沃爾沃為中國打造“三座版”豪車

In China, the front seat takes a back seat, as Volvo’s Thomas Ingenlath discovered when the carmaker’s Chinese chairman tested a vehicle he helped design.

在中國，本應(yīng)該坐在前座上的人往往坐在后排。這是沃爾沃(Volvo)的托馬斯•英根拉特(Thomas Ingenlath)在該汽車制造商的中國董事長試乘一輛由他幫助設(shè)計的汽車時發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

Instead of going to the driver’s side and trying out the steering wheel, Li Shufu walked around the car, opening the opposite side rear door. The back seat was where a man of Mr Li’s stature was used to seeing the world, with someone else driving. “That tells you where the priorities are,” says Mr Ingenlath, Volvo’s chief designer. “The focus is not on the driver’s seat, but on the other areas of the car . . . that completely changed our perspective.”

李書福沒有坐上駕駛座去試一下方向盤，而是繞著汽車走過去，打開了右后門。像李書福這種身份的人習慣于坐在后排的位置看世界，由其他人來開車。

Since being bought by Mr Li’s Geely Corporation in 2010, Sweden-based Volvo has become a case study in having to adapt western designs for Chinese consumers, who in Volvo’s case are also the group’s owners. But the global automotive industry has been working towards pleasing Chinese customers since at least 2009, when China became the world’s largest market for cars.

“你從這件事上可以知道，側(cè)重點該放在哪，”沃爾沃的總設(shè)計師英根拉特表示，“重點不在于駕駛座，而是車內(nèi)的其他區(qū)域……這完全改變了我們的觀點。”

“It’s not about taste, it’s about how people actually use the car in their daily lives,” says Mr Ingenlath, who was attending the Shanghai Auto Show last month. “Having chairman Li taught us a lesson there. He approaches a car unlike any European chief executive.”

自從2010年被李書福的吉利汽車(Geely Auto Corporation)收購后，總部位于瑞典的沃爾沃便成了針對中國消費者(對于沃爾沃來說，中國人也是該集團的所有者)調(diào)整西方設(shè)計的案例研究素材。但至少自2009年中國成為世界最大的汽車市場以來，全球汽車業(yè)便一直努力取悅中國用戶。

While in the west having a chauffeur is an expensive anachronism, they are more common in China, where even middle-class working families can afford them. This has meant a new definition of luxury that the world’s carmakers have had to reckon with.

“這與品味無關(guān)，而是關(guān)于人們在日常生活中實際上如何使用汽車，”英根拉特上月參加上海車展(Shanghai Auto Show)時表示，“李董事長給我們上了一課。他使用汽車的方式不同于歐洲的首席執(zhí)行官。”

Volvo has two principle long wheelbase cars in the China market and both have done well, the company says. The S90 long wheelbase was only launched last December but sales of 2,200 units in the first quarter have outstripped those of its predecessor, the S80L.

盡管在西方擁有司機是一件昂貴而過時的事，但這在中國比較常見，甚至中產(chǎn)階級工薪家庭也有可能請得起司機。這意味著全世界的汽車制造商不得不考慮關(guān)于奢侈的新定義。

BMW says the 5 Series and the 1 Series sedans produced at its plants in Shenyang have extra room in the back, along with other China-specific features: beefed-up air filters for Chinese urban pollution and 20mm of extra seat cushioning and stronger suspension.

沃爾沃表示，它在中國市場有兩款主要的長軸距車型，兩款車的市場表現(xiàn)都很好。S90長軸距轎車于去年12月才推出，但該車型在第一季度銷量為2200輛，已經(jīng)超過了老款S80L的表現(xiàn)。

Volvo has also found a niche market in the US for the long wheelbase version of the S60 sedan, which was made for China. Last year the company sold more than 35,000 units of that car globally, which is more than half of total S60 volume in 2016. “It’s not a completely new car, but it’s a significant industrial difference to the US and European models,” says Johan Karlber, Shanghai-based Partner of Roland Berger

沃爾沃也為S60長軸距版轎車在美國找到了小眾市場。該款車型原本是為中國市場打造。去年該款車型的全球銷量超過3.5萬輛，占全年S60總銷量的一半以上。“這并不是全新車型，但它與美國和歐洲款在工藝上存在顯著差異，”咨詢機構(gòu)羅蘭貝格(Roland Berger)常駐上海的合伙人約翰•卡爾貝(Johan Karlber)表示。

In pushing Chinese tastes to their logical conclusion, Volvo has arrived at a three-seat version — the co-driver’s seat is too low in status to exist in a high-end lifestyle. Zhenhao Wu, senior director at Volvo, says the three-seat Volvo S90 Excellence “is specially designed for customers with higher social status and financial position”.

沃爾沃根據(jù)中國人的喜好來得出符合邏輯的結(jié)論，并據(jù)此推出了三座版轎車——副駕駛座位的地位太低，在高端生活方式中并無存在必要。沃爾沃高級總監(jiān)吳震皓表示，沃爾沃S90的三座榮譽版(S90 Excellence)“專門為擁有較高社會地位、財務(wù)狀況較好的客戶設(shè)計”。