China’s BYD was a battery manufacturer trying its hand at building cars when it showed off its newest model in 2007. American executives at the Guangzhou auto show gaped at the car’s uneven purple paint job and the poor fit of its doors.
中国的比亚迪最初尝试造车时曾是一家电池制造商，它在2007年展示了自己的最新车型。在广州车展上看到这辆涂着不均匀的紫色油漆、车门和门框尺寸不合的汽车时，美国的高管们目瞪口呆。
“They were the laughingstock of the industry,” said Michael Dunne, a China auto industry analyst.
“他们曾是这个行业的笑柄，”中国汽车行业分析师邓凯(Michael Dunne) 说。
Nobody is laughing at BYD now.
现在没人嘲笑比亚迪了。
The company passed Tesla in worldwide sales of fully electric cars late last year. BYD is building assembly lines in Brazil, Hungary, Thailand and Uzbekistan and preparing to do so in Indonesia and Mexico. It is rapidly expanding exports to Europe. And the company is on the cusp of passing Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi, as the market leader in China.
去年年底，这家公司在全球纯电动汽车的销量上超过了特斯拉。比亚迪正在巴西、匈牙利、泰国和乌兹别克斯坦建设装配线，并计划在印度尼西亚和墨西哥建装配线。公司正在迅速扩大对欧洲的出口，并即将超越（包括奥迪在内的）大众集团，成为中国市场的领先者。
BYD’s sales, over 80 percent of them in China, have grown by about a million cars in each of the past two years. The last automaker to accomplish that in even one year in the American market was General Motors — and that was in 1946, after G.M. had suspended passenger car sales during the four preceding years because of World War II.
比亚迪的销量80%以上来自中国，过去两年的销量每年增长约100万辆。在美国市场，上一家仅实现一年这种增长的车企是通用汽车公司，那是1946年，它的乘用车销售因第二次世界大战停了四年之后。
“BYD’s growth is unlike anything the industry has seen in many decades,” said Matt Anderson, curator of transportation at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.
“比亚迪的增长在汽车行业几十年的历史上未曾见过，”亨利·福特博物馆负责交通项目的馆长马特·安德森说。该博物馆位于密歇根州迪尔伯恩。
Based in Shenzhen, the hub of China’s electronics industry, BYD has shown how Chinese carmakers can tap the country’s dominance of electrical products. No company has benefited as much from China’s embrace of battery-electric cars and plug-in gasoline-electric cars. These vehicles together make up 40 percent of China’s car market, the world’s largest, and are expected to be more than half next year. Like most Chinese automakers, BYD doesn’t sell its cars in America because Trump-era tariffs remain in place, but BYD does sell buses in the United States.
比亚迪的总部设在中国电子工业中心深圳，它向人们展示了中国汽车制造商如何利用中国在电子产品领域的主导地位。对于中国对纯电动汽车和插电式混合动力汽车的欣然接受，没有一家公司的受益程度可与比亚迪媲美。这两种汽车目前合计占中国汽车市场（全球最大市场）40%的份额，预计明年将超过一半。与大多数中国车企一样，比亚迪不在美国销售汽车，因为特朗普时代的关税仍然存在，但比亚迪可以在美国销售公交车。
BYD is leading China’s export push in electric cars, and is rapidly building the world’s largest car carrier ships to transport them. The first of the ships, the BYD Explorer No. 1, is on its maiden voyage from Shenzhen with 5,000 electric cars on board, and is expected to arrive in the Netherlands by Feb. 21.
比亚迪正在引领中国的电动车出口，并正在为运送这些汽车迅速建造世界上最大的汽车运输船。这些船中的第一艘“比亚迪探索者一号”已在首航途中，载着5000辆电动汽车从深圳出发，预计将于2月21日到达荷兰。
With China’s and BYD’s success has come more scrutiny.
中国和比亚迪在电动车方面的成功也已引发了外界更多的审视。
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, warned about the strength of Chinese electric car exports in a company earnings call in January. “Frankly, I think if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other companies in the world,” he said.
特斯拉的首席执行官埃隆·马斯克在今年1月的公司财报电话会议上对中国电动车出口的强劲势头发出了警告。“坦率地说，我认为如果没有贸易壁垒的话，他们很可能把世界上绝大多数竞争对手几乎摧毁，”他说。
The rapid gains by BYD and other Chinese automakers in Europe have prompted a European Union investigation of Chinese government subsidies and could result in tariffs. BYD’s annual reports show a total of $2.6 billion in government assistance from 2008 through 2022. And that does not include other help, like making sure that taxi companies in BYD’s hometown buy only BYD electric cars.
比亚迪和其他中国车企在欧洲市场的快速增长已促使欧盟对中国政府的补贴进行调查，可能导致征收关税。比亚迪的年报显示，从2008年到2022年，政府为其提供了总额达26亿美元的帮助。这还不包括其他帮助，比如确保比亚迪总部所在地的出租车公司只买比亚迪的电动车。
BYD declined to comment about subsidies. In a statement, the company said the BYD Explorer No. 1, its new ship, “signifies a significant milestone for BYD as it expands into international markets and contributes to the development of the global new-energy vehicle industry.”
比亚迪拒绝就补贴置评。公司在一份声明中表示，其新船比亚迪探索者一号“标志着比亚迪拓展国际市场的一个重要里程碑，为全球新能源汽车行业的发展做出贡献”。
China has built enough factories to make more than twice as many cars as its market can buy. That has led to a price war in China, particularly between BYD and Tesla, with discounting that has inflicted heavy losses. One of BYD’s newest models, the subcompact Seagull, starts at less than $11,000.
中国已建成了足够多的电动汽车工厂，产量是国内需求的两倍多。这已导致了中国市场的电动车价格战，尤其是在比亚迪与特斯拉之间，打折已给公司造成了严重损失。比亚迪的最新车型之一，超小型的海鸥，起价只有7.38万元。
A real estate crisis and a falling stock market are now making Chinese consumers warier about buying a car at all. But BYD’s low manufacturing costs have left it in a better position than most rivals to survive any long slowdown in sales and industry shakeout.
房地产危机和股市下跌现已让中国消费者对买车更加谨慎。但与大多数竞争对手相比，低廉的制造成本使得比亚迪在销售放缓的长期趋势和行业震荡中生存下来的能力更强大。
BYD’s chairman, Wang Chuanfu, founded the company in 1995 to make batteries for Motorola and other consumer electronics companies. He had studied at Central South University in Changsha, an elite institution famed for battery chemistry research. But he dreamed of making cars.
比亚迪董事长王传福于1995年创立了这家公司，它曾为摩托罗拉和其他电子消费产品公司生产电池。王传福曾在长沙的中南大学读书，那是一所以电池化学研究闻名的精英学府。但他的梦想是造车。
In 2003, BYD bought a factory in Xi’an that was building gasoline-powered cars. But the company had trouble at the start, gaining an early reputation for building clunkers. In a visit to the factory in 2006, a large repair area at the end of the assembly line was clogged with newly built cars that already needed more work.
2003年，比亚迪在西安收购了一家生产汽油动力汽车的工厂。但公司一开始就遇到了麻烦，早期因质量不好而声名不佳。记者2006年参观这座工厂时，曾在装配线的末端看到一个大型维修区，堆满了刚刚制造完成但已经需要进一步维修的汽车。
BYD’s sales grew as the Chinese market soared. Warren E. Buffett bought a nearly 10 percent stake for $230 million in 2008, giving BYD not just a cash infusion but also global cachet. The same year, Mr. Wang promised to start exporting battery-electric cars to the United States within two years.
随着中国汽车市场的快速增长，比亚迪的销量也在增长。2008年，沃伦·巴菲特以2.3亿美元购买了比亚迪近10%的股份，这不仅给它注入了现金，也带来了全球知名度。王传福曾在同年承诺，两年内开始向美国出口电动车。
But electric cars at the time cost a lot to build and had limited range, and Mr. Wang had to scotch his plans to enter the American market. In an interview in 2011, he second-guessed his emphasis on battery-electric cars. Automakers should focus on gasoline-electric hybrids, he declared. He added, “There is still tremendous potential in the Chinese market for electric cars.”
但当时的电动车制造成本很高，续航里程有限，王传福不得不放弃了进入美国市场的计划。他在2011年的一次采访中动摇了他对纯电动车的重视。他宣称，汽车制造商应该把重点放在油电混合动力车上。他还补充说，“电动车在中国市场仍有巨大潜力。”
By 2012, car production in China had caught up with demand. Buyers became choosier. BYD’s car sales and stock price plunged as multinationals offered more stylish models. Industry executives and analysts questioned whether BYD had a future.
到2012年时，中国的汽车产量已经满足了需求。买家变得更加挑剔。随着跨国公司提供更时尚的车型，比亚迪的汽车销量和股价暴跌。行业高管们和分析师们曾对比亚迪是否有未来表示怀疑。
But Mr. Wang proceeded to make two risky bets that paid off.
但王传福继而投下两笔冒险的赌注，它们都得到了回报。
In 2016, he hired Wolfgang Egger, a prominent Audi designer, who in turn hired hundreds more car engineers with bold tastes. They completely redesigned BYD’s models.
2016年，他聘请了奥迪的著名设计师沃尔夫冈·埃格，后者又聘请了几百名品味大胆的汽车工程师。他们对比亚迪的车型进行了彻底的重新设计。
Mr. Wang also figured out how to replace the industry’s standard chemicals in rechargeable lithium batteries — nickel, cobalt and manganese — with cheaper iron and phosphate. But early batteries made from the inexpensive chemical compounds ran out of juice quickly and had to be recharged after even short trips.
可充电的锂电池的行业标准是使用化学物质镍钴锰酸锂（又名三元锂），王传福找到了用更便宜的磷酸铁锂取代三元锂的方法。但最初用廉价化合物制造的电池续航旅程很短，即使短途旅行也需要充电。
In 2020, BYD introduced its Blade batteries, which closed most of the so-called range gap with nickel-cobalt batteries at a fraction of what they cost.
2020年，比亚迪推出了“刀片电池”，这种电池基本弥补了在续航里程上与三元锂电池的差距，但成本极低。
Tesla began making and selling large numbers of cars in China the same year, and enthusiasm for electric cars swept the nation. BYD was ready with inexpensive battery chemistries and Mr. Egger’s new designs.
特斯拉在同一年开始在中国大量生产和销售汽车，电动车热潮席卷全国。比亚迪用廉价的电池化学材料和埃格的新设计为这个热潮做好了准备。
Tesla also began using lithium iron phosphate batteries in less expensive models. BYD still sells mostly cheaper cars with lower range, while Tesla mostly sells costlier cars with more range.
特斯拉也开始在较便宜的车型中使用磷酸铁锂电池。比亚迪仍主要销售续航里程较短的廉价车，而特斯拉主要销售续航里程较长的高档车。
The Swiss bank UBS found last year that a BYD Seal electric hatchback sedan cost 35 percent less to make than a slightly smaller Volkswagen ID.3 of similar quality made in Europe. The savings came only partly from the cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries.
瑞银去年发现，比亚迪的掀背式设计海豹电动轿车的制造成本比欧洲制造的同等品质、稍微小点的大众ID.3车型低 35%。节省的成本仅部分来自更便宜的磷酸铁锂电池。
BYD makes three-quarters of the Seal’s parts. Like Tesla, BYD uses only a few electronic systems in each car. By contrast, VW outsources up to two-thirds of its components. BYD also has benefited from lower labor costs in China, although those have risen as factories compete to hire skilled workers.
BYD now has its own walled town in Shenzhen, a southeastern city next to Hong Kong. An airport-style monorail carries workers from 18-story company apartments to BYD’s office towers and research labs.
Liu Qiangqiang, an engineer at the Shenzhen center, said the staff of his car development team had almost tripled since he joined the company from General Motors 15 months ago.
“The pace is fast,” he said.
After dismissing autonomous driving a year ago, BYD swung into action when the consumer electronics companies Huawei and Xiaomi introduced cars with considerable autonomous driving abilities. Mr. Wang announced in January that BYD had 4,000 engineers working on assisted driving, a limited form of autonomous technology that works mainly on highways and large roads, and would invest $14 billion in the technology.
BYD has a lingering advantage over Tesla: Mr. Wang’s decision by 2011 to develop plug-in hybrid cars, which account for nearly half of BYD’s sales.
Li Jingyu, a salesman at a BYD dealership in Shenzhen, said many families bought a hybrid as their first car so they could drive at Lunar New Year back to their ancestral villages. Most villages in China now have chargers, Mr. Li said, but not enough for the throngs of visiting drivers at Lunar New Year, which started on Friday night.
“People are just worried,” he said, “about the waiting time.”
“大家只是有排队等待时长的顾虑，”他说。
本文最初发表于2024年2月12日。
Li You和Joy Dong对本文有报道和研究贡献。
Keith Bradsher是《纽约时报》北京分社社长，此前曾任上海分社社长、香港分社社长、底特律分社社长，以及华盛顿记者。他在新冠疫情期间常驻中国进行报道。 点击查看更多关于他的信息。
翻译：纽约时报中文网
海豹车型四分之三的零部件由比亚迪自己生产。与特斯拉一样，比亚迪每辆车只使用几个电子系统。相比之下，大众汽车将多达三分之二的零部件外包。比亚迪也受益于中国更低的劳动力成本，尽管随着工厂在雇用技术工人上展开竞争，劳动力成本已在上升。
比亚迪在毗邻香港的南方城市深圳的工业园像是一个封闭小镇。里面有机场使用的那种单轨列车，将工人从18层高的公司公寓送到比亚迪的办公楼和研究实验室。
深圳园区的工程师刘强强（音）说，自从他15个月前从通用汽车跳槽到比亚迪以来，他所在的汽车开发团队的员工人数几乎增加了两倍。
“节奏快了，”他说。
一年前，比亚迪曾对自动驾驶不以为然，但当消费电子产品公司华为和小米推出了具有相当强的自动驾驶能力的汽车后，比亚迪加入到这个行列中来。王传福今年1月宣布，比亚迪已招聘了4000名工程师组成辅助驾驶（一种有限形式的自动驾驶技术，主要适用于高速公路和大型道路）团队，并将在该技术上投资1000亿元。
比亚迪对特斯拉拥有一个仍然存在的优势：王传福在2011年做出的开发插电式混合动力汽车的决定，这种车的销量占比亚迪汽车销量的近一半。
深圳的一家比亚迪经销店的销售员李景宇（音）说，许多家庭买第一辆车时会买一辆混合动力车，这样他们就能在春节期间开车回自己的老家。李先生说，虽然中国的大多数村庄现在都有充电桩，但春节期间（今年的春节假期始于2月9日）有太多人回家探亲时，充电桩就不够用了。
