售新燃油汽车，但混合动力汽车除外。混合动力汽车同时配备传统发动机和电动马达。 6park.com
Volvo was among the first conventional carmakers to stake its future on going completely electric, phasing out sales of new gas-powered cars with the exception of hybrids, which have both a conventional engine and an electric motor. 6park.com
   
十多年前，吉利从福特汽车(Ford, F)手中收购了当时陷入困境的沃尔沃品牌，如今这家有着96年历史的瑞典汽车制造商在瑞典、美国南卡罗来纳州和中国生产汽车。该公司在2021年成功重新挂牌上市，目前盈利状况良好。 6park.com
Just over a decade after Geely acquired the struggling Volvo brand from Ford, the 96-year-old Swedish carmaker is building cars in Sweden, South Carolina and China. The company is generating healthy profits after a successful return to the stock market in 2021.  6park.com
  
尽管如此，沃尔沃的电动车策略也存在不确定性。该公司首席执行官骆文襟曾警告说，向电动汽车加速转型的步子可能会迈得太快。这一定程度上是受到拜登政府的《通胀削减法案》(Inflation Reduction Act)刺激，该法案为鼓励美国的环保技术投资提供了资金。风险在于，生产纯电动汽车的利润率通常较低，如果电动汽车在汽车总销量中的占比过早提升至过高水平，可能会使沃尔沃和其他车企难以实现利润目标。 6park.com
Still, Volvo’s electric gambit comes with uncertainty. Rowan, the automaker’s CEO, has warned that the acceleration in the shift to EVs could happen too fast, spurred on in part by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has provided funding to encourage green-tech investment in the U.S. The risk is that the lower profit margins automakers typically make from fully electric cars could make it difficult for Volvo and others to achieve profit targets if those EV sales become too big a share of their total sales too soon. 6park.com
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Bernstein Research的分析师称，沃尔沃等车企盈利能力面临的另一个风险是，特斯拉最近的一连串降价措施可能引爆价格战。特斯拉一些车型的降价幅度高达20%。到目前为止，特斯拉竞争对手的反应一直很平淡。 6park.com
Another risk to profitability at Volvo and other carmakers is a potential price war spurred on by Tesla’s recent price cuts, which have been as steep as 20% on some models, according to analysts at Bernstein Research. So far, the response by Tesla’s competitors has been muted.  6park.com
   
骆文襟在今年早些时候接受采访时称，沃尔沃一直得以维持住价格，该公司受益于锂等原材料成本下降以及半导体等关键部件供应改善。 6park.com
In an interview earlier this year, Rowan said Volvo has been able to maintain prices and that the company was benefiting from lower costs of raw materials, such as lithium, and a better supply of critical components like semiconductors. 


沃尔沃是首批将其未来押注于纯电动汽车的传统车企之一。