大衆醜聞之後 歐美排放檢測還靠得住嗎

In the United States, automakers conduct their own emissions tests and submit the results to the government. In Europe, automakers pick who conducts the tests and where they are done. And these two regulatory systems are considered the world’s gold standards.

在美國，汽車製造商自己進行排放測試，然後把結果提交給政府。在歐洲，汽車製造商挑選由誰在哪裏進行測試。這兩種監管機制被視爲全球最佳標準。

Questions about the wisdom of allowing automakers so much sway in how air pollution standards are enforced grew this week after the resignation of Volkswagen’s chief executive, following the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.

在大衆汽車(Volkswagen)爆出柴油車排放作弊醜聞，其首席執行官辭職之後，本週出現了一些疑問的聲音：讓汽車製造商在空氣污染標準的執行上發揮這麼大的作用，是否明智？

Regulators in several European countries have opened investigations, attorneys general in the United States have joined federal inquiries, and there has been broader criticism of Volkswagen, and diesels, in markets from South Korea to Brazil.

歐洲一些國家的監管機構已經在開展調查，美國檢察長們也加入聯邦調查的行列，而從韓國到巴西的很多市場出現了對大衆和柴油車的廣泛批評。

Volkswagen has admitted installing software in 11 million vehicles that was used to provide false results about emissions, though it was not clear if it was used in all countries where the cars were sold. But the breadth of the scandal could finally threaten to bring change to an industry with a record of cheating since cars were first regulated.

大衆汽車已經承認，公司在1100萬輛汽車上安裝了軟件，以提供有關排放的虛假結果，目前還不清楚，它是否在所有銷售大衆汽車的國家都使用了這種軟件。但這起醜聞的廣泛影響可能最終會給這個行業帶來變化；汽車業自從受到監管的那一天起，作弊事件就陳出不窮。

While United States automakers are allowed to test their own cars, the Environmental Protection Agency does its own random checking, and the vast majority of enforcement actions are undertaken by American regulators.

雖然美國汽車製造商獲許自己進行車輛測試，但美國國家環境保護局（Environmental Protection Agency，簡稱EPA）也會進行抽查，而絕大部分執法行動是由美國監管機構開展的。

In the European Union, by contrast, automakers can get new car models tested in any member state and can hire private companies, which regard them as clients, to conduct the testing. Member states have regulatory jurisdiction, and enforcement is scant.

相比之下，歐盟的汽車製造商可以在任何一個成員國測試新車型，也可以聘請私人公司進行測試；對於這些私人公司來說，汽車製造商就是客戶。歐盟成員國擁有監管管轄權，執法行動非常不足。

One of the testing firms used by automakers in Europe is Applus Idiada of Spain, which has counted the major automakers, including Volkswagen, among its clients, though no company beyond Volkswagen has been implicated in the current scandal.

歐洲汽車製造商常用的一家測試公司是西班牙的Applus Idiada。其客戶包括大衆汽車和其他一些大牌汽車製造商，但除大衆之外，沒有哪家公司捲入當前的醜聞。

But advocates say tactics used by such companies highlight flaws in the European system. Applus Idiada markets itself as being able to provide “optimization of engine behavior to fulfill emissions and F.E. targets” — F.E. refers to fuel economy — in one of its publications, and uses similar language in others.

但一些維權者認爲，這些公司使用的策略突顯了歐洲機制的缺陷。 Applus Idiada在一份宣傳資料中稱自己能夠“優化發動機行爲，以滿足排放和FE目標”—— FE指燃油經濟性。該公司在其他宣傳資料中也使用了類似語言。

What does that mean for automaker clients?

對於汽車製造商客戶來說，這意味着什麼呢？

“They will find ways to artificially lower the test results using flexibilities in the testing methods,” Greg Archer, a former director at Britain’s renewable-fuels regulator who now works at Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based advocacy group that has done its own testing, said in an interview.

“他們會找到辦法，使用靈活的測試方法，人爲地降低測試結果，”格雷格·阿徹(Greg Archer)在接受採訪時說。阿徹是英國可再生燃料監管機構的前總監，現在在權益團體“交通運輸和環境“(Transport and Environment)工作。這個總部設在布魯塞爾的組織進行了自己的測試。

The way the system is set up creates inherent problems, Mr. Archer added.

這種制度的安排存在其固有問題，阿徹說。

“Carmakers ‘shop’ for the best deal from agencies across Europe and directly pay for their services,” he said in a recent statement on the Volkswagen scandal. “The job of the engineer overseeing the test is ultimately dependent on the next contract from the carmaker.”

“汽車製造商在歐洲各地的測試機構中‘選購’最划算的服務，並直接爲這種服務買單，”他近日在關於大衆醜聞的一份聲明中說。“負責測試的工程師能不能保住飯碗，最終取決於和汽車製造商簽訂的下一份合同。”

The company did not have an immediate comment.

該公司沒有當即予以置評。

Automakers have the same incentive to shop around for lenient testing companies that bond issuers have long had to shop around for the credit rating agency that would give them the highest credit rating. Overgenerous ratings of complex financial instruments based on mortgage prices were widely blamed as helping to set off the global financial crisis.

就像債券發行人長期以來“選購”可以給予他們最高信用評級的信用評級機構一樣，汽車製造商同樣也會“選購”比較寬鬆的測試公司的服務。那些基於抵押貸款價格的複雜金融工具獲得了過分高的評級，被廣泛指責爲引爆全球金融危機的原因之一。

Volkswagen’s rivals have had a clear response to the emissions cheating scandal: not us. “There is no evidence that this is an industrywide issue,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said in a statement on Wednesday, adding, “We cannot comment on an issue affecting one individual company.”

大衆汽車公司的競爭對手對排放作弊醜聞做出了明確迴應：我們不這樣。“沒有證據表明，這是整個行業的問題，”歐洲汽車製造商協會(European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association)本週三在一份聲明中表示：“對於影響個別公司的問題，我們不予置評。”

Lawmakers in the European Parliament on Wednesday debated the implications of the scandal at length, with members in several parties advocating a greater regulatory and oversight role for the European government, instead of the member states.

本週三，歐洲議會(European Parliament)的議員深入辯論了醜聞的影響，有幾方的成員主張由歐盟政府而不是成員國自己發揮更大的監管和監督作用。

“Of course that will be a big fight with the member states,” said Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green Party member who sits on the Parliament’s committee on Environmental, Public Health and Food Safety.

“當然，這會是與成員國之間的一場大爭鬥，”荷蘭綠黨成員、歐洲議會環境、公共衛生和食品安全(Environmental, Public Health and Food Safety)委員會成員巴斯·埃克豪特(Bas Eickhout)說。

He said he wanted the European Commission, the government’s executive branch, to move quickly on plans to put new emissions testing into effect that will take place at independent laboratories. And he wanted commission officials to quickly determine if the Volkswagen software was used to evade European tests, something that has still not been disclosed by Volkswagen.

他說，他希望歐盟的行政機構歐盟委員會(European Commission)能迅速讓新的排放測試計劃生效；該計劃要求在獨立實驗室進行測試。他希望委員會的官員迅速確定大衆汽車是否用軟件來逃避歐洲的測試；大衆汽車尚未披露相關情況。

He said some lawmakers also lamented that Europe lagged on enforcement, leaving American regulators to take on such cases.

他說，一些議員還哀嘆歐洲的執法落後了，要讓美國監管機構去應對這些問題。

“We are better in talking. The U.S. is better in acting,” he said, adding, “That’s a bit of a painful conclusion.”

“我們善於談論。美國善於行動，”他說，“這個總結有點讓人難受。”

In the United States, as attorneys general across the country opened investigations, Dan Becker, director of the safe climate campaign at the Center for Auto Safety, said the country also needed to rethink how emissions were tested. Independent testing has shown a widening gap between results in laboratories and the real world, raising suspicion.

在美國，各地的檢察長開啓了調查行動。汽車安全中心(Center for Auto Safety)的安全氣候活動主管丹·貝克爾(Dan Becker)表示，美國需要重新考慮如何進行排放測試。獨立測試顯示，實驗室和現實世界測試結果之間的差距正在拉大，已經引起了一些人的懷疑。

“The automakers have proven that they’re not trustworthy,” Mr. Becker said. “The government has to overhaul the testing to make sure that independent parties ensure that the cars that are put on the road pollute less and are safe.”

“汽車製造商已經證明了他們不值得信賴，”貝克爾說。“政府必須對測試機制進行全面修改，讓獨立機構來確保路上的汽車污染更少，更加安全。”

The new scandal could also crush the efforts of German automakers to open more export markets to diesel. Volkswagen had struggled for many years to win governments’ permission to sell diesel cars outside Europe, and that goal now seems especially challenged.

德國汽車製造商正在努力爲柴油車開闢更多的出口市場，這起新醜聞可能會讓他們的努力付諸東流。多年來，大衆汽車一直在試圖獲得一些政府的許可，以便在歐洲以外的地方銷售柴油車，現在要實現這個目標似乎變得特別困難。

In China, there has been little official response to the Volkswagen revelations. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, made a terse mention, referring to reports that South Korea would investigate three Volkswagen models. But Chinese regulators may have unintentionally saved Volkswagen from bigger problems.

在中國，官方几乎沒有對大衆汽車醜聞做出迴應。中國官方通訊社新華社簡短地提到此事，主要是報道韓國將調查大衆的三種車型。但中國監管機構可能在無意中讓大衆汽車免於陷入更大的麻煩。

Although China only uses Euro 4 emissions standards for diesel cars, government officials have exercised their considerable regulatory discretion to discourage mass production within China of diesel engines for cars. Volkswagen has lobbied unsuccessfully for years against that policy, and sells fewer than 1,000 diesels a year in China, all imported, out of overall annual sales of about 3 million cars, virtually all of them gasoline-powered.

中國對於柴油車僅僅採用了歐4排放標準，但政府官員行使了相當大的監管自由裁量權，阻止了柴油車在中國的大規模生產。關於這項政策，大衆汽車進行了多年的遊說，但都不成功，公司每年在中國銷售的柴油車不到1000輛，而且全部是進口的。大衆在中國的年銷量約300萬輛，幾乎全都是汽油動力車。

But there was much chatter online in China, with little positive for the company's image.

但是中國網民對此事的議論相當多，而且對該公司看法幾乎都是負面的。

“I just want to ask, as a world famous corporation that ranks the second in the industry,” wrote Zhong Xiaoyi on the website Zhihu, “why is it so difficult for you to manufacture good cars, to do something good?”

“作爲世界知名企業，作爲行業前二，好好做好汽車本身，好好做些實事，真的那麼難嗎？”知乎網站的鐘小逸問道。

Many commenters lamented the state of Chinese regulation, with a Weibo user writing: “They must have sold cars that should have been exported to China to the U.S.”

很多評論者對中國的監管狀況發出了感概，一名微博用戶寫道：“他們肯定是把本應出口到中國的汽車出口到了美國。”