買輛車不如借輛豪車

Once every teenagers’ dream was to have their own car. Now they have an app for that.

擁有自己的汽車曾經(jīng)是每個青少年的夢想?，F(xiàn)在他們有了一個應用程序來實現(xiàn)這個夢。

Volvo, Cadillac and Porsche are among brands that have launched subscription deals this year, as the industry dips its toe in the water of a world of selling services rather than cars.

汽車行業(yè)開始嘗試銷售服務而非汽車，沃爾沃(Volvo)、凱迪拉克(Cadillac)和保時捷(Porsche)等汽車品牌在2017年都推出了“訂用”服務。

As car ownership begins to wane in some major cities, manufacturers are experimenting with ways of providing transport ranging from car-sharing schemes to on-demand booking through smartphone apps.

隨著一些大城市的汽車保有量開始減少，制造商正在嘗試提供各種交通方案——從汽車共享計劃到通過智能手機應用按需訂車。

“We’re making the change from selling cars to selling mobility,” says Alain Visser, chief executive of Lynk & Co, a new brand co-owned by Volvo and its Chinese parent Geely.

Lynk&Co首席執(zhí)行官阿蘭•維瑟(Alain Visser)表示：“我們正在從銷售汽車轉變成銷售交通方案。”Lynk&Co是沃爾沃與其中國母公司吉利(Geely)共同擁有的新品牌。

“Subscription is a key ingredient because globally there are young consumers who really want to buy ‘mobility’ but not necessarily a car.”

“訂用是一個關鍵因素，因為全球有一些年輕的消費者真的想購買‘交通方案’，但不一定是一輛汽車。”

By bundling insurance, road tax and maintenance costs into a single monthly sum, carmakers hope to take the hassle out of running a car, as well as attract new customers to their brands.

通過將保險、道路稅和養(yǎng)護成本整合到一個月度費用內(nèi)，汽車制造商希望能夠讓開車變得不再麻煩，并為自己的品牌吸引到新客戶。

Lynk & Co, which will launch its electric car subscription offer in China next year and Europe in 2019, plans to allow motorists to change vehicles every month, and dip in and out of the contract as often as they like.

Lynk&Co的電動汽車訂用服務將于明年在中國推出，2019年在歐洲推出。它允許駕車者每月更換車輛，并且可以隨時簽署合同和退訂。

“The key is flexibility,” says Mr Visser, adding that consumers, which Lynk expects to be younger than traditional buyers, may decide not to have a car in the summer months if they travel, or may want to take the bus for a short while to save money.

維瑟表示：“關鍵是靈活性。”他補充說，客戶們——Lynk預計他們會比傳統(tǒng)汽車買家年輕一些——夏天外出旅游那段時間可能會決定退訂，或者可能想搭一段時間巴士來省錢。

Volvo, which co-owns Lynk & Co, and its super-premium performance brand Polestar, both also offer subscription services that allow customers to switch between vehicles.

沃爾沃及其高性能品牌北極星(Polestar)都提供訂用服務，客戶可換開不同的車輛。

But this comes at a price. Porsche’s Passport service, unveiled earlier this year, is twice as expensive as buying one of its cars on pay-monthly finance because consumers can flit between different cars in its range.

但這不是免費的。保時捷今年早些時候推出的“護照”(Passport)服務，比分期購買一輛保時捷汽車要貴一倍，因為消費者可以換開保時捷的其他款汽車。

This flexibility, being able to swap a small family SUV for the school run for a sports car at the weekend, raises a fresh potential problem.

能夠平日用一輛小型家庭SUV接送孩子上學、周末換成跑車是非常靈活，但這也引發(fā)了一個新的潛在問題。

“The difficulty in those schemes will be managing the supply, because everyone wants an SUV in winter and a convertible on summer weekends,” says Philippe Houchois, an analyst at Jefferies.

杰富瑞(Jefferies)分析師菲利普•霍喬斯(Philippe Houchois)表示：“這些項目的困難將在于管理供應，因為所有人都想在冬天要一輛SUV，在夏天的周末要一輛敞篷車。”

That is one reason current schemes are so expensive he believes — because carmakers need to set aside additional vehicles for when demand for a particular segment is high.

當前項目之所以如此昂貴，他認為原因之一就在這里——因為汽車制造商需要預留額外的車輛，以便應對特殊情況下的高需求。

“You have to build in a fairly low utilisation rate, otherwise you’re going to have unhappy customers because they can never get the car they want,” he says.

他說：“你必須維持相當?shù)偷睦寐剩駝t就會讓客戶不滿，因為他們永遠拿不到想要的車子。”

Carmakers, which are accustomed to manufacturing and selling the vehicles through dealerships, will also have to take ownership of the cars under subscription schemes — meaning they have to pay for maintenance as well as accounting for depreciation.

習慣于制造車輛、而通過經(jīng)銷商來銷售車輛的汽車制造商，也將不得不擁有訂用項目下的汽車——這意味著他們必須支付養(yǎng)護費用并計算折舊。

“It makes the business more capital intensive because you’re selling the car to yourself,” says Mr Houchois — though carmakers may have an advantage over third parties in accounting for the rate that cars depreciate.

霍喬斯表示：“這讓汽車企業(yè)的資本密集度更高，因為你把汽車賣給了你自己。”——雖然汽車制造商在計算汽車折舊率方面可能比第三方有優(yōu)勢。

“The risk is we underestimated how much the carmakers know about the fundamental values of their vehicles,” he adds.

他補充說：“我們可能低估了汽車制造商對汽車基本價值的了解程度。”

Early indications suggest that subscriptions are successfully winning over new customers. Cadillac, General Motors’ luxury marque, says that 90 per cent of those who use its BOOK service in New York have never owned a Cadillac before.

早期跡象表明，訂用項目成功地贏得了新客戶。通用汽車(General Motors)旗下豪車品牌凱迪拉克表示，在紐約使用其BOOK服務的人群當中，90%以前從未擁有過凱迪拉克轎車。

“We’ve seen widespread enthusiasm,” says Melody Lee, head of BOOK.

BOOK業(yè)務主管Melody Lee表示：“就我們所見，這項服務廣受歡迎。”

The service, which is also in Munich and being expanded into Dallas and Los Angeles, costs $1,800 a month.

這項服務每個月花費1800美元;凱迪拉克還在慕尼黑推出了該服務，并將在達拉斯和洛杉磯推出。

Lincoln, rival Ford’s premium brand, followed suit by announcing late last month that it would soon introduce a subscription service.

競爭對手福特(Ford)旗下高端品牌林肯(Lincoln)緊隨其后，11月末宣布將會很快推出訂用服務。

“Premium vehicles attract a specific type of customer prepared to spend that amount to have the flexibility,” says Ian Fletcher, an analyst at IHS, who predicts challenges will come when mass-market brands try to launch such schemes.

IHS分析師伊恩•弗萊徹(Ian Fletcher)表示：“高檔汽車吸引了特定類型的客戶，他們愿意花這筆錢來獲得靈活性。”弗萊徹預計，當大眾市場品牌嘗試推出此類計劃時，挑戰(zhàn)就會來臨。

“When you come to Ford Fiestas, how do you run a service that isn’t just a rental fleet?”

“就福特嘉年華(Ford Fiestas)來說，你如何經(jīng)營一項不僅僅是租賃車隊的服務?”

Part of the answer is already coming through peer-to-peer car lending platforms, which again represent another way that ownership in the car market is fragmenting.

部分答案已經(jīng)通過個人對個人(P2P)的汽車出借平臺體現(xiàn)，這同樣代表了汽車市場中所有權分裂的另一種方式。

A number of start-ups have aimed to fill the need for the occasional car ride, with slightly varying models: from car clubs that own their own vehicles such as Zipcar and electric car-sharing service BlueSG, firms that offer other people’s cars to use such as Drivy and easyCar Club, and shared journey car schemes like BlaBlaCar.

許多初創(chuàng)公司通過一些大同小異的模式來滿足人們偶爾開車的需要：Zipcar等擁有自有車輛的汽車俱樂部，電動汽車共享服務BlueSG，Drivy和easyCar Club等讓你可以使用別人的汽車的公司，以及像BlaBlaCar這樣的共享旅程汽車項目。

Such schemes also offer a new market for carmakers to sell into — although are still dwarfed by the potential market opened up by car-booking services such as Uber. Last month, Uber agreed to purchase up to 24,000 XC90 vehicles between 2019 and 2021 in a deal worth potentially $1.4bn for Volvo.

此類項目也為汽車制造商提供了一個新的市場——雖然這個市場與優(yōu)步(Uber)等汽車預訂服務開啟的潛在市場相比仍然相形見絀。11月，優(yōu)步同意在2019年至2021年間購買多達2.4萬輛沃爾沃XC90汽車，交易價值可能達到14億美元。