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| Forty-two years ago, Liu Siong Song built machines to help factories make cheap toys and watches. Then he made them for motorcycle companies. | 42年前，刘相尚造出了帮助工厂生产廉价玩具和手表的机器。后来，他又为摩托车制造商生产机器。 |
| Now he helps Tesla, in the words of Elon Musk, “make full-size cars in the same way that toy cars are made.” | 现在，他帮上了特斯拉的忙，用马斯克的话来说，就是“像造玩具汽车一样造出真正的汽车”。 |
| Mr. Liu, 69, may have come full circle, in a sense, but he also may play a role in the future of driving. His company is one of the emerging Chinese manufacturers competing aggressively and competently with traditional players in the United States, Japan and Europe in the emerging electric car industry. | 从某种意义上来说，现年69岁的刘相尚可能回到了原点，但他也可能影响未来驾驶的发展进程。他的公司与美国、日本和欧洲的传统厂商在新兴的电动汽车领域展开激烈竞争，成为了中国崭露头角的汽车制造商之一。 |
| Electric cars could shake up the auto industry — and, by extension, jobs, technology and geopolitical influence. Think of how names like General Motors and Volkswagen have given the United States and Germany economic heft and international credibility. | 电动汽车或将撼动整个汽车行业——进而影响到就业、技术和地缘政治。想想通用和大众这样的品牌是如何提升美德两国的经济实力和国际信誉的吧。 |
| China is poised to become a major player in electric cars, and Tesla and a slew of Chinese electric vehicle upstarts are helping its companies become even more competitive. Tesla’s huge factory in Shanghai works with local suppliers to make increasingly sophisticated components that are helping them go head-to-head with Western and Japanese auto suppliers. | 中国有望成为电动汽车领域的主要竞争者，而特斯拉和一大批中国的电动汽车初创品牌正在让中国车企变得更具竞争力。特斯拉在上海的大型工厂与本土供应商合作，生产出越来越精密的部件，让这些企业得以与西方和日本的汽车供应商展开势均力敌的竞争。 |
| The way Tesla makes cars has “created great pressure on traditional automakers,” said Mr. Liu. “They have all realized how serious the situation is and are transitioning to new energy vehicles.” | 特斯拉的造车方法“对传统车厂造成很大压力”，刘相尚说道。“它们意识到问题很严重，大家都在积极改变，向新能源车转。” |
| Electric vehicles are central to the Biden administration’s push for clean energy and reviving American manufacturing. But as Apple did with gadgets, Tesla is forming stronger ties with China to get closer to both its adroit manufacturing supply chain and huge market of car buyers. | 电动汽车是拜登政府推进清洁能源和振兴美国制造业的核心议程。但和苹果的电子设备生产一样，特斯拉正在与中国建立更紧密的联系，以进一步接近中国高效的制造供应链和巨大的汽车买家市场。 |
| “China is overtaking its competitors by switching lanes in the car race,” said Patrick Cheng, chief executive of NavInfo, a mapping and autonomous driving technology company in Beijing. “The race used to be about internal combustion engine vehicles. Now it’s the electric cars.” | “中国现在是换道超车，”北京四维图新的首席执行官程鹏表示，该公司的业务是地图内容和自动驾驶技术开发。“原来是内燃机车赛道，现在变成了电动车的新赛道。” |
| One hears the word “overtaking” a lot in the Chinese auto industry. Many of its executives and engineers believe that the transition to new energy vehicles presents a similar opportunity as mobile internet did in the last decade, when Chinese companies created powerful platforms such as the mobile messaging app WeChat and the short video app TikTok. | 在中国汽车行业经常会听到“超车”这个词。许多车企高管和工程师都相信，向新能源汽车转型所带来的机遇，与移动互联网在过去10年的发展类似，中国企业在那期间打造出了移动通讯应用微信和短视频应用TikTok这样的强大平台。 |
| That’s why the Chinese government has embraced Tesla with open arms. It has offered Mr. Musk’s company cheap land, loans, tax benefits and subsidies. It even allowed Tesla to run its own plant without a local partner, a first for a foreign automaker in China. | 这也是中国政府张开双臂欢迎特斯拉的原因。它向马斯克的公司提供了低价土地、贷款、税收优惠和补贴。甚至允许特斯拉在没有本土合作方的情况下运营自己的工厂，这是外国汽车商首次在中国获此待遇。 |
| Beijing is seeking what the business world calls the catfish effect: Toss an aggressive fish into a pool so that the established denizens will swim harder. | 北京在寻求商界所谓的鲶鱼效应：将一条充满侵略性的鱼投入水池，池里的原生鱼群就会游得更努力。 |
| The approach has worked for both sides. Tesla’s Shanghai factory, built within a year in 2019, has surpassed its Fremont, Calif., plant in production, Mr. Musk said at the company’s shareholders meeting in October. | 这种策略给双方都带来了成效。马斯克在10月的股东大会上表示，在2019年仅用一年建成的特斯拉上海工厂，产量已经超过了位于加州弗里蒙特市的工厂。 |
| Giga Shanghai, as the factory is known, is “the best quality, lowest cost and also low drama,” he said. | 他说，特斯拉上海超级工厂“质量最佳，成本最低，同时麻烦还极少”。 |
| It’s also big business for Chinese suppliers. Tesla said its Shanghai factory bought 86 percent of outsourced Model 3 and Model Y components within China in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared with 73 percent for Tesla cars made in its California factory. | 这给中国供应商带来了大生意。特斯拉表示，在2020年第四季度，上海工厂采购中国代工生产的Model 3和Model Y零部件比例达到了86%，相比之下，加州工厂的这个比例为73%。 |
| Tesla’s stock price has more than doubled over the past year as its production capacity grew, valuing the company at about $1 trillion. Its China strategy has played a role, said James Li, an analyst who follows machinery stocks in Beijing. | 随着产能的增加，特斯拉的股价在过去一年涨了两倍多，市值达到了一万亿美元左右。关注机械版块股票的北京分析师詹姆斯·李（音）表示，特斯拉的中国战略起到了推动作用。 |
| “If Tesla didn’t build a factory in China, will its share prices rise so much? Will its earnings improve so much?” he said. “Not necessarily.” | “特斯拉如果不在中国建厂，它股票真能涨那么多吗？整个业绩能起来吗？未必，”他说。 |
| Stocks of Chinese suppliers for Tesla and other electric vehicle makers have become star performers, too. The share price of the listed arm of Mr. Liu’s casting machine manufacturer, LK Group, has jumped about nine times in value so far this year. | 特斯拉和其他电动汽车制造商的中国供应商也迎来股票长红。今年以来，刘相尚的铸造机械制造公司力劲集团旗下的上市公司股价涨了约九倍。 |
| Tesla commissioned what it called the world’s largest casting machines from LK in 2019. The machines, which Mr. Musk described as about the size of a small house, can make the rear body of a car consisting of a single piece, reducing the number of individual components and reducing costs. | 2019年，特斯拉委托力劲集团生产出号称全球最大的压铸机。马斯克称，这种机器的体积堪比一栋小型房屋，可以将整个汽车后部一次压铸成型，减少了零部件的使用，降低了成本。 |
| Mr. Liu said that LK worked side by side with Tesla for over a year to make the machine. | 刘相尚表示，力劲集团和特斯拉联手在一年多的时间里打造出了这种机器。 |
| “Every once in a while, they would ask us whether it was possible to do this or that,” he said. “With each revision they made, we needed to make change in our machine, too.” | “他们过一段时间就来问我们：这个能不能做，那个能不能做，”他说。“他们每改一次我们的机器也要配合改。” |
| Mr. Liu grew up fascinated by cars. Born in Indonesia to a Chinese family, he started disassembling used cars, then reassembling them using parts in his father’s auto shop. He migrated to China in 1966 to attend school, only to wind up living amid the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. He migrated to Hong Kong in 1972, and seven years later started a machinery company to supply toymakers and watchmakers. | 刘相尚从小就对汽车着迷。他出生在印度尼西亚的一个华人家庭，在父亲的汽车修理厂，他开始学会拆卸二手车，然后用零部件重新组装。1966年，他移民至中国读书，结果却身陷文革的混乱之中。1972年，他移居香港，七年后创办了一家机械公司，为玩具商和钟表商供应零件。 |
| He has ridden up the Chinese manufacturing chain ever since. He began making machines for motorcycle factories, then smartphone factories, then car factories. At the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, he made two strategic moves with two companies that were at the brink of bankruptcy: He became an equipment supplier for General Motors and he acquired Idra, an Italian casting equipment maker, for about $5 million. | 从那以后，他就一直沿着中国制造业的链条向上攀升。他开始为摩托车厂生产机械，然后是智能手机工厂，然后是汽车厂。在2008年全球金融危机最严重之时，他针对两家濒临破产的公司采取了两大战略举措：成为通用汽车的设备供应商，并以500万美元的价格收购了意大利压铸设备生产商意德拉。 |
| In addition to Tesla, LK will supply similar giant casting machines to six Chinese companies by early 2022 as more automakers adopt Tesla’s way of making cars, Mr. Liu said. | 刘相尚表示，随着越来越多的车企采用特斯拉的汽车生产方式，到2022年初，力劲集团将向除特斯拉之外的六家中国企业供应类似的大型压铸机。 |
| He said Tesla’s goal of making 20 million cars per year was ambitious but “not unattainable” because it had simplified the manufacturing process. GM sold 6.8 million vehicles in 2020 while Tesla delivered half a million cars. | 他说，特斯拉每年生产2000万辆车的目标虽然艰巨，但由于简化了生产过程，也“不是没有机会”。通用在2020年售出680万辆车，而特斯拉则交付了50万辆。 |
| By changing the way cars are made, Tesla could do for Chinese electric vehicle makers what Apple did for the country’s smartphone industry. Many Chinese suppliers for the iPhone began working with local brands, helping them making better phones. Now Huawei, Xiaomi and Vivo phones are popular in Europe, India, Southeast Asia and Africa, if not the United States. | 正如苹果改变了中国智能手机产业一样，通过改变汽车的生产方式，特斯拉可能改变中国的电动汽车企业。IPhone的许多中国供应商都开始与本土品牌合作，帮他们造出更好的手机。如今，华为、小米和Vivo手机在欧洲、印度、东南亚和非洲市场都大受欢迎，在美国亦然。 |
| Cars will be harder. Tesla builds a lot of manufacturing technology on its own, so Chinese brands could have a tough time copying Tesla by working with its suppliers. | 造车则没那么容易。特斯拉自主打造了许多生产技术，因此中国品牌可能很难通过与特斯拉供应商的合作来复制特斯拉的产品。 |
| “We made the machine that made the machine that made the machine,” Mr. Musk said on an investor call last year. “We would like to outsource less.” | “我们造的机器造出了能够造出机器的机器，”马斯克去年在投资者电话会议上说道。“我们也希望减少外包生产。” |
| More broadly, Chinese electric carmakers and their suppliers need foreign-made chips and other know-how. The Chinese auto industry is the world’s largest, making about 25 million cars a year, but the popular ones are brands like Toyota and Chevrolet, and local brands haven’t yet caught on abroad. | 更宽泛地说，中国电动汽车商及其供应商需要外国制造的芯片和其他专有技术。中国汽车产业的规模是世界第一，每年能生产2500万辆汽车，但最受欢迎的还是丰田和雪弗兰等品牌，而本土品牌在国外还没有知名度。 |
| And Tesla’s warm relationship with the Chinese government could sour. Mr. Musk could come under pressure to share even more manufacturing knowledge with Chinese suppliers, and he would have little choice but to do it if he hoped to stay in the market. | 特斯拉与中国政府的热络关系也许会恶化。马斯克也许会面临与中国供应商分享更多制造工艺的压力，如果特斯拉还想留在中国市场，他可能别无选择。 |
| Tesla has experienced some reputational and regulatory challenges in the country this year. Mr. Musk has been busy mending the relationship by speaking positively about China. | 今年，特斯拉在中国遇上了一些品牌声誉和监管政策上的挑战。马斯克忙着靠说中国好话来修复双方的关系。 |
| When the Chinese Communist Party marked its 100th anniversary in July, Mr. Musk said on Twitter, “The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure! I encourage people to visit and see for themselves.” | 当中国共产党在7月庆祝建党100周年的时候，马斯克在Twitter上表示，“中国取得的经济繁荣确实令人赞叹，尤其是基础设施！我鼓励大家亲自到那里看一看。” |
| Then at a conference hosted by China’s internet regulator in September, Mr. Musk called China a “global leader in digitization” in a prerecorded video. In another prerecorded video for another conference earlier that month, Mr. Musk praised Chinese automakers as the “most competitive in the world.” | 后来，在9月中国互联网监管机构主办的一次大会上，马斯克在事先录制的视频中称中国为“数字化的全球领导者”。当月早些时候，在为另一场大会事先录制的视频中，马斯克称赞中国汽车商的“竞争力世界第一”。 |
| For all China’s progress, it still has a long way to go. LK hopes to deliver the same types of casting machines to many Chinese companies in the next two years. But some of those companies are struggling to find car designers of the type and talent that Tesla has aplenty. Without the designs, LK can’t deliver the machines. | 尽管中国取得了长足进步，但仍有很长的路要走。力劲集团希望在未来两年内向众多中国企业供应同类压铸机。但其中一些企业很难找到具备特斯拉这种类型和才能的汽车设计师。没有设计，力劲集团就不能做出相应的机器。 |
| “Many Chinese automakers are talking to us about building the machines, but the majority of them are still in the design process,” Mr. Liu said. “We have a bottleneck in designers in China.” | “国内很多车厂都和我们就Giga Press（该公司为特斯拉生产的巨型压铸机——编注）有交流，但大部分还在设计阶段，”刘相尚说。“国内设计人员有瓶颈。” |
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