日产拟推低价版聆风提振电动汽车销售

Nissan plans to offer a lower-priced version of its Leaf to help spark sales of the electric car, which is selling well below the company’s earlier forecasts.

日产(Nissan)计划推出聆风(Leaf)的低价版车型，希望以此来刺激聆风电动汽车的销售。目前，聆风电动汽车的销量远低于该公司早前预期。

The move comes against a broader backdrop of disappointing early sales for plug-in cars, despite billions of dollars of loans, grants and consumer subsidies offered by governments in recent years to promote the fledgling sector.

虽然近些年来各国政府为扶持新兴的电动汽车产业提供了数十亿美元贷款、拨款和消费者补贴，但电动汽车的初期销售状况依然令人失望。日产正是在这个大背景下采取上述举措的。

Nissan sold fewer than 12,000 Leafs in the first half of this fiscal year, up 11 per cent on last year, but tracking below its goal of selling 40,000 of the cars for the full year, Andy Palmer, Nissan’s executive vice-president, told the Financial Times.

日产执行副总裁安迪·帕尔默(Andy Palmer)对英国《金融时报》表示，本财年的上半年，日产聆风电动汽车的销量不到1.2万辆，较上年同期增长11%，但低于公司设定的全年4万辆的销售目标所要求的水平。

To help clear its stock of Japanese-made Leafs, Nissan is already discounting the car in US, the world’s biggest market for electric cars, as General Motors is for its plug-in Chevrolet Volt, which is also selling below the company’s earlier -projections.

为帮助清理产于日本的聆风电动汽车的库存，日产正在全球第一大电动汽车市场美国对该车型进行打折促销。通用汽车(General Motors)对旗下的雪佛兰沃特(Chevrolet Volt)电动汽车也在采取类似举措，该车的销量同样低于公司的早前预期。

Nissan attributes slow sales of the Leaf to the strong yen and the slow deployment of infrastructure needed to recharge the cars.

日产将聆风销售缓慢的原因归于日元走强以及电动汽车充电所需的基础设施部署迟缓。

“The main hesitation in buying the car is from [driving] range anxiety, Mr Palmer said. “Maybe we were over-optimistic with the ramp-up as well.

帕尔默称：“消费者在购买这款车时的犹豫主要来自于对驾驶里程的担心。或许我们在扩大产能方面也有些过于乐观。

Nissan currently only offers the car, which sells for about ￡26,000 in the UK after a ￡5,000 government plug-in car grant is deducted, in two high-specification versions that include premium features such as a high-end navigation system.

日产目前在售的聆风车型只有两个高配版本，包含高端导航系统等高级功能。在英国市场，扣除政府对电动汽车的5000英镑补贴后，聆风目前的售价约为2.6万英镑。

It will also offer a lower-priced, lower-trim version from next year, when it will begin making the car at its plants in Tennessee in the US and at Sunderland in the UK, Mr Palmer said.

帕尔默表示，日产将从明年起推出一款低价低配版聆风，这款车将在该公司位于美国田纳西州和英国桑德兰的工厂生产。

According to the car-buying websites Edmunds.com and Truecar.com, Nissan offered incentives worth more than $4,200 on the Leaf in September. Edmunds estimates that GM is offering incentives on the Volt worth more than $5,000, and Truecar puts the figure at above $8,000.

购车网站Edmunds.com和Truecar.com的信息显示，9月份日产针对聆风的促销折扣超过每辆4200美元。Edmunds估算，通用汽车针对沃特电动汽车的促销折扣超过每辆5000美元，Truecar给出的这一数字则高于每辆8000美元。

“The reality is that there’s a market for electric vehicles; the issue is that the cost is just so high, says Larry Dominique of Truecar. “The other issue is the range: drivers are used to going to a filling station and being able to drive another 500 kilometres.

Truecar的拉里·多米尼克(Larry Dominique)表示：“现实是，电动汽车是有市场的；但问题是，价格实在太高。驾驶里程是另一个问题，司机们已经习惯了去一次加油站就能再继续行驶500公里。

In a sign of carmaker’s changing calculations about plug-in cars, Toyota recently scrapped plans to produce an electric version of its iQ city car.

有迹象表明，汽车制造商对电动汽车的看法正在转变，丰田(Toyota)近期就取消了生产电动版iQ城市用车的计划。

Nissan and its French partner Renault are the global carmakers that have bet most heavily on electric cars and batteries. In 2010 the Japanese carmaker received a $1.4bn US Department of Energy loan to help it install enough capacity to produce 150,000 electric cars and 200,000 batteries in the US.

日产及其法国合作伙伴雷诺(Renault)，是在电动汽车和电池领域下注最狠的国际汽车制造商。2010年，日产得到美国能源部(US Department of Energy)提供的一笔14亿美贷款，这笔贷款旨在帮助日产在美建立足够生产15万辆电动汽车和20万部电池的产能。