比亚迪首条商业单轨在银川通车
中国电动汽车制造商比亚迪(BYD)的第一条商业单轨9月1日通车，这是该公司进入大众运输市场以弥补电动汽车销售低迷的多元化战略的一部分。
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.
比亚迪称，“云轨”比地铁便宜，同时不存在公共汽车的交通问题。云轨的市场目标主要是交通拥堵和污染严重的中国城市，但也计划出口海外。
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日比亚迪举办了简短的通车仪式后，第一条单轨线路于9月1日在地处中国西北的省会城市银川通车运行。比亚迪表示，有100多个城市对云轨系统感兴趣，包括纽约和南非的开普敦。云轨的部分吸引力在于成本——据比亚迪称，云轨的造价仅为地铁的1/5，而建设工期只有地铁的1/3。比亚迪称，未来一年期间预计有20个城市将建设云轨，主要集中在中国，而其第一家海外客户将是菲律宾伊洛伊洛市(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.
对比亚迪来说，大众运输也是对抗电动汽车业不稳定的一种手段。去年，比亚迪是全球最大的电动客车销售商，产品主要面向中国市场。但今年上半年，在政府削减了补贴后，其销量下降了。
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.
分析人士将销量下降归咎于在政府削减补贴后该公司拒绝降价——降价将给公司利润带来沉重打击。根据咨询公司Carsalesbase.com对中国汽车工业协会(CAAM)数据所作的分析，继2016年增长超过70%后，2017上半年比亚迪的混合动力汽车和纯电动汽车销量同比下降了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.
这意味着，这家总部位于深圳的公司将其作为中国乃至世界“新能源”汽车销量霸主的地位让给了本土竞争对手北汽(BAIC)。上半年比亚迪的毛利润跌至82亿元人民币(合12亿美元)，下降了4.1%，部分原因在于电动汽车补贴被削减。
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.
光大证券(Everbright Securities)驻香港分析师倪昱婧表示，削减补贴令比亚迪在上半年承受了一定压力，但下半年可能会有所好转。然而，单轨业务不太可能在3到5年内对比亚迪的财务表现产生任何影响。她说，新能源汽车仍然是比亚迪的核心业务，在今年上半年为其贡献了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.
在香港上市的比亚迪，其8%的股份由沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)旗下的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway)所有，今年其股价已上升了13%。但在中国主要汽车股今年大幅上涨的背景下，比亚迪仍是业内表现最差的股票之一。
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.
比亚迪一直在寻找其他方式销售其电池制造专长——该公司在1995以生产可充电电池起家，后来发展为智能手机、消费类电子产品、内燃发动机汽车甚至电动公交车的制造商。
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，比亚迪是中国顶级的电动公交车制造商之一，其生产的电动公交车在从华沙到哥本哈根的城市运行。过去一年里，首批比亚迪双层电动巴士出现在伦敦街道上。
Additional reporting by Sherry Fei Ju 俱菲补充报道
