比亞迪首條商業(yè)單軌在銀川通車

China’s electric vehicle maker BYD opened its first commercial monorail on Friday, as part of its efforts to diversify into mass transit and compensate amid a slump in sales of electric cars.

中國(guó)電動(dòng)汽車制造商比亞迪(BYD)的第一條商業(yè)單軌9月1日通車，這是該公司進(jìn)入大眾運(yùn)輸市場(chǎng)以彌補(bǔ)電動(dòng)汽車銷售低迷的多元化戰(zhàn)略的一部分。

BYD is billing “Skyrail” as cheaper than the subway and without the traffic problems of buses. It is aimed primarily at Chinese cities, where congestion and pollution are endemic, but it also plans to export the system.

比亞迪稱，“云軌”比地鐵便宜，同時(shí)不存在公共汽車的交通問題。云軌的市場(chǎng)目標(biāo)主要是交通擁堵和污染嚴(yán)重的中國(guó)城市，但也計(jì)劃出口海外。

The first such monorail went into operation in the Northwest provincial capital of Yinchuan on Friday after a brief ceremony Thursday. BYD says it has interest from more than 100 cities for the system, including New York and Cape Town in South Africa. Part of the attraction is cost — one-fifth of the capital costs of a subway system, according to BYD, and it takes a third of the time to build. Twenty cities, mainly in China, plan to build one in the coming year, BYD said, and its first foreign customer will be the Philippine city of Iloilo.

在8月31日比亞迪舉辦了簡(jiǎn)短的通車儀式后，第一條單軌線路于9月1日在地處中國(guó)西北的省會(huì)城市銀川通車運(yùn)行。比亞迪表示，有100多個(gè)城市對(duì)云軌系統(tǒng)感興趣，包括紐約和南非的開普敦。云軌的部分吸引力在于成本——據(jù)比亞迪稱，云軌的造價(jià)僅為地鐵的1/5，而建設(shè)工期只有地鐵的1/3。比亞迪稱，未來(lái)一年期間預(yù)計(jì)有20個(gè)城市將建設(shè)云軌，主要集中在中國(guó)，而其第一家海外客戶將是菲律賓伊洛伊洛市(Iloilo)。

For BYD, mass transit is also a hedge against the uneven fortunes of the electric car industry. Last year, it was the world’s largest seller of electric passenger vehicles, mainly to the Chinese market. But in the first half of this year, its sales fell after the government cut subsidies.

對(duì)比亞迪來(lái)說(shuō)，大眾運(yùn)輸也是對(duì)抗電動(dòng)汽車業(yè)不穩(wěn)定的一種手段。去年，比亞迪是全球最大的電動(dòng)客車銷售商，產(chǎn)品主要面向中國(guó)市場(chǎng)。但今年上半年，在政府削減了補(bǔ)貼后，其銷量下降了。

Analysts blamed the sales decline on BYD’s refusal to cut prices when subsidies were cut — which would have hit profits hard. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers analysed by consultancy Carsalesbase.com, there was a 20 per cent year-on-year drop in sales of BYD hybrid and pure electric cars in the first half of 2017, following more than 70 per cent annual growth the previous year.

分析人士將銷量下降歸咎于在政府削減補(bǔ)貼后該公司拒絕降價(jià)——降價(jià)將給公司利潤(rùn)帶來(lái)沉重打擊。根據(jù)咨詢公司Carsalesbase.com對(duì)中國(guó)汽車工業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)(CAAM)數(shù)據(jù)所作的分析，繼2016年增長(zhǎng)超過(guò)70%后，2017上半年比亞迪的混合動(dòng)力汽車和純電動(dòng)汽車銷量同比下降了20%。

This has meant the Shenzhen-based company has lost its place as China’s, and the world’s, biggest seller of “new energy” vehicles to local rival BAIC. BYD’s gross profit for the half year fell 4.1 per cent to Rmb8.2bn ($1.2bn), partly because of the electric vehicle subsidy cuts.

這意味著，這家總部位于深圳的公司將其作為中國(guó)乃至世界“新能源”汽車銷量霸主的地位讓給了本土競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手北汽(BAIC)。上半年比亞迪的毛利潤(rùn)跌至82億元人民幣(合12億美元)，下降了4.1%，部分原因在于電動(dòng)汽車補(bǔ)貼被削減。

Ni Yujing, an analyst at Everbright Securities based in Hong Kong, said subsidy cuts had put BYD under some pressure in the first half of the year, but improvement was likely in the second half. However, the monorail business is unlikely to have any affect on BYD’s financials for three to five years. New energy vehicles remained the centre of BYD's business, contributing 35 per cent of revenues in the first half of the year, she said.

光大證券(Everbright Securities)駐香港分析師倪昱婧表示，削減補(bǔ)貼令比亞迪在上半年承受了一定壓力，但下半年可能會(huì)有所好轉(zhuǎn)。然而，單軌業(yè)務(wù)不太可能在3到5年內(nèi)對(duì)比亞迪的財(cái)務(wù)表現(xiàn)產(chǎn)生任何影響。她說(shuō)，新能源汽車仍然是比亞迪的核心業(yè)務(wù)，在今年上半年為其貢獻(xiàn)了35%的收入。

The Hong Kong-listed share price of BYD, which is 8 per cent owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has risen 13 per cent in the year. However, this still leaves it among the worst performing of the major Chinese car stocks, which have had big share-price gains this year.

在香港上市的比亞迪，其8%的股份由沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)旗下的伯克希爾哈撒韋公司(Berkshire Hathaway)所有，今年其股價(jià)已上升了13%。但在中國(guó)主要汽車股今年大幅上漲的背景下，比亞迪仍是業(yè)內(nèi)表現(xiàn)最差的股票之一。

BYD has been looking for other ways to sell its expertise in making batteries — the company grew out of making rechargeable batteries in 1995, to move into smartphones, consumer electronics, combustion engine cars and even electric buses.

比亞迪一直在尋找其他方式銷售其電池制造專長(zhǎng)——該公司在1995以生產(chǎn)可充電電池起家，后來(lái)發(fā)展為智能手機(jī)、消費(fèi)類電子產(chǎn)品、內(nèi)燃發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)汽車甚至電動(dòng)公交車的制造商。

Last year it was one of China’s top producers of electric buses, which run in cities from Warsaw to Copenhagen. The first BYD double decker electric buses appeared on London streets in the past year.

去年，比亞迪是中國(guó)頂級(jí)的電動(dòng)公交車制造商之一，其生產(chǎn)的電動(dòng)公交車在從華沙到哥本哈根的城市運(yùn)行。過(guò)去一年里，首批比亞迪雙層電動(dòng)巴士出現(xiàn)在倫敦街道上。

Additional reporting by Sherry Fei Ju 俱菲補(bǔ)充報(bào)道