After years of promises followed by manufacturing delays, a major automaker finally appears on the verge² of beginning sustained exports from China to the United States.

多年来前景良好，但屡屡受制于生产滞后的一家大型汽车制造商，终于即将开始从中国向美国持续出口其产品。

The Volvo Car Corporation announced at the Detroit auto¹ show on Monday that it planned to begin shipping³ a midsize sedan from Chengdu in the next several months. Volvo, which a Chinese investor⁴ bought from the Ford⁵ Motor Company in 2010, said it would ship 1,500 to 2,000 cars to the United States this year, with increases in subsequent years based on demand.

在周一的底特律车展上，沃尔沃汽车集团(Volvo Car Corporation)宣布将在未来几个月开始出售一款在成都生产的中型轿车。2010年被中国投资者从福特汽车公司(Ford Motor Company)手中买下的沃尔沃称，今年将向美国交付1500到2000辆汽车，接下来几年里会根据需求增加数量。

Volvo already makes the same model, the S60 Inscription⁶ sedan, for the Chinese market, albeit⁷ under a different name, the S60L. It sells about 26,000 cars there, so Volvo can add production for the American market at a modest cost.

沃尔沃此前已经在中国市场开售这款S60 Inscription轿车，不过名称为S60L。它在这里的销量约为2.6万辆，因此沃尔沃为美国市场增产的成本不高。

Li Shufu, a self-made automotive tycoon⁸, owns a controlling stake in Geely Auto and separately owns Volvo through his personal holding company. Mr. Li has talked for a decade of exporting cars from China to the United States, and Geely Auto has repeatedly said that it would like to undertake its own exports.

白手起家的汽车巨子李书福拥有吉利汽车控股权，而沃尔沃是他通过自己的个人控股公司持有的。过去十年里，李书福一直在说要把中国的汽车出口到美国，吉利汽车也反复表示会展开自己的出口业务。

These plans have been consistently delayed. Geely initially⁹ struggled with quality issues and the Chinese government had warned its automakers not to export until they were completely ready to meet Western quality and safety standards. The global financial crisis and the long slowdown it produced in the American auto market further delayed Geely and Mr. Li.

这些计划被不断推迟。吉利一开始遇到了质量问题，而中国政府曾警告本国车厂，在达到西方质量和安全标准之前，不要贸然出口。全球金融危机以及美国汽车市场由此出现的漫长衰退，也令吉利和李书福的计划一推再推。

Volvo already has a reputation for quality and for safety, making it easier for Mr. Li to allay¹⁰ the Chinese government’s concerns. Several years ago, China’s commerce ministry¹¹ set 2015 as its goal for China to begin exporting cars to the West.

沃尔沃在质量和安全方面已经享有盛誉，这样就方便李书福去说服中国政府，减轻他们的担忧。中国商务部多年前制定的计划是中国从2015年开始向西方出口汽车。

China is already a huge supplier of low-cost auto parts to assembly plants and car repair shops in the United States. But its exports of fully¹² assembled cars have been negligible, even as China has emerged as the world’s largest auto market and largest assembler of cars.

中国已经是低端汽车零件的巨型供货商，向美国的组装厂和汽车修理店供应零件。但它的整车出口规模微不足道，尽管中国本身已经成为世界最大汽车市场和最大的汽车组装国。

A big reason for the country’s slowness in exporting cars to the United States lies in the dominance in the Chinese market of joint¹³ ventures between multinationals¹⁴, like Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford, and their state-owned Chinese partners. The multinationals have been wary¹⁵ of antagonizing powerful unions in their home countries — the United Automobile¹⁶ Workers in the United States and its counterparts in Germany in particular — by bringing in Chinese cars. And the state-owned manufacturers are too reliant on the multinationals’ designs and technology to export cars to the West on their own.

中国向美国出口汽车的进展之所以如此缓慢，主要是因为中国市场是以跨国合资企业为主导，比如大众(Volkswagen)、通用汽车(General Motors)和福特(Ford)，以及它们的中国国有企业合作伙伴。一直以来，跨国公司因为怕得罪各自国内势力强大的工会——尤其是美国的全美汽车工人联合会(United Automobile Workers)以及德国的相应组织——不敢引入中国产汽车。而国有车厂又过分依赖跨国公司的设计和技术，无法向西方出口自己生产的汽车。

Volvo does not have these constraints¹⁷. At the same time, beginning exports to the United States could give Mr. Li a considerable increase in prestige within China, even as Geely has been facing challenges at home.

沃尔沃没有这些制约。与此同时，向美国出口也可以让李书福在中国竖立更高的威望，尽管目前吉利在国内也面临着挑战。

Several large Chinese cities have joined Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in recent months in limiting the issuance of new car license¹⁸ plates in response to severe air pollution and chronic¹⁹ traffic jams. Geely and other indigenous²⁰ producers, like BYD, of inexpensive, often utilitarian²¹ cars have lost market share as buyers have chosen costlier²² models from multinationals when they are able to obtain scarce license plates through auctions²³ or lotteries²⁴.

为应对严重的空气污染和交通堵塞，最近几个月，又有几座大城市加入到北京、上海和广州的行列中，开始限制新车上牌数量。吉利以及比亚迪这类本土车厂的市场份额开始流失，因为它们主打廉价的、往往偏重实用的车型，而当购车者能够通过拍卖或摇号拿到一块宝贵的牌照时，他们会选择购买跨国公司生产的更昂贵车型。

Yale Zhang, the managing director of Automotive Foresight²⁵, a consulting firm in Shanghai, said that the S60 Inscription was fairly big for a midsize sedan and thus was a better choice for exports to the United States than to Europe.

上海咨询公司汽车市场预测(Automotive Foresight)总监张豫(Yale Zhang)说，S60 Inscription在中型轿车中是比较大的，因此出口到美国比到欧洲更理想。

“Chinese consumers, like U.S. consumers, like something bigger, so exporting this to the United States makes sense,” Mr. Zhang said.

“中国的消费者和美国消费者一样，喜欢大一点的，所以它出口到美国是有道理的，”张豫说。

Other automakers and various consulting firms have said that factories in China can match quality levels in the West when producing cars according to the designs and procedures of multinationals. Chinese brand automakers have lagged on quality, although they are closing the gap; they have tended to design high-quality parts, but still lack the engineering expertise²⁶ to integrate the many systems required for a modern car.

还有一些车厂和咨询公司说，只要根据跨国公司的设计和流程来生产，中国的工厂可以制造出质量水平和西方相当的车。中国自主品牌车厂在质量上是落后的，不过它们在缩小差距；它们一般能够设计出高品质的零件，但至今仍然缺乏将多个系统整合成一辆现代化汽车的工程能力。

Volvo, which is still based in Sweden, said that its Chengdu factory was just as good as its European factories. “Levels of installed technology and equipment are the same as the company’s European facilities, as are the working environment, safety and environmental performance standards,” Volvo said.

总部仍在瑞典的沃尔沃称，其成都工厂和公司在欧洲的工厂一样出色。“它的技术和设备，和公司在欧洲的工厂处在同等水平，工作环境、安全和环保标准也是一样的，”沃尔沃说。

The company also announced at the Detroit show that it would introduce two other models in the American market this year, both made in Ghent, Belgium: the S60 Cross Country, a sedan with some of the same rugged²⁷ designs as the company’s Cross Country wagons²⁸, and the XC90 R-Design, a seven-seat sport utility vehicle.

在底特律车展上，公司还宣布今年将向美国市场推出另外两款车，都在比利时根特生产，分别是S60 Cross Country，一款借鉴了沃尔沃Cross Country旅行车的坚固设计的轿车，以及XC90 R-Design，一款七座越野车。