中國市場走低未減特斯拉未來信心

Elon Musk has held out the prospect of Tesla achieving “a few million” in annual car sales by 2025, even as reports of a slowdown in China sales sent shares in the electric car company down more than 7 per cent in after-hours trading.

報告顯示特斯拉在華銷量增長放緩，導致這家電動汽車公司股價在盤後交易中下跌逾7%。儘管如此，這家加州集團的共同創始人埃隆•馬斯克(Elon Musk)仍然預期，在2025年以前，特斯拉年度汽車銷量或將達到“幾百萬輛”。

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the Detroit motor show, the co-founder of the Californian group also said that he believed Tesla could achieve profitability by the end of the decade, as it seeks to prove that the economics behind electric vehicles can work.

在底特律車展會場外的一次活動中，馬斯克還表示他相信特斯拉會在2019年底以前盈利。目前，特斯拉一直試圖證明電動汽車背後的經濟模式是有效的。

“Our mission is fundamentally to transition the world to electric cars,” said Mr Musk. “So if we don’t make a lot of cars, we’re not doing the best that we can.”

馬斯克表示：“我們的使命是從根本上讓世界轉向電動汽車。因此，如果我們不生產大量車輛，我們就未盡全力。”

But the bullish outlook — which pitches Tesla as a company achieving sales on a par with BMW — was overshadowed after Mr Musk told reporters in Detroit that the carmaker’s sales in China were “unexpectedly weak” during the fourth quarter.

這一信心十足的展望將特斯拉定位爲銷量可與寶馬(BMW)匹敵的企業。然而，就在底特律，馬斯克告訴記者，去年第四季度特斯拉在華銷量“出乎意料地低迷”，這一消息令上述展望蒙上了一層陰影。

He said that while there had been “significant” increases in European and North American demand, China had suffered because of “some misperception issues” on the subject of home charging.

他說，儘管歐洲和北美的需求曾“大幅增長”，由於在家用充電問題上的“某些誤解問題”，特斯拉在中國卻遭遇困境。

Tesla’s shares were down 7 per cent in after-hours trading at $189.95.

消息傳來，在盤後交易中，特斯拉股票下跌7%，跌至每股189.95美元。

Tesla is working hard to bring a mass market equivalent of its Model S premium saloon to market. Mr Musk said that once the $35,000 vehicle, known as the Model 3, was up to full production by 2020, the lossmaking company would be in the black.

目前，特斯拉正在努力將其S型豪華轎車的大衆版推向市場。馬斯克表示，一旦這款售價3.5萬美元、被稱爲3型轎車的產品在2020年以前全面投產，處於虧損狀態的特斯拉將會盈利。

“I think we will at some point start showing a profit,” he said. “We feel pretty comfortable saying 2020.”

他說：“我認爲，從某一時刻起，公司將開始盈利。對此，十分保守的估計是2020年。”

That vision depends on wider adoption of electric vehicles. The category is expected to still make up only about 1 per cent of vehicles by the end of the decade.

這一圖景有賴於電動汽車的更廣泛應用。不過，到這個十年結束前，預計電動汽車佔所有汽車的比例仍將只有大約1%。

But there are signs that mainstream carmakers are ramping up efforts to produce affordable and practical electric vehicles as they seek to meet stringent CO2 emissions targets.

然而，多種跡象表明，爲滿足苛刻的二氧化碳排放目標，主流汽車製造商都加大了研發力度，生產廉價而實用的電動汽車。

Mr Musk was speaking a day after General Motors stole a march on rivals at the Detroit motor show by unveiling a battery electric concept car with a targeted price tag of $30,000.

就在馬斯克發表這番講話一天前，在底特律車展上，通用汽車(General Motors)悄然搶佔先機，披露了一款以電池電力推動的概念車，其目標價位定爲3萬美元。

“Musk continues to show optimism in the electric car market, paired with his ongoing encouragement for other automakers to join him in replacing the internal combustion engine with battery power,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book’s . “Now it looks like he’s getting his wish.”

凱利藍皮書旗下網站資深分析師卡爾•布勞爾(Karl Brauer)表示：“對於電力汽車市場，馬斯克依然表現得十分樂觀。與此同時，他也在不斷鼓勵其他汽車製造商加入他的行列，以電池動力取代內燃機。如今，他似乎正在實現他的願望。”

Mr Musk used the appearance late on Tuesday to urge mainstream carmakers to speed up the development of electric vehicles to get the industry to a point where widespread adoption was possible.

此外，馬斯克還把週二晚些時候的現身作爲契機，敦促主流汽車製造商加快開發電動汽車，以便令該行業達到有可能被人們廣泛接受的臨界點。

“It’s only going to go there if the big carmakers make risky decisions to make electric vehicles . . . which is sort of counter-intuitive, because, why do we want all these competitors?”

“只有大型汽車製造商決心冒着風險生產電動汽車，整個行業才能到達這一臨界點……這有些違背直覺，原因是，我們爲何會盼望出現這麼多競爭者？”

He added that the need for zero-emission technology was ever more important, given the sharp fall in the oil price that has pushed US consumers towards heavy-duty pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles.

他補充說，考慮到油價大幅下跌將大量美國消費者推向重型皮卡和運動型多功能車，零排放技術的必要性正變得前所未有地重要。

“The need for sustainable transport is incredibly high. Even in the face of massively declining oil prices, I think it actually becomes more urgent that [we make that] transition to electric,” said Mr Musk, who is also co-founder of space flight company SpaceX. “I think that all transport, with the ironic exception of rockets, will go fully electric.”

馬斯克表示：“可持續性運輸的必要性之高令人難以置信。我認爲，儘管正面臨油價暴跌，（我們）向電動汽車的轉型其實更緊迫了。我認爲，所有運輸方式都應該完全使用電力——除了火箭這樣的所謂特例之外。”之所以會這麼說，因爲馬斯克也是太空飛行公司SpaceX的共同創始人。