沃尔沃与吉利步入合作蜜月期

Stepping down from his aircraft in Belgium last November, Volvo’s Chinese chairman Li Shufu was appalled with his chauffeured car.

去年11月，沃尔沃(Volvo)董事长李书福在比利时一下飞机，等待他的那辆配备了司机的轿车就让他大吃了一惊。

Despite reassurances that the small, prosperous country was one of the world’s safest, he ordered that the next time he set foot in the country, he would be provided with a bulletproof car, three people briefed on the incident told the Financial Times.

3位知晓事件大概情况的人士告诉英国《金融时报》，尽管别人向李书福保证，这个富裕小国的治安非常好，但他仍然要求下次他来比利时时，有一辆防弹轿车在等待他。

Culture clashes are not uncommon in cross-border business deals, and there are few partners more disparate than Volvo, the 87-year-old Swedish carmaker famed for its understated Scandinavian design and production quality, and Geely, its Chinese owner whose flagship product sells for roughly £10,000.

文化冲突在跨境商业交易中并不罕见，而合作双方像沃尔沃和吉利(Geely)这样差异巨大的却是寥寥无几。沃尔沃是一家有着87年历史的瑞典汽车制造商，以低调的北欧设计风格和值得信赖的产品质量闻名于世；而沃尔沃的中国东家吉利，旗下旗舰产品的售价仅为1万英镑左右。

After stumbling through its first couple of years under Geely’s ownership, a period marked by falling sales and friction between Swedish executives and Chinese owners, Volvo is back on track, officials told the Financial Times, because of compromises between Gothenburg and Hangzhou, and a strategy signed off in China that has been accepted in Sweden.

在被吉利收购之后，沃尔沃头几年经营不太顺利，销量不断下降，瑞典方面高管与中国东家之间也摩擦不断。不过有官员对英国《金融时报》表示，如今沃尔沃已回到正轨，原因在于哥特堡方面和杭州方面做出了妥协，一份在中国签署的战略协议也得到了瑞典方面的接受。

“As long as we are inside the strategy, we have full freedom,” says chief executive Håkan Samuelsson. “There are restrictions of course financially and of course strategically . . . there is a defined strategy we must follow. But otherwise there is no interference on an operational level.”

沃尔沃首席执行官霍坎•萨穆埃尔松(Håkan Samuelsson)表示：“在不违反战略协议的前提下，我们有充分自主权。当然，我们在财务和战略方面受到一些限制……我们有必须遵循的明确战略。不过，除此以外，我们在运营层面不会受到任何干涉。”

Mr Samuelsson, an automotive veteran, was parachuted into the top job in October 2012 from the board of directors after the ousting of Stefan Jacoby, with whom Geely executives had disagreed over strategy.

萨穆埃尔松是汽车业的老将，2012年10月，斯特凡•雅各比(Stefan Jacoby)被免职后，他被董事会空降至沃尔沃掌门人的位置。之前雅各比与吉利高层在战略上存在分歧。

“Chairman Li has been very clear. We have a strategy making sure the traditional brand that holds in Europe and the US needs to be maintained, while at the same time leveraging its opportunity in developing markets like China,” says Xiaolin Yuan, head of Mr Li’s office and his representative in Sweden. “I do not think there is any ambiguity in this strategy or how Volvo will work together with Geely. I’m not saying there are no continued discussions on strategy and products . . . but there is absolutely no misalignment about whether we go this way or that,” Mr Yuan says.

沃尔沃汽车董事长办公室主任、李书福在瑞典的代言人袁小林表示：“李书福董事长非常明确地表示过，我们的策略是一方面确保在欧美地位稳固的这个传统品牌地位依然不变，同时还要利用在中国等新兴市场的机遇。关于这一战略、以及沃尔沃与吉利的合作方式，我认为没有任何含混之处。我的意思不是说今后在战略和产品方面双方不会继续讨论……而是说在战略方向上绝不存在任何分歧。”

Geely executives want flashy, eye-catching cars for the Chinese market, while Volvo stress their understated roots. Tensions simmered to the surface just months into Mr Samuelsson’s tenure when he emphasised the importance of Volvo’s roots, only for Mr Li to retort days later that he found the brand “too Scandinavian”.

对于中国市场，吉利方面的高管想要的是华丽而吸引眼球的车型，而沃尔沃则强调该品牌低调的传统。在萨穆埃尔松上任仅几个月时，双方的紧张气氛就到了一触即发的地步，当时萨穆埃尔松强调沃尔沃保持传统的重要性，而李书福则在几天后反驳说，他觉得该品牌“太过北欧化”。

Volvo is almost halfway through a five-year, $11bn investment plan that it – and Geely – hope will turn it into a leaner, more global carmaker that has retained its Scandinavian charm while leveraging low-cost Chinese sourcing and manufacturing skills.

沃尔沃有一项规模为110亿美元、为期五年的投资计划，该计划目前差不多已进行到一半。该公司和吉利集团都希望这项计划能让沃尔沃变得更精干、更全球化，在保持该品牌北欧魅力的同时，能够利用中国的低成本采购和制造技术。

The company will announce a “substantial” operating profit for 2013 later this month, according to Mr Samuelsson, as close to $250m of savings help the carmaker improve on a break-even position in 2012.

萨穆埃尔松表示，由于节省了近2.5亿美元开支，2013年，这家汽车制造商在2012年实现收支平衡的基础上更进一步，实现了“可观的”营业利润。该公司将于本月晚些时候公布具体情况。

Key to its future is a new vehicle family, designed with Geely, that will allow it to build smaller, lower-end models that share parts and designs with high-end Geely products, bridging the gap in brand power between owner and asset.

沃尔沃将与吉利共同设计一个新的汽车系列，主要是体积偏小、档次偏低的车型，能够与吉利的高端产品共享零配件和设计，这对沃尔沃的未来将是至关重要的一步。这一新系列也将填补吉利和沃尔沃之间品牌档次差距的鸿沟。

“Volvo cannot afford to be dragged [downwards],” says Mr Samuelsson. “Geely will move more than us . . . it has an ambition to move upwards towards us . . . There is a limit how big this band [of shared products] can be.”

萨穆埃尔松表示：“档次被拉低对沃尔沃而言将是致命的。缩小差距主要靠吉利提升品牌档次……吉利有追赶沃尔沃的雄心壮志……（共享产品的）规模将是有限的。”

“There is no danger of a customer paying for a Volvo brand car that is essentially a Geely. That is stupid,” says Mr Yuan.

袁小林表示：“我们肯定不会让顾客花沃尔沃的价钱，买来一辆吉利。这样做是非常愚蠢的。”

Much of Volvo’s future will depend on its fortunes in China and the US. The US was once by far its biggest market but was almost overtaken by China last year, as the group struggled with unsuitable products.

沃尔沃的未来在很大程度上要看它在中国和美国的经营情况。美国一度是沃尔沃的第一大市场，但由于沃尔沃缺乏适合该国市场的产品，去年美国的地位几乎被中国超过。

Increasing sales in the US and Europe will be tackled mainly by products designed to be exclusive to Volvo, while a sales push in China will be fuelled by products shared between it and Geely, according to two people with knowledge of the strategy.

两位知悉该集团战略的人士表示，在欧美，沃尔沃将主要通过独家设计的产品取得销量增长，而其在华销量的增长则将由沃尔沃和吉利共同生产的产品推动。

Mr Li, described as “very entrepreneurial and willing to take risks,” by one member of the Volvo board, shot Geely into global prominence when he bought Volvo from Ford in 2010. Two years later he swallowed up the London Taxi Company, maker of the iconic black Hackney cab.

李书福曾被沃尔沃董事会一名董事誉为“极具企业家精神，愿意承担风险”。2010年他从福特(Ford)手中收购了沃尔沃，这一举动让全世界都知道了吉利。两年后，他又收购了伦敦出租车公司(London Taxi Company)，该公司是伦敦标志性黑色哈克尼(Hackney)出租车的生产商。

His first influences on the Volvo brand will be seen this year with the XC90 SUV launch, the first model developed under Chinese ownership. The shared models will arrive around 2017.

今年，随着XC90运动型多用途车(SUV)的推出，人们将首次见识李书福对沃尔沃品牌的影响。该款产品是沃尔沃被中国收购后开发的第一款车型。至于沃尔沃与吉利共同开发的车型，大约会在2017年推出。

“If you start talking very early before the design is set, you can save 25 to 30 per cent on the cost of key components,” says Mr Samuelsson, who compares Volvo and Geely to Audi and Skoda, which share designs under Volkswagen Group ownership. “This is a way for us to create a very competitive car.”

萨穆埃尔松把沃尔沃与吉利之间的这种关系，与大众汽车集团(Volkswagen Group)旗下奥迪(Audi)与斯柯达(Skoda)分享设计的情况相提并论。他说：“如果你在设计成型前很早就开展相关讨论，你就能在关键部件上节省25%到30%的成本。对我们而言，这是设计出一款极具竞争力车型的好办法。”

In two years Volvo expects to increase the usage of Chinese parts to 75 per cent in some models, and will explore using China as a production base for Southeast Asia.

沃尔沃预计，它将在两年内将某些车型的中国零配件使用率提升至75%，并将探索把中国作为东南亚市场生产基地的可能性。