雙語財經新聞 第31期:世界上最便宜的車 Nano
In the words of Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Motors Limited, India’s “People’s Car” will be a safe, affordable, all weather vehicle for a family which is today traveling on a two wheeler. The entry level model is ticketed at just over $2,500 — or the equivalent of 100,000 rupees or one Lakh 一 a revolutionary price where the average lower middle class income is $200 a month. (For comparison’s sake, in the early 1970s，Honda introduced affordable, good quality Civics at about $2,200, which adjusted for inflation would now be nearly $10,500.) It could well be one of the most important cars ever designed.
The car emerged at a much -anticipated launch on Thursday: a cute, short thing, with four doors, tiny wheels placed out at the far corners of the body and what looked like plenty of room inside. The Nano has just enough space for a briefcase or small bag under the hood. The engine — all two cylinders, 624cc and 33 horsepower of it 一 is in the back, just like the Volkswagen Beetle of old. The speedometer1 and other instruments cluster in a central pod in the middle of the dashboard rather than directly in front of the driver, the easier (and cheaper) to offer both left- and right-hand versions when Tata Motors starts exporting the car to Southeast Asia and Africa in a couple of years. It has a top speed of about 60 miles per hour. “Car companies are in probably the most emotive business area that one can find apart from fashion,” company chairman Ratan Tata told TIME a day before the big launch. “There will be people who say it looks like a toy, but if you consider the value proposition I think the car isgreat.”
週四，此款車在萬衆期待的發行會上亮相。它可愛、小巧,有四個開門,車身兩 邊有小輪子,看上去裏面有不少空間。Nano的車篷下有足夠的空間放公文包或小袋 子。此車的引擎安裝在後面,有兩個汽缸，624毫升，33馬力，像老大衆甲殼蟲。速度 計和其他器材安裝在儀表板的中間，而不是直接在駕駛者面前，更容易(更便宜)同 時提供左、右手的啓動。這些年塔塔汽車公司開始向東南亞和非洲出口汽車。它擁 有大約每小時60英里的最高速度。“人們可以發現，汽車公司可能是除了時尚業最 情緒化的業務領域公司總裁拉丹?塔塔在發行會前一天受時代週刊採訪時說^ “有人會說這看起來像一個玩具,但如果你考慮到價值定位’我認爲這款車是優秀 的。”Tata hopes the Nano will help millions of poor people around the world 一 the “Bottom of the Pyramidw in developing world marketing-speak — switch from two wheels to four. Environmentalists, city planners and even some competitors, on the other hand, warn that the new vehicle will clog up2 India’s crowded roads and add clouds of pollution to its already filthy air.
塔塔希望Nano可以造福世界各地千百萬的窮人（他們在發展中的世界營銷手 段中被稱爲“金字塔的底層”）,從兩個輪子變成四個輪子。環保人士、城市規劃者， 甚至一些競爭對手，卻批評說，印度道路已經夠塞車的了,Nano出現後，塞車必定惡 化，空氣污染也會更嚴重。拉丹?塔塔強調，新型汽車符合印度的排放規定,甚至比 歐洲4號更標準。
Ratan Tata emphasized that the new car complies with India’s emissions laws and even with Europe’s much stronger Euro 4 standards. Emissions, Tata says, are “lower than a scooter*s today”. The company claims the car will also deliver 50 miles per gallon, or better than 20 kilometers per liter, which would make it one of India’s most efficient vehicles, and vastly more efficient than the average in the U.S. Chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, said recently that he was “having nightmares” about the low-cost car. “Dr. Pachauri need not have nightmares,” said Ratan Tata at today’s unveiling. “For us it’s a milestone and I hope we can make a contribution to the country.”
塔塔公司稱，這款車的排量比摩托車還低。塔塔公司稱該車每跑5膜裏用一加 侖汽油，或更節省每20^裏用一升。這將是印度最省油的汽車。和阿爾?戈爾一同榮 獲諾貝爾和平獎的聯合國首席氣候學家拉金德拉?帕喬裏說，他最近總是做關於低 成本汽車的“噩夢”。在今天的揭幕儀式上拉丹?塔塔說:“帕喬裏博士不用做惡夢。 對於我們來說這是一個里程碑，我希望我們能爲國家作出貢獻。”But with India’s road infrastructure struggling to keep up with explosive growth in car sales, won’t the new Tata just add to the country*s road hassles3? That’s a problem the Indian government has to deal with, not manufacturers, Tata said.
但是，印度的道路基礎設施建設努力跟上汽車銷量爆炸性增長的步伐，新型的 塔塔汽車就不會增加國家的公路擁擠了嗎？這是印度政府需要解決的問題，而不製造商,塔塔公司說。“We’d certainly be concerned if our vehicle created absolute chaos4 all across India，” he told one questioner who complained that his morning journey of a few miles across Delhi took over anhour. “But if you had chaos today and it did not include our vehicles, then 丨 would suggest the problem has to do with something else besides the presence or absence of our vehicles,” India, he agreed, “does desperately need mass transit systems... both within citiesand between cities,M But poor Indian families also have a right to what millions take for granted elsewhere in the world. “Should they be denied the right to independent transport?”
一名記者抱怨，早晨穿過德里城只有幾英里的路程卻花了一個小時。塔塔說: “如果我們的汽車使印度的交通完全混亂，我們當然會擔心。”“但如果今天堵車，其 中並沒有我們的車。那麼無論有沒有我們的車，問題都需要解決。”他認爲印度， 不論是城市裏和城市之間都需要集體運輸系統。”但是貧窮的印度家庭理所當然和 世界其他國家人一樣享有權利。“他們應該被剝奪了獨立運輸的權利嗎？ ”Eventually, Tata Motors hopes to sell a million Nanos a year. Even before it goes on sale, though, it has become an important symbol of an emerging trend in the developing world, a new brand of innovation that makes more out of less and engineers clever but cheap fixes to problems that Western companies might throw expensive technology at.
最後，塔塔公司希望一年銷售一百萬輛Nano。即使在它出售之前，它就巳成爲 發展中世界一個新趨勢的象徵。創新的新品牌可以提髙效率,西方公司可能會用昂 貴的技術解決的問題，廉價的新品牌仍可以解決。The head of the Nano team says Tata Motors has applied for 34 patents5 on various components and design features on the new car, though he was short on specifics. The car reportedly uses super strong glue rather than welds in some joints — a technique that a handful of other car makers have used before, though perhaps never as extensively. Tata Motors，cost-cutting drive was relentless: the windshield has just one washer rather than two, the metal steering column was hollowed out to save on steel, cheaper bearings. Given the steep rise in the cost of steel, rubber and other inputs in the past few years, it’s possible that the entry level Nano might not break even, though Tata made a point of saying the “one lakh” price tag in India will stay because “a promise is a promise”. Ratan Tata said
Nano團隊負責人說，塔塔汽車公司已經申請了新型車34個不同的組件和功能 的設計專利，但他未透漏具體細節。據報道,這款車在一些連接處使用超強力膠水 而不是焊接，這是其他一些汽車製造商曾經用過的技術,但並沒有廣泛的應用。塔 塔汽車公司苛刻的削減成本:擋風玻璃上只有一個雨刷,爲節約鋼材未設置金屬轉 向柱，使用更便宜的軸承。拉丹?塔塔說，由於過去幾年鋼鐵、橡膠和其他材料成本 增加，但Nano的售價可能不會改變,塔塔公司承諾在印度“一萬盧比”的價格將不 變，因爲“一諾千金”。
