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| For decades, the phrase “Made in Germany” signaled cutting-edge automotive technology and design. But now German automakers are falling behind in the global race to produce more electric vehicles, and some executives are using a new catchphrase to describe how quickly they need to catch up: “China speed.” | 几十年来，“德国制造”曾是汽车行业尖端技术和设计的标志。但现在，德国汽车制造商在生产更多电动汽车的全球竞赛中落在了后面，一些高管用“中国速度”这个时兴词来形容他们需要多快地行动才能迎头赶上。 |
| The term reflects the rapid transformation of the Chinese car industry into a battery-powered juggernaut. And that speed was on display Monday at I.A.A. Mobility, a massive auto show in Munich, with newcomers from China stealing the show. | “中国速度”反映了中国汽车工业转型为电动汽车巨头的速度。这个速度在慕尼黑周一开幕的德国国际车展上展现出来，来自中国的后起之秀在这个大型车展上抢尽风头。 |
| BYD, an all-electric Chinese carmaker that overtook Volkswagen as China’s best-selling brand this year, unveiled a sleek, new sedan and a sport utility vehicle to applause from a packed crowd. | 中国的纯电动汽车制造商比亚迪今年在国内的销量已超过大众汽车，成为中国最畅销的品牌。它在此次车展上推出了一款时尚新型轿车和一款运动型多用途车，赢得满堂彩。 |
| “I think the Europeans are just pretty much petrified of how the Chinese will perform in Europe,” said Matthias Schmidt, an independent analyst of the electric-car market based in Berlin. | “我认为欧洲人几乎被中国企业在欧洲的表现吓呆了，”柏林的电动汽车市场独立分析师马蒂亚斯·施密特说。 |
| The show arrives at a precarious time for the German auto industry, the largest in Europe, and for the German economy more broadly. Once a critical driver of the country’s economy, German automakers have instead become a drag. In June, production in the auto industry shrank by 3.5 percent compared with the previous month, weighing on the country’s overall industrial production, which declined by 1.5 percent. | 这次车展举行之际，欧洲居冠的德国汽车工业以及更广泛的德国经济正面临不确定性。曾为德国经济提供关键驱动力的德国汽车制造商现在却在拖累国家经济。今年6月份的德国汽车工业生产与5月份相比下降了3.5%，拖累了全国工业生产，导致后者环比下降了1.5%。 |
| The doldrums extend beyond automakers. Economic output in Germany is stagnating, weighed down by the high cost of energy and raw materials, a lingering effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. | 经济低迷的涉及范围超出汽车制造业。德国的经济产出受能源和原材料成本上升的影响处于停滞状态，这种影响自俄罗斯去年入侵乌克兰起一直挥之不去。 |
| Prominent German companies, including Volkswagen and the chemical giant BASF, have delayed expansion plans or announced that they will build in regions with enticing incentives, including China and North America. Persistently high inflation is eating away at Germans’ purchasing power and contributing to pessimism from consumers and businesses alike. | 包括大众汽车和化工巨头巴斯夫在内的德国知名企业或推迟了扩张计划，或宣布将在有诱人激励措施的地方（包括中国和北美）建厂。居高不下的通胀正在侵蚀德国人的购买力，这是导致消费者和企业情绪悲观的原因之一。 |
| After Germany’s economy dipped into a recession late last year and early this year, its growth was flat from April to June. Last week, the country’s central bank, the Bundesbank, said that economic output was expected to “more or less stagnate again in the third quarter of 2023.” | 德国经济去年年底和今年初陷入衰退后，增长率在今年4月至6月间持平。德国央行德国联邦银行上周表示，经济产出预计“在2023年第三季度仍大致处于停滞状态”。 |
| Among eight advanced economies studied by the International Monetary Fund, Germany’s was the only one projected to shrink this year, leading some economists to recall the specter of the late 1990s when, hampered by record-high unemployment and the cost of reunifying East and West Germany, economists declared the country the “sick man” of Europe. | 据国际货币基金组织对八个发达经济体的研究预测，德国将是今年唯一经济出现萎缩的国家，这让一些经济学家回想起德国在20世纪90年代末的状况，当时，它的经济受到创纪录的高失业率以及将两德合并的高昂费用阻碍，经济学家们曾将其宣称为欧洲“病夫”。 |
| The government in Berlin is rushing to respond. Last week, it approved 32 billion euros, or almost $35 billion, in corporate tax cuts over four years to help revive production. | 德国联邦政府正在做出紧急回应。上周，柏林批准了在四年时间里削减320亿欧元（约合2500亿元人民币）企业税的法案，帮助重振生产。 |
| The government also proposed cutting Germany’s notorious mounds of paperwork for businesses, for example by accepting digital, not paper, copies of official documents in an attempt to drag it into the digital age. A recent survey of 500 companies showed that fax machines remained in use as the most secure form of communication. | 德国政府还提出要减少该国繁冗到出了名的企业文书工作，比如将接受以前必须用纸版提交的官方文件的数字副本，这是政府吃力地步入数字时代的尝试。最近一项对500家公司的调查显示，传真机在德国仍是最安全的通讯方式。 |
| Compare that to HiPhi (pronounced “hi-fi”), a luxury car company from China that was founded in 2019. It is now producing the third version of its tech-heavy electric vehicles, with doors that glide open at the push of a button, and lights on the outside and inside of the doors that can flash and change colors. The cars are now selling in Germany and Norway, starting at 105,000 euros, or $113,000, and were on display at the auto show. | 与之相比的是成立于2019年的中国豪华汽车公司高合。该公司正在生产其科技感十足的第三款电动车。只需轻轻按一下按钮，该车的车门即可打开，车门里外的灯都能闪烁，还能改变颜色。这款汽车目前已在德国和挪威出售，起价为10.5万欧元（约合82万元人民币）。这次车展上也能看到这款车。 |
| The ability to produce the car so quickly is linked to a different approach to the auto business, said Mark Stanton, the company’s chief technology officer. | 高合首席技术官马克·斯坦顿说，之所以能如此之快地将车投入生产，与公司采用了不同的汽车业务方式有关。 |
| “The fear of failure is huge and that mentality really becomes a roadblock in your everyday process of what you do,” Mr. Stanton said. “We completely wipe that away.” | “害怕失败是个巨大问题，这种心态真的能成为人们在日常工作过程中做事的障碍，”斯坦顿说。“我们彻底消除了这个问题。” |
| One of the leading factors worrying companies in Germany is the persistently high price of energy. | 德国企业担心的一个主要问题是能源价格持续居高不下。 |
| For decades, Germany prided itself on its steady supply of power that kept factories producing steel and cars humming. But the source of that power was natural gas piped in from Russia, and Germans refused to consider other suppliers. | 几十年来，德国一直以稳定的能源供应为傲，这为钢铁厂和汽车厂的运转提供了保证。但它的能源来源是从俄罗斯进口的天然气，德国曾拒绝考虑其他供应商。 |
| After Moscow halted the flow of natural gas to Germany a year ago as a consequence of Berlin’s support for Ukraine, the price of gas more than quadrupled, forcing many companies to scale back production. Although prices have fallen, they remain nearly twice as high as they were in 2021. | 一年前，由于德国在俄乌战争中支持乌克兰，俄罗斯停止向德国供应天然气，那之后，德国的天然气价格涨了四倍多，迫使许多公司减少产量。尽管天然气价格已有所回落，但仍比2021年高出近两倍。 |
| The whiplash has cost companies that require high amounts of energy, like chemical makers, a sense of security for long-term planning, an annual survey of businesses showed. The study, conducted by the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, found that confidence in the government’s energy policy was at its lowest point in more than a decade. | 一项年度企业调查显示，能源价格高涨已降低了需要大量能源的公司（比如化学品制造商）的安全感，因为不能做长期规划。这项德国工商会做的调查发现，企业对政府能源政策的信心已降到了十多年来的最低点。 |
| “After the energy price shock at the end of last year and the relatively mild winter, companies are deeply concerned about future developments,” said Achim Dercks, the organization’s deputy general manager. | “经历了去年年底的能源价格冲击和相对温和的冬季之后，企业对未来的发展深感担忧，”德国工商会副总经理阿奇姆·德尔克斯说。 |
| That fear is causing many German industrial firms to reconsider previously planned investments. Earlier this year, Volkswagen decided to scrap plans to build a second battery factory in Germany. | 这种担忧正在让许多德国工业企业重新考虑以前制定的投资计划。今年早些时候，大众汽车决定取消在德国建第二家电池工厂的计划。 |
| The company is already building one battery factory in Salzgitter, near its headquarters in Wolfsburg, and another in Valencia, Spain. This spring, Volkswagen announced that it had chosen Ontario as the site for its first battery plant outside Europe, lured by lucrative incentives and industrial power prices roughly one-third cheaper than in Germany. | 大众汽车正在其沃尔夫斯堡总部附近的萨尔茨吉特建一家电池工厂，并在西班牙巴伦西亚建了另一家电池工厂。今年春天，大众汽车宣布选择在加拿大安大略省建其欧洲以外的第一家电池厂，安大略省的吸引力在于让公司有利可图的激励措施，以及比德国便宜约三分之一的工业电价格。 |
| Lowering energy prices by just 1 cent per kilowatt-hour can translate to an annual difference in cost of up to 100 million euros when producing batteries for electric vehicles, Oliver Blume, Volkswagen’s chief executive, said in an interview with the German public broadcaster ZDF. | 大众汽车首席执行官奥利弗·布鲁姆在接受德国公共广播公司ZDF采访时说，将每度电的价格仅降低一欧分，就能为电动汽车的电池生产成本每年节省高达一亿欧元的费用。 |
| “If we look at the prices we are currently being offered in North America or in other regions of the world, Germany is a long way off,” Mr. Blume said. | “如果看一下我们在北美或世界其他地方拿到的价格，德国还差很远，”布卢姆说。 |
| Volkswagen is not alone in looking abroad to expand its electric vehicle production capacity. Earlier this year, BMW, which is based in Munich, announced it would invest €800 million in Mexico to produce high-voltage batteries and its new fully electric models. Those cars are expected to go into production in 2025 at the company’s plant in Hungary. | 在海外寻找扩大电动汽车产能的德国公司不只大众汽车一家。今年早些时候，总部位于慕尼黑的宝马宣布将在墨西哥投资八亿欧元，生产高压电池和新型纯电动车型。这些汽车预计将于2025年在宝马位于匈牙利的工厂投入生产。 |
| In China, German automakers’ failure to meet the growing demand for battery-powered vehicles left a vacuum, which domestic automakers quickly moved to fill, producing affordable and attractive electric cars that are taking over their home market. | 德国汽车制造商未能满足中国对电动汽车日益增长的需求，给中国国内的汽车制造商留下了迅速行动起来弥补空缺的时机，让这些制造商生产的价格实惠且有吸引力的电动汽车占领了中国市场。 |
| Volkswagen is making moves to improve its position in China. Last month, it announced that it would invest $700 million for a nearly 5 percent stake in XPeng, a Chinese start-up that makes electric vehicles, in an effort to help it meet the demands of the Chinese market. | 大众汽车正在采取措施提高其在中国的地位。上个月，大众宣布了帮助公司满足中国市场需求的一项努力，将投资七亿美元购买中国电动汽车初创企业小鹏汽车近5%的股权。 |
| But now Chinese automakers have their eyes on Europe, where gas-fueled cars are to be banned in 12 years. | 但中国汽车制造商现在已把目光投向欧洲，欧洲将在12年内禁止燃油汽车。 |
| At the auto show on Monday, traditional German automakers presented plans for expanding production of all-electric vehicles in the coming years, but manufacturers from China revealed new models they were bringing to the European market. | 在周一的车展上，传统的德国汽车制造商们提出了在未来几年扩大纯电动汽车生产的计划，而中国的汽车制造商们已在展示他们正在推向欧洲市场的新车型。 |
| “Europe is a strategic market for BYD,” said Michael Shu, managing director of BYD Europe. Last month, he said, his company became the first automaker in the world to deliver five million fully electric or hybrid vehicles. | “欧洲是比亚迪的一个战略市场，”比亚迪欧洲汽车销售事业部总经理舒酉星说。他说，比亚迪已在上个月成为世界上第一家交付了500万辆纯电动或混合动力汽车的汽车制造商。 |
| Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center Automotive Research in Duisburg, Germany, described this year’s auto show as a “Zeitenwende,” or turning point — the same term used by Chancellor Olaf Scholz when pronouncing Germany’s transition in foreign policy after Russia invaded Ukraine. | 德国杜伊斯堡汽车研究中心的主任费迪南德·杜登霍夫用“转折点”一词来描述今年的车展。俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后，德国总理奥拉夫·朔尔茨宣布德国转变外交政策时也用了同样的说法。 |
| “A Zeitenwende, that sees Europe becoming an interesting market for Chinese electric vehicles,” he said. “The competition will be tougher.” | “一个转折点，它看到欧洲正在成为中国电动汽车的精彩的市场，”杜登霍夫说。“竞争将会更加激烈。” |
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