中國觀致汽車亮相日內瓦車展

Given the parlous state of the European car market, this would not seem a sensible moment to launch a new car brand. Yet, Qoros, a Chinese-Israeli joint venture, did exactly that at the Geneva motor show last week.

鑑於歐洲汽車市場的糟糕現狀，當前或許並不是推出一個新汽車品牌的合適時點。但中國和以色列合資的觀致汽車有限公司(QOROS)上週在日內瓦車展上舉行了全球首秀。

Qoros’ primary target market is China. But more than 10 per cent of an annual volume of 150,000 cars that are set to roll off its production line in Changshu, China later this year are set to be exported to Europe.

觀致汽車的主要目標市場是在中國。但在其位於中國常熟的生產線今年晚些時候計劃產出的15萬輛汽車當中，有超過10%將被出口至歐洲市場。

This explains the stream of curious executives from rivals including Volkswagen, Toyota and Renault who came to the Qoros stand in Geneva to size up the young pretender and its first model, a sedan.

這也是來自大衆(Volkswagen)、豐田(Toyota)、雷諾(Renault)等競爭對手的高管對觀致汽車充滿好奇的原因，他們來到觀致汽車在日內瓦車展的展臺，仔細打量這家年輕的競爭者及其首個車型——一款轎車。

Qoros is a 50-50 joint venture between China’s Chery Automobile and Israel Corporation, the industrial holding company controlled by Idan Ofer, Israel’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $5.6bn, according to Bloomberg.

觀致汽車是由中國奇瑞汽車(Chery Automobile)與以色列控股集團(Israel Corporation)各自持股50%成立的合資企業。以色列集團是由以色列首富伊丹?奧佛(Idan Ofer)掌控的工業控股公司。來自彭博(Bloomberg)的數據顯示，奧佛的財富總額估計達到56億美元。

China, the world’s largest car market, is dominated by foreign brands and Chinese makes have in the past struggled to penetrate the European market because of concerns over quality.

中國作爲全球第一大汽車市場，目前主要是外國品牌佔據優勢地位。而且，中國汽車生產商過去一直難以進入歐洲市場，因爲當地對於中國汽車的質量存在顧慮。

Qoros, which was founded in 2007, therefore put together an international team of well known western car executives to deliver western standards of safety and German-influenced design.

有鑑於此，成立於2007年的觀致汽車組建了一支由著名西方車企管理人士構成的國際化團隊，以貫徹西方的安全性能標準以及德國式產品設計。

They include Gert Hildebrand, former chief designer at Mini, and Volker Steinwascher, former head of Volkswagen’s North America operations. Qoros also relied on advice from McKinsey, the consultancy.

觀致汽車請來了Mini的前任首席設計師格特?希爾德布蘭德(Gert Hildebrand)以及大衆北美業務前任主管石清仁(Volker Steinwascher)。該公司還聘請了諮詢機構麥肯錫(consultancy)提供建議。

“The car industry went through very bad times in the financial crisis but it was beneficial for us as we were able to recruit great talent in that period,” Mr Ofer told the FT in an interview. “We were fortunate to reach practically anybody we wanted.

奧佛在接受英國《金融時報》的一次採訪時表示：“在金融危機期間，汽車工業經歷了非常艱難的階段，但這對於我們來說是有利的，因爲我們得以在此期間請到如此優秀的人才加盟。我們非常幸運地把想要邀請的絕大多數人都成功招至麾下。”

“I’m not a racing guy, I like to think of myself as an industrialist so I’m not doing this for fun, this is a serious industry?.?.?.?And we couldn’t have found a better partner than Chery. We’ve come a long way from the initial concept and they never said: ‘maybe we should do it in another way’.”

“我不是一名賽車愛好者。我喜歡把自己看做是一個實業家，因此成立觀致汽車並不是爲了好玩，這是一個嚴肅的領域……而且我們不可能找到比奇瑞更好的合作夥伴。相對於最初的構想，我們現在已經取得了很大進展，而且他們從來不曾說過：‘或許我們應該採用另一種方法來做這件事。’”

Qoros will require about $2.7bn in funding of which $1.2bn is equity – split 50-50 between the two parties – and $1.5bn debt. As well as the Changshu plant, Qoros has had to establish its own dealer network in China.

觀致汽車所需資金規模高達27億美元，其中12億美元以股權形式籌集，奇瑞汽車和以色列集團各承擔50%；其餘15億美元則以債務形式募集。除了在常熟設立生產廠以外，觀致汽車還需要在中國國內建立一套自有經銷商網絡。