奢侈中國: 中國市場豪車銷量增長放緩大綱

For the past few years, Europe’s luxury carmakers could count on one thing: however fast China’s car market was growing overall, luxury car sales would grow even faster, writes Patti Waldmeir.
過去幾年裏，在歐洲豪車生產商看來，有一件事幾乎是板上釘釘的：無論中國汽車市場的整體增長有多快，豪車銷量的增長都只會更快。

But in the first quarter of this year, that pattern was reversed, with premium car sales up only 4 per cent compared with 17 per cent growth in the light vehicle market as a whole.
但在今年第一季度，這個模式發生了逆轉：中國市場的豪車銷量僅增長了4%，而輕型車市場的整體增長卻達17%。

If this slowdown persists, it could send a chill through the hearts of premium carmakers worldwide, since they depend heavily on the luxury-loving mainland market for profitability, say auto analysts in China.
駐華汽車分析師表示，如果這股增長放緩趨勢持續下去，將令全球豪車廠商心生寒意，因為這些廠商的盈利水平嚴重依賴於喜歡奢華的中國市場。

Premium carmaker executives visiting the ongoing Shanghai Auto Show said it was unclear whether there would be a sustained sector-wide slowdown, let alone what were the reasons.
此刻正出席上海國際汽車工業展覽會(Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition)的豪車生產企業高管表示，目前還不清楚整個豪車市場是否會持續放緩，箇中原因就更難判斷了。

Is the Beijing government’s austerity programme having a broader impact on China’s willingness to consume conspicuously? Or perhaps even worse, are Chinese entrepreneurs (the richest of whom often own 10 or 20 top-end luxury cars) losing faith in the strength of their own economy?
北京方面推行的厲行節約政策是否正對中國的炫富性消費意願產生更廣泛影響？抑或更嚴重的是，中國企業家（其中最富有的人士常擁有10輛至20輛頂級豪車）是否開始對自身的經濟狀況喪失信心？

Car market analysts point out that the slowdown has not affected all luxury car sales, only the most expensive ones.
汽車市場分析師指出，並非所有豪車的銷量增長都在放緩，受到影響的只是那些最貴的豪車。

“After three years of incredible growth, things have definitely slowed down  . . . but the mainstream [luxury] cars are still doing fine – it’s the expensive imported cars that seem to be struggling,” says Max Warburton of Sanford Bernstein in Singapore.
伯恩斯坦研究公司(Bernstein Research)駐新加坡的馬克斯•沃伯頓(Max Warburton)表示：“經過三年不可思議的增長之後，增速明顯已經放慢下來……但主流（豪）車的銷售形勢仍然喜人，日子不好過的似乎是那些昂貴的進口（豪）車。

“Selling Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, right now is getting pretty tricky – though whether that’s an anti-corruption thing or economics, that’s not quite clear.”
“法拉利(Ferrari)、蘭博基尼(Lamborghini)和賓利(Bentley)，現在都非常難賣——但這到底是由反腐還是由經濟狀況所致，目前還不太清楚。”